i just picked some brown and blue merino, hand-blended and started to spin. i hadn't spun in a while and felt like it and something brown and blue had been on my mind for a while...
i had trouble with this! for some reason i couldn't spin properly that day or i couldn't get the wheel to spin properly. i had problems with treadling speed, uptake, tension, drafting, etc... i guess most of the problems beginner spinners can have. i think the only problem i didn't really have was overtwisting the single. i rather think most of it turned out to be very much undertwisted...
i can't decide whether i like this yarn or hate it... it's pretty and there's lots of nice colourplay and i like the flowers - even though they gave me lots of trouble as well because of them being too bulky for the standard size orifice on my wheel. but i was so frustrated while i made it because nothing worked the way i wanted it.
i guess i could just call it Art Yarn and pretend that it was intended that way and that i actually can spin really good, even yarn - which i can... well, i don't know about good, but at least even...
i will look up some ways of troubleshooting: how do i correct uptake? how do i know if i have enough twist? how much tension is good/advisable when plying? things like that... when i have problems like that i kind of regret that i never took a spinning class and i wish i had a really good "theory of spinning" where i could read up on all the theoretical knowledge i don't have yet... i'm just too impatient to learn everything through trial and error... that would also get way too expensive...
the whole skein is just over 50m of yarn and i don't know what to do with it at all... i think i'll just keep it for a while and maybe i'll think of something... maybe i'll even continue spinning it...
even when i do manage to spin an even, (almost) balanced yarn i have to remind myself every now and then that i'm still very much a beginner making "unitentional" art yarn... i intended it to be art yarn but even art yarn has to be good yarn and not couldn't-set-the-wheel-right-lumpy-drafting-undertwisted-chaos-yarn...
but i like this picture very much...
now i'll be off to find out how to spin better...
this is what's on my wheel right now: plain coloured merino with colourful wensleydale locks spun in. i'll fill up the bobbin and then wind the whole lot into a center-pull ball for two-plying. i think it will be fun and colourful candy cane lockyness...