Baby Steps

Sometimes, life is two steps forward, one step back.

Hmmmm…Spinning lace.

Along with the fact that I have never spun silkier textures before…Well, it’s just a little intimidating. I sometimes revert to the familiar when something scares the mess out of me, lol. It tends to calm my nerves a little. So, as you can see above, my spindle got a little love today along with this tencel blend called Secret Garden by Sosae Caetano.

The colors in this are so rich! Love it!!

I have had this in my stash for a bit, but was afraid to try it. I was just not sure how to spin that texture. Now that I’ve started, I find that I was right. Spinning this is a bit different than spinning merino or polwarth (or other kinkier textures). It is a bit slippery. In my hands, it feels like it begs to be handled a little more slowly. All the better to see those colors develop.

When I felt I had gotten somewhat of a handle on it, I tried to loosen up a bit so I could start my mil’s lace project on the wheel.

This is camel down and tussah silk. It’s even more slippery!

I didn’t have enough twist in the first lengths, so the singles kept drifting apart. That happened three times before I got the singles to hold well enough not to drift. Now, this seems to be verging on too much twist to me. But, so far, no breaks. I did realize by the time I had gotten to this point that if I changed the ratio (by changing to a smaller, faster whorl, pulley…whatever), I probably could get more twist with less effort. For this singles, every inch I draft out, I am pedaling eight times! So, yeah. I may be changing the whorl for the first time ever on the second bobbin. We’ll see.

But, all in all, this is pretty slow going. I’m kind of inch-worming it because I keep thinking it’s going to slip right out of hand! I’ll probably bounce back and forth on these until I get the hang of it. Usually spinning on the spindle informs my spinning on the wheel and vice versa. It helps me learn faster to take what I learn from one device to the other.

But, for the real question…Can I spin enough of this by Christmastime? Your guess is as good as mine, lol!

In the meantime, I started the next pair of socks last night. Didn’t get very far since I was watching the newest Transformers movie with Boy Child until two-something in the morning.