Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Fiber Processing - flicking and spinning

I know I've done a lot of blog posts about flicking and spinning yarn. This time of year, we are busy getting product made for gifts. I spin as much yarn as I can, and J still knits it faster than I can spin.

Flicking:



The contrast of a flick lock of fiber vs an intact lock of fiber:



Spinning the yarn is by far my favorite part of this entire process:



It's hard to get a good picture of myself spinning (especially since I often am wearing pj's or lounge wear, might as well be comfortable when spinning). I'll get a picture of the yarn when this skein is complete.

4 comments:

Linda said...

I always get a warm fuzzy inside when I read that someone I helped learn to spin really enjoys spinning. We do miss you at spin guild.

Lou Harmon said...

So, when you are flicking the fiber, what are you accomplishing by doing that.
You have done the skirting,which is cleaning it, right, so now you flick it...and what happens to the fiber when you do that?

oak haven alpacas said...

Louellen ~ the flicking opens up the locks so they can flow together into a strand of yarn. In order to make a long strand of yarn, each fiber strand needs to interlock. If i tried to spin intact locks, they would clump up, then stop and start, and not mesh together right into a long strand. Most spinners spin yarn from rovings, that are made by a mill. Rovings are essentially when I am doing by flicking the fiber, getting it in a position to interlock to make yarn. I flick up my own sort of roving (they aren't exactly the same, but same idea). Though it takes more time to do it this way. My husband and I have talked about having rovings made by a mill next year so that I can spin up yarn faster.

Cara

oak haven alpacas said...

Linda ~ I so miss spinning guild! I had hoped I could flex around work and attend sometimes, but it just hasn't worked out that way. The kicker is always I have to pick my kids up at 3:30. I have fingers crossed and prayers sent that soon my husband will have a different position at work with different hours and I could maybe at least attend Knit Night (is that still on Tuesday?).

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