BellaOnline Forums Hobbies and Crafts Spinning Time to wake up this spinning forum!

Hello Fiber Artists!

This forum has been ignored for weeks, so it's time to wake it up. My hope is that the forum will become a place to come and ask questions, seek opinions, and talk about what projects you're working on.

I'll start by bragging. Yesterday I participated with a friend in a scarf competition at a local fair. We have 4 or 5 of these at fairs in our area. The teams consist of 1 spinner and 1 knitter. The contest lasts 4 1/2 hours, including the 1/2 hour lunch break, and in that time the team produces a scarf. Not the whole scarf, but enough that it can be judged. Most scarves are 12" - 18" long by the end and are judged "on the needles". My partner and I took 1st place!

We got together about 10 days before the event and went through my stash of leftovers. We decided to blend together leftovers of some purple wool, white wool, burgandy wool and natural gray French Angora. The wool was all Border Leicester. We weighed and separated and came up with 8 batts off the drum carder, about 6 oz total. I probably had as much fun doing this part as the contest!

Yesterday I was the knitter and I'd spent some time developing a pattern that was a bit lacy but still warm and substantial. I'll work on getting that pattern posted on the Spinning site here on Bella Online.

Okay, what is everyone else doing these days?

Pegg Thomas

Hello Peg, Lovely to see the forum starting again. Interested to hear about your place in the scarf contest. Look forward to a photo! My group in Tasmania also had a contest (of a sort) yesterday - it was a day of marathons, many events, all money raised to cancer research. For the spinning event five spinners spun for two hours (around the best time for a marathon runner) to see who could produce the longest thread. 460 metres won first prize. We then (at our leisure) ply all the wool from the entrants and use it to knit to raise more money for cancer. The public as they walk past place bets on what they think the winning length will be. Interestingly it is the men who really stop and try to calculate. This prize is an item knitted by a guild member. The day is not about winning - but about showing our guild to the public and raising money for cancer.
... Sara

Hi Sara!

Wow, what a great idea you spinners had down there. I love the idea of the proceeds going to cancer research. My mom died of cancer as did both her parents, so that really hits home with me. So did you have the longest thread?

In the contest I wrote about, my partner and I won 1st place. Two weeks earlier I was in a scarf contest with a different partner, I was the spinner that day, and we came in 2nd. During both contests we spinners had the opportunity to talk with the public walking through the fairs and we met spinners we didn't know. Hopefully they'll come to our spinning nights and maybe join the contest fun next year.

Any time to spin in public is a good thing. I find that men are usually the most intested in the "how" and the machinery aspect of it. But they rarely want to give it a try!

Pegg

Spinning a Cotswold-X fleece that I'd bought this spring. I accidently cleaned the fleece in the washer, and it got sprayed with water during the rinse cycle. Oooooh. I'm getting out the felted *cough* matted hair with and undercoat rake, one lock at a time. and spinning when I've got a shoebox full of fiber. Problem is, what do I do with the leftovers, which felt as soon as I turn around? Spray them with detangler? Toss them in the garden, and take it as a learning opportunity.

Ouch! What a lot of work, trying to sort through and save that fleece lock by lock. The fleece can't felt any more without adding more water and agitation, so spraying anything on it may do more harm than good. If it was me, I'd toss the fleece and count it as a lesson learned. Your time has to count for something and you'll have to spend incredible hours to prepare that now. The finished product will be effected by all the felting as well, probably making a lumpier and coarser feeling yarn. I just posted a link under "preparing fibers" to a web page that has great photos showing the proper way to wash a fleece in the washing machine. http://gfwsheep.com/washingwool/woolwashing.html

I am spinning some of my shetland's fiber for a lace shawl.
Ideas for accidently felted fiber. Dye the felted fiber in different colors. I do this hand painting with different colors. Then after its dry cut up in small pieces. Add to the wool on a drumcarder or handcarders. You can have designer tweed yarn, you can cut in shapes with a cookie cutter or circles for bottoms of coasters, make pins out of the different shapes.

Nancy

Ooooh... Nancy... a shetland shawl! What a fun project. Will this be one of the ultra lacy types that you can pull though a wedding ring.

I have never added felted bits to my drum carder, I've been worried about bending some of the carding teeth. What size do you cut to avoid that?

Pegg

The use of the felted fibre in the drum carder sounds wonderful. Any more creative ideas for novelty yarns? Have never thought of it before. Will have to give it a go. Shame we can't put photos on the forum.
Sara

I am hoping this shawl turns out to go thru a wedding ring. This is the first lace shawl I ever knitted.
The felted bits I cut in small pieces. About the size of a smiley face we use in e-mails or a bit bigger. They have never damaged my carder. I card the fiber first then add the bits next to the last carding. I disturbute them evenly thru out the fiber and then drumcard them thru evenly or until I am happy the way it looks. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />