What difference does the cylinder size make?

Sock machines come with a variety of cylinders. The main thing about them is the number of slots -- we say "this is a 72", meaning the cylinder has 72 slots in it. The one shown here is a 72. There are 120, 100, 96, 84, 80, 72, 60, 54, and 48 slot cylinders ... the 80, 72, 60, and 54 are the most common; 120 is really rare!

The cylinder sits inside the cam, and the needles ride up and down the slots of the cylinder to knit the socks. A bit like a geared, extra-slotted, knitting mushroom.

For dimensions, most cylinders have a standard diameter (with small variances) of 4 1/2”, and compound cylinders (rarer) have a working diameter of 3 1/2”. Most Legare 400 and Autoknitter cylinders are interchangeable. The Legare 47 tends to have a slightly smaller cylinder size. Though, older machines can tend to fit only the cylinders that come with them, due to shifting in roundness or size or the hand-machining of them in the first place. So it's best to take very close measurements if you buy a cylinder blind, unless the seller is a knowledgeable sock machine person themselves with the same machine brand and model (and series! I had 3 Legare 400's once obviously from different generations -- I was lucky though, they all swapped cylinders smoothly.)

The number of slots controls the sock size (or, rather, number of needles in the slots). A 72 or 80 slot cylinder uses sock yarn like regia and opal to knit nice adult socks for pretty much any adult – adjust the tension looser for mr. giant feet, tighter for ms. normal foot. A 60 slot or 54 slot can take a slightly thicker yarn (I’ve only tried up to DK weight – the needles tend to split thicker yarns, a real pain!) to knit an adult sock, or stick with sock yarn and a tight tension to knit kids’ socks. The smallest sock I can knit on a 54 at the tightest tension it will reasonably knit fit my daughter’s size 13 (she’s 8 years old, so that’s a kids 13) feet.

The compound cylinders are interesting; at the base they are 4 1/2" in diameter, but they neck-down to 3 1/2" at the top, and have needles with a very long tail-leg so the lifters in the cam can raise the needles. They are useful for toddler and baby socks, and really skinny scarves.

There are also 100 and more slot cylinders, those are useful for very, very fine yarns. I have knit a tube on my 100, but that’s all so far. there’s a cone of zephyr yarn (merino/silk laceweight) in my stash waiting for it … someday!

As for ribbers ... well, that's another post!

***

In addition to my continued all-time favorite sock-machine eye-candy blog, soxophoneplayer, and the yahoo lists for sock machines, there's now a fun circular sock machine group on ravelry! Join ravelry, and join the fun ... share projects, photos, yarns, and stories.

See the list of posts on sock machines for more.

Thanks!

Why learn to spin with Romney and not BFL?

I usually hand people learning to spin Coopworth or Romney; I find they are nice wool to learn with -- any "medium wool" usually is good. Why is it good?

• typically, less expensive than dyed wool roving and fine wools
  
• available in a variety of natural colors
  
• open crimp, likes to be spun into a visible yarn (LOL as opposed to frog hair) -- easy to spin worsted weight singles
  
• reasonable staple length, 4-6 inches, usually. Most people when learning will naturally keep at least a hand's width between their hands and adapt to the 6-9 inch separation needed to most easily draft these fibers.
  
• wool also is easier than non-wool fibers because of the scales on the surface of the wool -- it grabs onto the other fibers and helps keep them together. Mohair, silk, alpaca, cotton don't have these (kinds of) scales and won't grab.
  

All that said, Corriedale and BFL (Blue Faced Leicester), or any space-dyed roving can be fun to learn on, as long as your pocketbook can handle it. I know I try to keep some dyed corriedale in my learn to spin kits to spice them up, along with natural white and grey/brown medium wools. I've heard of folks who had to learn with cotton or llama due to wool allergies or vegan-ism, it just takes more persistence.

So, whatever you choose -- Romney, BFL, or some other fiber, pick something you'll have fun with, are willing to sacrifice some of (the pile of bits & bobs around me when I was learning how to join -- I laugh at the memory!), and that will help you keep going through the learning process.

Your hands have to learn as much as your head does, ditto feet on a wheel, eyes, and arms. Remember to take breaks and to spread your learning out over time -- give yourself at least a month to get through the wall of learning something totally new, if not longer, even.

Happy spinning!

Bellefeathers! 25 January 2008

Welcome spinners and felters! I can hardly believe, I have 15 different Totally Tubular Spinning Kits to offer. And felters, see the lovely Paint Pots, ready for making lovely felted pieces with their painter's pallette of warms or cools. The Tubular colorways are shown here:

Next up on the website (later today, here's hoping!) will be Forrester top whorl spindles -- Linums, Geometrics, and fun shapes (my apologies, the Dervishes sold out -- but I will put up a Dervish page so you can sign up for email notification of the arrivals there - thanks!!) and a new flock of Natalie spindles!

