Spinning Update

Back on March 10th, a friend of mine, Karen, told me that there was a Lendrum DT for sale on Ravelry. This was one of the wheels I had pretty high on my list of wheels I wanted. As luck would have it, the seller wanted to sell it to someone local (in my city) and I had the funds for the wheel, so I messaged the seller. She still had the wheel available and we arranged everything so I could pick it up the next day. I was SO EXCITED! I met Barbara, the seller, at her house and picked up my new wheel on March 11th. Barbara was so sweet and a pleasure to talk with. She had learned to spin on a Lendrum DT, purchased one, then found that she much preferred spinning on spindles and decided to find her Lendrum DT a new home. She said that after corresponding and talking with me that she knew it was going to a good home. I couldn’t agree more! 😀

My new wheel!

For a few years now, I’ve had a Babe single treadle wheel. It’s served me very well in the time that I’ve owned it. For a while, I had been having some issues whenever I did some spinning on it. I’d always end up feeling a bit sore in my hips or knees after spinning for long. With my back issues, I wasn’t too worried about it, but it did mean that I’d often choose knitting over spinning even though I enjoyed spinning when I did. For a long time, I wondered if having a double treadle wheel would help with the physical issues I’d been having, so I kept looking at wheels and even tried a few out at fiber festivals. When I found out about this Lendrum that was for sale, I had been looking at getting a new wheel very soon and it was just luck that it all came together.

Since getting the Lendrum, I have had no pain while spinning! I absolutely love this wheel and look forward to spinning now.

The first thing I spun on it was this Shetland/fine wool batt from Sporfarm that I received in a swap some time ago.

Sporfarm Setland/Fine Wool batt

I didn’t really have any plan on how I wanted it to spin up. As I was spinning it, it wanted to spin pretty fine and I found it easy to keep it fairly consistent. I did find it shed quite a bit while spinning. I kept having to pick fiber off me more then usual! I would say it was a bit of a sticky blend of fiber, though still very nice to spin up. After I finished the singles, I decided to two ply it. It really fluffed up after a bath and it is pretty well balanced. It was so nice to be able to ply it on the bulky flyer/bobbin and have one big skein instead of having to break it up. I ended up with 322 yards of fingering weight yarn.

Sporfarm Setland/Fine Wool Spun

I haven’t done a whole lot of spinning since I finished that up. I had to take a little spinning break so I could finish up the baby blanket, but I’ve picked it back up this past weekend. I’ve been spinning Hello Yarn (January 2012 club shipment) BFL in the colorway Burnished. These aren’t colors I would have picked out myself, but it’s been fun to spin something that I wouldn’t normally go for. (You can see a better picture of the fiber here.)

Hello Yarn BFL in Burnished

Still debating on if I will two ply or Navajo ply once it’s finished. It’s taking a while to get through the first 2 oz, so there’s plenty of time to decide, but right now I’m leaning towards two ply. I’m planning to make a Lacy Batkus with it once it’s done.

It’s April, which means it’s time for the next fiber in the Expand Your Spinning Horizons SAL that The Knit Girllls are doing over in their Ravelry group. Friday I posted the hat I knit using the Moorit Shetland in Midsummer Night’s Dream from Unwind Yarn Company. I didn’t get a good picture of it before I knit it up, but you can see the hat here if you missed it. I Navajo plied the finished singles and ended up with 126 yards of Aran weight yarn. For April the fiber is Masham (also known as massam). I ended up getting two for this month and hope I have time to spin them both. I bought 4 oz ombre batt from The Sheep’s Company and a 4 oz braid from BohoKnitterChic. I loved the gradient batts from The Sheep’s Company and couldn’t resist the bright, fun colors from BohoKnitterChic! Even if I don’t get them spun this month, I’m sure they’ll be fun to spin up.

Masham from The Sheep’s Company and BohoKnitterChic

Always so many things I want to spin and never enough time in the day. 😉