Plying..

I completed the spinning of the 98gram roving. I ended up with two bobbins full of single ply yarn which I then spun togther to create a 2 ply yarn. When plying yarn, you have to spin in the oppostie direction so as not to undo the twist as you spin. Even so, the action of plying 'softens' the twist of the single ply yarn slightly.

I hold the two single plies with a gentle tension  with my left hand, and guide the yarn with my left hand as it trundles away from the bobbins as they spin steadily round on spindles which are built into my spinning wheel (just out of sight on the photo).

I love plying yarn. It is a very calming, rhythmic process with my right foot slowly treadling as the yarns slip away through my fingers onto the bobbin. I occasionally stop just to admire the twisted yarn before it is pulled through the orifice and away onto the bobbin, and to check thet my tension is as I want it.

When this stage is completed, I remove the bobbin from the spinning wheel and place it on one of the spindles again. From here, I hand-wind the yarn diagonally around the two legs of an upturned chair. The distance between the chair legs has been measured so I know that with each full wind I have 1 yard of yarn. So, I wind and I count, slowly, rythmically, calmly.

 

I twist the yarn round to make up a skein and put a simple white paper tag on stating the weight and yardage.

It is then ready to be returned to my customer.A one of a kind, unique skein of yarn. 

 

Spinning from a roving

A few weeks ago I received a 98 gram roving through the post. I advertise my hand spinning service on a spinning website (scroll down to Sarah Lodge) and get more than enough work to keep me constantly busy.  It it so exciting to receive a new package of fleece through the post and anticipate how it will spin up.
With a roving, my first job is to undo the plait and split the roving in half by teasing the fibres rather than cutting them. All the work of carding has already been done, so spinning can commence straight away. You can split the roving into managable lengths and thickness, but I prefer just to keep it as a whole, coiled up on my knee, and get straight to work. You do have to keep the roving moving in your hand to draft fibres from the left, right and centre, but this is easily done and saves the time of splitting.

The roving is now being spun on my Ashford spinning wheel.

Fancy a closer look? Click on any of the photos and you can really get a close up look at the larger photograph.

I will spin the two halves of the roving onto separate bobbins and then ply them together to make a two ply yarn. I'll show you when it is finished. This will then be returned to the lady who sent it to me for spinning and she will, I'm sure, knit it up into something wonderful.