My daughter and I are starting up an etsy store, By Our Hands, with handspun and more in it. Okay, so far, handspun! more to follow :-)

What's This?

I've cleared my basement of fleeces now. Since the equipment's all gone, there's no reason to keep it around, and plenty to get it processed and out of any moth's way. So far, I've kept fleeces isolated for their protection: each fleece is bagged, sealed, and then 2-3 are put in a cardboard box, also sealed. I use 6-mil plastic bags, as moths are deterred by thicker plastics as well as cardboard.

Much of the rest is off to various processors:

• Zeilinger's, 12 fleeces (8 are CVM, I'm splurging on combed top, oo la la, also a Merino/Finn, a NZ halfbreed, 2 lamb Black Welsh Mountain) -- they sent me a 25% off processing roving coupon, that started the whole clear-out.
  
• Stonehedge, 3 fleeces (CVM and my own llama, to be blended) -- she has a return shipping special this month
  
• Ohio Valley Natural Fibers, 2 fleeces (Hog Island) -- they had a coupon!
  
• Morro Fleece Works, 4 fleeces (2 cormo, one lincoln/cormo, one CVM) -- no special, but I heard she does wonderfully on fine wools like Cormo. I'm going to see how her pin-draft CVM compares to the combed top (since it doesn't have the 16 pound minimum combed top has!)
  

Can you tell, there was alot of CVM in my stash! I still have about 6 fleeces -- some Jacob, Dorset, Ryeland (from the UK), a Romney cross. They're all going to the local processor, Taylored Fibers (no website), his machine does great open roving on medium wools. I'm also washing 4 fleeces myself (Merino, Romney, Gotland, Icelandic) and had some washed fleeces too (yay!), those I may card, blend, dye, and save for my Learning to Spin class when we hand-card and hand-comb. Aside: Curious about these sheep breeds for spinning or felting? See How do I know what sheep breed to look for? Enough of me prattling on about fleeces, sheesh!! Probably makes you wonder how I ended up with it all. It was a long, over-splurging process carried out several years ago during a "life transition". There were almost 200 fleeces at one time -- I sold over 100 of them at cost or less, still raw, in the first clear-out. Nice to be able to turn (almost all!) of the rest of it into nice roving. And, what will I do with all that lovely roving? This is the shop newsletter, so you can guess! Sell some, spin some, have fun with it all! My guess is the earliest returns may be 2 months, more will be 4-6 months out. If you can't wait for all of that to come back, there's lovely medium wool available in the California Red wool roving, and some lovely fine Shetland from Thistlehill Farms and my own Shetland Rainbow kit. Stay updated -- subscribe to the whole blog for regular spinning tips and news, SpinTips for links to spinning tips I find on the internet, or Bellefeathers for the Bellefeathers newsletter (for Bellefeathers by email use this link). Thanks, and happy spinning and felting!

How do you make a leader on your bobbin?

The bobbin and lazy kate featured in the photos are from my Van Eaton Fold N' Tote in Apple wood. The leader is red acrylic from my never-ending cone of the same.



Start with a 4-6 foot length of yarn. I use whatever's on hand -- acrylic, cotton twine, handspun. Tightly spun, resistant to breakage is best. Not too thick, not too fine (no jute, no thread). Most of my leaders are about fingering weight.

The knot on the loop is a simple, overhand knot.

Place the loop around the bobbin ... wrap the bobbin with the loop of yarn; you'll be drawing one end of the loop through the other in the next step.

Pull one end of the loop through the other, around the bobbin.

Finish pulling one end of the loop through the other and snug it up on the core of the bobbin. Tight.

Next, make a half-hitch next to the loop-through-loop (cat whiskers optional).

Snug the half-hitch up tight, next to the first wrap around the bobbin. This is a very secure leader that won't rotate around the core as long as both wraps are snugged up tight. The cat's paw is AnnaBannana, helper extraordinaire.

If your leader should break, you can tie another simple overhand knot. If the knot is at the very end (usually it is), remove the leader from the bobbin and rotate the loop a bit before putting it back on the bobbin so the knot is not presented at the end. I change my leader after it breaks 3-4 times or if the twist makes it just look too unappetizing to spin from ... either of those usually takes at least a few months to occur.

Happy spinning!

***

If you do something different or have a leader tip to recommend, I'd love to hear it! Please comment on the blog or contact me. Thanks!

What do you teach in Advanced Drop Spindling?

Advanced Drop Spindling earns you a Drop Spindle Ph. D.!

If you've mastered your top or bottom whorl spindle and want to take it to the next level, this is the class for you! In this fun class we'll cover a variety of top whorl tricks, bottom whorl tricks, and handy techniques to get more out of your spindling: Andean plying, Peruvian wind-on, Kick-spinning, plying fine singles, Navajo plying, Bottom whorl speed-plying, and more!

