15/11/2024
I wanted to pop this here to show you my progression with my spinning. LOOK! You can physically SEE me getting better!
When I took the second photo, I was so proud 🤩 that I messaged everybody (whether they were yarn people or not 😅).
This literally happened after ONE Spinning Guild meeting 🫠 and I'm going to tell you how I did it.
Firstly, I let multiple people watch me spin. Everybody had fresh eyes and advice to apply to what I was doing "wrong". I told them that I was going for consistency. That was my main goal.
So Tracy noticed that I was getting twist into my fibre supply, which was then making it difficult to draft out the next bit and therefore creates "slubs" (basically, big blobs in your yarn). She showed me how to pinch the fibre, not too hard, and move the strand I was working on up towards the bobbin. It surprised me that I didn't have to pinch so hard, it's a gentle action. I was pinching so hard that after a minute or two, I was getting hand cramps. But no. You just need a tiny amount of pressure and then the movement towards the bobbin.
Julie noticed that I was working with too much fibre and then combine that with getting twist in that mega fibre supply and you get a whole load of issues:
1. Slubs for days.
2. Your fibre doesn't create a great deal of yarn which means you have to buy more and it quickly because a VERY expensive hobby if you want to make a decent amount of yarn for a big project.
3. Hand cramps, arm cramps, neck and back strain because you'd be constantly fighting with the fibre supply to draft it evenly and smoothly.
In order to combat this overload of fibre Julie showed to split the roving I was working with into 8ths. Halve it, halve again and again and again etc. Work with long slithers, separate them out widthways, predraft them a tiny bit and off you go! You'll naturally have a more consistent yarn after doing abit of minor prep. So simple but there we go!
I hope these ideas have helped you on your beginner spinning journey. Let me know if you have any more tricks to enlighten all of us newbies,and please let me know how your spinning is going!
#
