Out on the deck with the great wheel

Lovely weather today, bright, clear, not too hot.

I spent an hour this morning carding some Wensleydale, then tinkered with the big wheel, replacing a leather bearing that had become torn. In an effort to make a small, unofficial contribution to Tour de Fleece, I then lugged the wheel out to the deck to spin my fresh rolags.

I need more practice, lots of it. The start was a bit rough, my singles were way too thin. Also, I was being very conscious of the amount of twist going into the fibers. I don't like "hard" yarn, so my objective was to produce a somewhat consistent, pretty single with a comfortable amount of twist. An amount that would not ply up into string. It became obvious at plying time that my first few minutes worth of spinning created a single that was too fragile in places, and there were a few breakages. Not the end of the world. I spliced and carried on. Ninety-eight percent of the spun single, however, was quite decent. I had corrected the over drafting and remembered the art of 'letting go'. One trick is to start letting go of perfection when one section begins to stretch alarmingly thin. It means letting some thicker parts move on.  Difficult to do, but you know what? Plying evens out a lot of the variation. It gets easier with experience.

This was a sample run.  Plied from the reel, three ply, chain style. 25 yards. I think I will continue to spin as such, but maybe ply from 3 singles, non-chained style.

Dusk was just settling in when I hung it out to dry, but it dried fast in the ambient temps.

The resulting yarn has a substantial halo, and is soft enough for bare skin. No, I don't think I'll need to do another sample, I'm pretty happy with this.