Class length: 1/2 day

Materials provided ($8): basic top and bottom whorl spindles to spin with during class, wool roving.

Student bring: basic spindle-spinning skills (top or bottom whorl).

Spindles are available for purchase.

Taught: OFFF 2007.
Teaching next: NwRSA 2008.

Course Outline:

1. Spindle Physics
If it's a Ph. D., there has to be at least one lecture!

2. Top Whorl Spindles: Beyond the Basics
Many of these techniques are on ispindle.com

• No leader
  
• No notch
  
• Thigh roll
  
• Peruvian butterfly
  
• Balancing twist along last and current
  
• X wind-on (clockwise for singles, counter-clockwise for ply)
  
• Woolen and worsted (as seen in Spin-Off Winter 2005)
  
• Cop length and shaft length
  
• Overstuffing a spindle (wind-on tips)
  
• Andean book-bracelet (as seen on rosemaryknits.blogspot.com)
  
• Navajo ply
  
• Ply on the fly! (as seen on spindlers on Yahoo)
  

3. Bottom Whorl Turkish Spindles: Beyond the Basics

• No leader (no hook?)
  
• Half-hitch easy-on, easy-off
  
• Barberpole
  
• Finger-flick at thinnest point for max. speed
  
• Thigh roll
  
• Peruvian butterfly (same as top whorl)
  
• Turkish wind-on: X’s or 2-1
  
• Bottom whorl (non-Turkish) cop: X –wind on or cone.
  
• Speed Plying: twirling hand-roll
  

4. Spinning Fine Singles

• Drafting finer = finer singles
  
• Know your staple length
  
• Know your crimps — The thickness (wraps per inch) of the final ply should be twice the crimp, the final twists per inch should be the crimps per inch (Ann Fields, Spinning Wool: Beyond the Basics)
  
• More twist
  
• Well prepared fiber!
  
• Butterfly/bird hand-hold
  
• Ahka-style horizontal long-draw
  
• Plying fine singles—wind on a felt ball or into a tight ball; don’t use the Andean Plying Bracelet
  
• References:
  How can I spin fine yarn? on Ask The Bellwether
  Frog Hair and Hamster Floss on Fiber Life.
  

5. Silk Spindles
Silk requires a lot of twist to hang together. “Silk” spindles are spindles that spin very quickly, so the silk is twisted into yarn before it can put the “drop” in your drop spindle ;-) Silk also has a very long staple, so you can spin thread even on a 1 ounce silk spindle.

Silk spindle physics: center weight (heavy shaft, UFO– or bulb-shape whorl) == fast spin.

6. Ultralight Spindles
Any spindle under 1/2 ounce or 15 grams is an “ultralight” and can be used to spin frog hair, cobweb, or laceweight singles. My lightest spindle is 3 grams! The really light ones are best as “training” spindles — they will stop spinning the moment your yarn gets too thick — instant feedback! And they are too light to ply the thread they have created, unless you persist (because you add weight as you spin more onto the spindle!)

Make your own 7 gram spindle: the Lisard @ www.davidreedsmith.com

7. Mid whorl (Norge/Nahka) Spindles
Halla Nahkas are 1.5-2 ounces (great for worsted weight or plying).
Moving the whorl lower tends to give a more stable spin (less gyration)

Top whorl techniques apply here too.

If you want to thigh roll, build cop above whorl as is done for bottom-whorl spindles (X-wind-on or cone).

Ahka techniques can be applied to Norge spindles as well.

8. Balkan Spindles
This is basically a top-whorl spindle. Traditionally, the bottom whorl was removable, and was put on to ply—it adds weight; you would then get a repeatable size cop of yarn, built-up between the whorls. The two whorls give a more stable spin, as well.

There’s a great photo in the flickr group SpindleShots called Overloaded Spindle where she’s wound yarn below the lower whorl as well!

9. Collector Spindles

• Bobbin spindle (2 in existence?!)
  
• Niddy-spindle (thewoolery.com)
  
• Balinese spindle
  
• Italian flax spindle
  
• Top-whorl Turkish
  

***

For a complete list of classes from the Belle, see the class list.
For detailed descriptions of other classes see the class topic.
Not all classes have a detailed description; if you would like one for a class on the list, feel free to contact me with your request. Thanks!

What is Navajo 4-ply?

A while ago, I ran across a terrific website that discussed, of all things, "Navajo 4-ply". I thought to myself, 'great -- that's something new! not even on the Spinning Inventory! I gotta try it!' And, luckily, there were some great 2-color photographs of the technique that stuck in my head.

Because, as luck would have it, when I tried to point someone else there, all my googling failed to recover the page. This was before SpinTips, so it wasn't on my list of spinning information links, either!

