Sunday I was able to spin , ply and set this skein of yarn. It is corriedale and it was already dyed. I will have to say that if you buy some fiber to spin , it is better if you spin it as soon as you can because time sometimes makes fiber funky. This was Navajo Plied and I am learning more and more as I spin. I don't know if I got this from watching Judith MacKenzie McCuinn, but I can tell you that once you listen to her in a class or a video, your whole perspective about spinning fibers takes a quantum leap. When you listen to her what I always hear is that spinning is something that is very intuitive and it is not a science, but it has its mechanics. Spinning has a lot to do with your equipment, your attitude , the fiber and how it was prepared, what kind of fiber you have and ultimately it is the merging of you and the fiber that you are spinning.
One of the things I have learned while learning to spin is :
1. Look at your fiber, really look at it , see the character that it has come with.
2. Feel the fiber, get a sense of the preparations that it has, and the character that it has as well.
3. Don't fight the fiber, I believe each fiber has a perfect yarn density that it wants to be, you can force it, but you may not like the results. The fiber will let you know by the way it takes the twist.
A friend of mine Naomi, did such a wonderful job blending this camel/silk blend for me, yet I have to respect the fiber and the quality it has come with. Camel is such a short staple and silk is the opposite, so this will create a very interesting hand spun yarn, it is so far a very luxurious blend, I am going to do a two ply and see what I get from this blend. What I like about the silk blend is, that it is a very forgiving fiber to play with. I have to try to spin silk by itself and I do have the perfect fiber for that and maybe a bit of Tussah silk or maybe some bleached completely white bombix silk to see what kind of trouble I can get myself into. I enjoy spinning because it allows me to quiet my mind and allow my inner artisan to come out and play. Thanks fro stopping by.
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