Any handspinners on here?

[TunipTheVegemal]

I've inadvertently purchased a spinning wheel, will post pics later when dh brings it back from auction house.

I've joined Ravelry but just wondered if any MNers did spinning.

I did a bit of spinning with a drop spindle nearly 30 years ago (yikes) but have never used a wheel.

Arf @ accidental purchase of spinning wheel. If you spin some lovely hand dyed yarn I will be happy to buy a skein off you I blame it on Ravelry, it's a bad influence!

Have lots of fun with it

Thanks

Auctions are dangerous - dh once came home with a bell made from the melted-down rails of his favourite battleship.

What actually happened was, I needed some carders (to card wool I'd gathered to make quilt wadding), and the wheel had some as part of the lot, so rather than spend £30-40 on buying some carders online I thought I might as well bid for the wheel which had an estimate of £40-60. I left an absentee bid of £55 and got it for £40.

I had been thinking of keeping the carders and selling the wheel on but I've since been convinced it would be a good idea to sort the wheel out myself and use it. Plenty of sheep where I live so once I've got some basic skills under my belt I can get fleeces from local farmers and prepare them myself.

I already do patchwork so I don't really want to get into knitting as well (though hand dyeing might be fun) but it would be nice to exist in symbiosis with my knitting friends and make wool for them!

Ooh i am so jealous of your accidental wheel. I have an Ashford Traveller and i love it, I have only been spinning for a couple of years but it is the most addictive, relaxing thing ever, even more than knitting and i thought that was the best. Be wary of which fleece you take i have ended up with some that were more trouble than they were worth.
once all that woolly goodness gets you there's no escape

Yes, re useless fleeces my strategy is to begin learning with top-quality pre-carded stuff so I know what to look for. No point in making it hard for myself when I'm learning. Then once I have more of a clue I can see what I can find.

My mother used to do spinning.

She has a wheel that she wants to get rid of - PM me if you are interested!

That's so much more sensible than what i did. I use www.worldofwool.co.UK on the rare occasion that i buy any roving or top, sorry i haven't figured out how to do links on my phone. They have a nice wide range of fibre.

ooh my link works .bigTilly i wish i could DP would have a hiss fit if i tried to fit anything else wool related into this house.

I love that site Thisis.

I'm going to get 100g tops from lots of different sheep. Have been spending ages choosing which ones, mainly according to whether I like the look of the sheep or not (I favour daft-looking but not too daft looking - eg Wensleydale, but not Masham or Manx Loaghtan).

Well if anyone reading this is interested in a spinning wheel, my DM would LOVE to give it to a keen spinner

I know someone who wants one but I don't know if she needs something specific, I'll let her know about the thread.

Tilly, if you don't have any interest from Tunip's friend I would be very very interested!

I spin! Ravelry's great, there's an active UK spinners group on there. Might also worth be looking up your local Guild of Weavers, Spinners, and Dyers. There are people at my chapter who will look at and help fix up wheels, for example.

Do you know what make it is? Luckily, since you bought it with carers, it's not likely to be one which has sat in a corner for "display" and had useful bits taken off!

I spin too. I second the suggestion of the Guild - it's a great place to learn :)

Yes, I've identified it now - it's an Ashford Traditional from 1964-7.
It all seems to be in good working order and has everything except the Scotch tension brake. So I've managed to rig a temporary one with advice from Ravelry, and have some bits on order to replace it properly. I've waxed & oiled it and cleaned the rust off the hooks. I'm just waiting for my wool to come so I can start.

thanks for tip re UK group on Ravelry, InvaderZim. I haven't quite found my way round yet, I can't believe how huge it is!

Now I'm frustratedly waiting for my wool to come. People who sell spinning stuff online seem to take a much more relaxed attitude to delivery than people who sell patchwork stuff. Apparently Woolfest necessitates shutting down yesterday and not opening again till July 2nd (and not bothering to tell you till you've placed the order )

tunip problem is, most spinning companies are specialist, small family-run outfits, and literally all staff go to man the woolfest stand. Can't be helped :)

Oh I expect a few days delay for Woolfest but when it's a fortnight you'd think they'd bother to mention it on the website! I think there's probably more competition in patchwork than in spinning supplies so it raises the bar for all of them - most of the patchwork companies are one-woman-bands too but they do seem to compete as to how quickly they can fulfil orders.

I'm pondering this now, it's quite interesting.

It probably also has to do with the way patchwork works which means that you can suddenly find you need a particular fabric and you're stuck until you get it so you'd put a high premium on companies being quick to send it out to you, whereas with spinning you progress sequentially through your fibre so you know when you're about to run out and can plan accordingly.

Also people spend a small fortune on patchwork fabric - easy to spend £100 on one quilt but I'm guessing it would take a good while to spin £100 worth of fibre.

(I'm not talking about World of Wool here, btw, I've ordered stuff from 2 companies.)

I've been given an Ashfod of some description. It sits in my bedroom, taunting me- I also have two bags of (very raw, quite whiffy) Shetland fleece in the shed, also calling for attention. My excuse is that I have no carders, nothing to do with the humungous task of cleaning, carding AND learning a completely new skill...!

Love the idea of it- just don't get the time with all the quilting and knitting. People keep having babies that need presents!

Ashford. Ashfod sounds like I have a strange accent.

Buy some nice wool tops that are all ready to spin and learn on those, don't even think about learning on the raw fleeces. If you don't already know how to spin you won't know what you're aiming for when you prepare them.

I'm getting on ok, it took me a couple of evenings to get my drop spindling up to scratch then a few hours to get the hang of the wheel. Obviously my yarn isn't anything like competent but the one I'm working on now should be usable for something. I've ordered some extra bobbins so I can make a lazy kate from a shoebox & knitting needles and ply it properly, and a niddy noddy to try and make neater skeins with.

I'm not sure if I can really call myself a spinner, as I haven't been near my wheel for over a year, but I do have an 11mo DD so attempting any kind of crafts during her waking hours is just impossible :)

I bought a lot of fibre from ebay, a seller called Forest Fibres, always had great service from them and they have a wide variety of stock.

I reall, really want to get back to spinning, as I was given seven raw fleeces including a couple of jacob, a Manx Loaghtan, a castlemilk moorit, and two from twin gray lambs! I desperately want to make two garments from twin lambs' wool :) Whether my level of skill will allow for that I don't know. It should, after spinning the rest of it!