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Spinning Prayers into Yarn

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None? Huh. Is it all the same single piece of yarn? I've never had much luck with the change from ring to looping without knot if it's bigger than a ring pad :p
 
Okay...

I think I get it. I'll have to make one and try it out. I'm more of a visual person.

Do I use just regular string to make the yarn, then?
 
Yarn is made from roving or some other form of processed wool(or some other fiber, say silk or alpaca or hemp or flax. Cotton has short fibers and would be harder to spin on a drop spindle).

String has already been spun, which is what makes it string.

Here's some carded wool, for example:View attachment 807
 
TheAlchemist said:
Yarn is made from roving or some other form of processed wool(or some other fiber, say silk or alpaca or hemp or flax. Cotton has short fibers and would be harder to spin on a drop spindle).

String has already been spun, which is what makes it string.

Here's some carded wool, for example:View attachment 807
Click to expand...

:sheepish: yea, that shows how little I actually know... Is roving something easy to come by where you are?

I feel like I've never seen a sign in a store that said, "Sale on Roving today!"
 
Knitpicks.com actually has some pretty decent roving on sale for <$2/oz

Aw, heck, why don't I just come to Maine to give you a lesson?
 
And speaking of status updates, Jenn, I don't mean to pry, but I'd love to hear that you are doing quite well. I am hoping that no news is good news...
 
The Mission

In the next several posts I aim to cultivate the capacity to bless and nurture by demonstrating that a simple gift of prayer/blessing can be spun for a loved one in the space of an hour, soup to nuts, including the construction of the drop spindle.
 
I usually use 1/4c of white vinegar as a mordant to "bite" the dye into the wool, and about a cup of hot water (microwaved) then add 1 packet of kool-aid to dye 10-20gm of fiber. If I don't want to get "caught red handed" (as in the photo) I am respectful of the fact that kool-aid actually IS dye and I wear rubber gloves.
 
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Aaak. I did these clever brief videos to demonstrate making a drop spindle and drafting wool and spinning it and plying, but when I tried to post I find that just doesn't fly with tappatalk.

So. It looks like I'll have to offer a written description...
 
Ingredients for a simple inexpensive well balanced drop spindle:
2 CD's or DVD's
1' of 3/8" diameter dowel rod
one 3/8" diameter rubber grommet
one 5/8" brass cup hook
a length of "starter" yarn, say 1 or 2'

Instructions:
put the 2 CDs together, shiny sides facing each other (it just works better that way, don't ask me...) and put the grommet in the center so they hold each other securely
Put the dowel into the center of the grommet
screw the cup hook into the end of the dowel
tie the starter yarn around the dowel on the underside of the CDs (opposite side from the cup hook)

Voila!
 
For me, the first task when contemplating spinning, before constructing a drop spindle, before dying wool, before anything else, is to ask myself, and answer the question:

What is my intention?
 
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