Things I have learned
While spinning my first four ounce bag of hand painted fiber (superwash bfl for those interested)
Four ounces does not sound like a lot. On a spindle it is many, many hours of spinning. And many yards of yarn.
Because four ounces does not sound like a lot you will spend many, many hours going "Just a little more" in the hopes that you may actually finish this fiber before the next millenium.
Corollary to this: Your shoulders will get sore from you stretching your arm over your head constantly so that you don't have to stop and wind on so soon.
If you spin too thin your yarn will break. This does not make it all right to call the sheep it came from a "mother f*cking bastard son of a Scottish whore." For one thing, it's probably not true. For another, even it is true it's terribly impolite to say so. Especially when it's your fault that yarn was too thin in the first place.
To make things even more fun, if your yarn is too thin it's very hard to join the fiber back up to it. This punishes you in two ways, first by the break itself, second by the fact that you spend ten minutes trying to create a join that doesn't just end up with the spindle rolling on the floor mocking you as you hold half twisted fiber in your hand like an idiot.
People look at you funny when you're standing in the middle of a room with a handful of fluff calling an inoffensive piece of wood "the misbegotten son of a camel and a thorn bush" Try not to do this in public.
The thicker your fiber mass is the longer your color repeats are. This is because you have more of the one color to work through before you get to the next color.
Corollary: The thicker your fiber mass the more likely you are to accidentally let the twist run into it. Leading to a weird bunched mass that refuses to let you draft. It is impolite to threaten to set this mass aflame if it doesn't cooperate.
Yes, on the spindle this particular colourway looks rather as if a troop of boy scouts barfed onto it. Rest assured it looks much better when it's washed and plied.
Navajo plying is fun. It is also three ply. So do not cry when your seemingly miles worth of singles end up being a mere 16 yards of yarn.
Because navajo plying is fun it's very easy to go too fast and end up with a yarn that rather looks as though you could drive a truck through it.
Joins suck. People may tell you that you'll get good at them eventually and be able to do them on the fly without stopping. Do not laugh and tell them they're smoking crack when they're being perfectly serious. If they WERE smoking crack likely they'd be off doing other things instead of reassuring you that you should not attempt to stab the fiber with something pointy.
Do not attack the fiber with a knife. The fiber won't care and your roommates may call the cops. Do you really want to explain to the cops why you assaulted a bag of wool?
Pictures to follow later.
Four ounces does not sound like a lot. On a spindle it is many, many hours of spinning. And many yards of yarn.
Because four ounces does not sound like a lot you will spend many, many hours going "Just a little more" in the hopes that you may actually finish this fiber before the next millenium.
Corollary to this: Your shoulders will get sore from you stretching your arm over your head constantly so that you don't have to stop and wind on so soon.
If you spin too thin your yarn will break. This does not make it all right to call the sheep it came from a "mother f*cking bastard son of a Scottish whore." For one thing, it's probably not true. For another, even it is true it's terribly impolite to say so. Especially when it's your fault that yarn was too thin in the first place.
To make things even more fun, if your yarn is too thin it's very hard to join the fiber back up to it. This punishes you in two ways, first by the break itself, second by the fact that you spend ten minutes trying to create a join that doesn't just end up with the spindle rolling on the floor mocking you as you hold half twisted fiber in your hand like an idiot.
People look at you funny when you're standing in the middle of a room with a handful of fluff calling an inoffensive piece of wood "the misbegotten son of a camel and a thorn bush" Try not to do this in public.
The thicker your fiber mass is the longer your color repeats are. This is because you have more of the one color to work through before you get to the next color.
Corollary: The thicker your fiber mass the more likely you are to accidentally let the twist run into it. Leading to a weird bunched mass that refuses to let you draft. It is impolite to threaten to set this mass aflame if it doesn't cooperate.
Yes, on the spindle this particular colourway looks rather as if a troop of boy scouts barfed onto it. Rest assured it looks much better when it's washed and plied.
Navajo plying is fun. It is also three ply. So do not cry when your seemingly miles worth of singles end up being a mere 16 yards of yarn.
Because navajo plying is fun it's very easy to go too fast and end up with a yarn that rather looks as though you could drive a truck through it.
Joins suck. People may tell you that you'll get good at them eventually and be able to do them on the fly without stopping. Do not laugh and tell them they're smoking crack when they're being perfectly serious. If they WERE smoking crack likely they'd be off doing other things instead of reassuring you that you should not attempt to stab the fiber with something pointy.
Do not attack the fiber with a knife. The fiber won't care and your roommates may call the cops. Do you really want to explain to the cops why you assaulted a bag of wool?
Pictures to follow later.
posted by Herefox at 10:37 AM
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