So, in the interest of promoting the idea, here is my description of the technique.

Let's start with Navajo 3-ply. For that, you start with a single strand of yarn. The leader on your bobbin or spindle should have a loop at the end of it. Tie the end of your single onto that loop, holding the single out about 2 feet from the leader. With your other hand, reach through the loop and fold the single in half, bringing some of it through the leader's loop. Now you will have three strands coming away from the leader -- a long loop and the strand connected to your single.

Ply those three strands until you are about an inch away from the end of the loop of your singles. Then, bring a new loop through that loop, for a new three-strand section, and ply those three strands until you are an inch away from the end of this new loop. Keep repeating this chain-ply-chain-ply process as needed.

So, how do we make this a 4-ply? Bring in a second single. You will create a Navajo chain with one single while carrying along the other, for 4 strands in the ply. Once you reach the end of the loop, you can choose which single to chain next -- the one you just did, or the other one. This creates a nice back-and-forth tweed with two single tones, since you will always have 25% of one color and 75% of the other color in the plies.

In my Navajo 4-ply, one of the strands is natural camel, and the other is space-dyed camel in a spice-tone colorway.

I made my loops about 2 feet long, and changed the strand doing the looping after three loops -- so my color changes are about every 2 yards, which will create a nice stripe effect in mittens, a scarf or a hat in this light worsted yarn.

So, would I do this again? I seldom use 4-ply at all, but I could see doing it again if I wanted fine singles and worsted final yarn, or if I wanted to play two colors against each other while maintaining a cohesive flow. So it's a new technique for my repertoire even if it hasn't bumped my favorite spinning modes (3-ply sock yarn or 2-ply DK yarn) off of their top tiers.

***

related articles:
Is Navajo Plying done with long chains or short?
How can I preserve color in my space-dyed roving? (how-to on Navajo plying)
What types of spinning have you done?
Do you ply space-dyed roving?
Do you have any tips for Navajo plying on a spindle?

***

And for more photos of my 4-ply skein, see them on flickr:



1. Camel 4 ply - strands
2. Camel 4-ply end of skein
3. Camel 4-ply - Close-up
4. Camel 4-ply, all of it (big)
5. Camel 4-ply on bobbin

Picture created with fd's Flickr Toys (a great tool for mosaics!)

***

Do you have a fun plying technique to share, or a question or comment on Navajo 3-ply or 4-ply? Post a comment to the blog or contact me. Thanks!

How can I spin sock yarn?

Spinning sock yarn is a combination of choosing fibers and spinning fine.

Some tips for finer spinning -- adjust your draw-in on your wheel to be minimal, so that you could actually pull the yarn off the bobbin if you wanted to, but it still draws in freely too; use the best prepared fiber you can, i.e. it drafts easily with no sticking or grabby spots; use the highest ratio on your wheel, so you can get twist in quickly.

On a spindle, I typically use a 0.9 - 1.1 ounce spindle for sock yarn singles, and that weight or heavier for plying.

If you have a Louet, one way to reduce draw-in that's fairly specific to them is to "lace" the yarn back and forth between the hooks on either side of the bobbin. This reduces draw-in (it also cuts down how full you can fill your bobbin, though). Louets have hooks on the same "face", so the lacing is all on one side; most other wheels put their hooks on either face, if that makes sense in words ...

For more tips on fine-spinning see How can I spin fine yarn?

As well as several entries on my escapades spinning sock yarn.

I've spent the morning (ok, not all of it!) on flickr looking around at the variety of spinning/knitting groups -- and wa-la, there's one on sock knitting (of course!).

I've been very pleased with my sock spinning lately -- my really tight 3-ply knit into lovely socks, though I had the tension on the sock machine looser for the second sock, so I'm worried it might wear through a little faster. Ah well, I'm one of those odd people that likes to darn socks so I will get to indulge myself there. This was spun as a 3-ply very high twist, so it almost feels like cotton even though it's superwash merino. This yarn is now the socks shown at the top of this post :-)

And I've finished spinning my "just like Sock Hop" handspun, wow, the skein is very impressive! Can hardly believe I spun it.
(yes, it's the same colors as the skein above, but a squooshy 15WPI 2-ply as opposed to the above high twist 18 WPI 3-ply)

And I must-must-must get the socks knit soon, they will be sooo super squooshy.

Teyani (Intrepid Fiber Wizard) has posted a variety of entries on her blog about spinning the sock hop yarns from the Crown Mountain pencil roving (NAJAHC, yadayada), and her instructions were spot-on.

I've also been spindling yarn for socks ... that one's taking some time. I'm currently suffering from a variant of second sock syndrome -- the first sock-worth is spun, the second sock-worth is about 30% spun at this point. But, it's fun, and it fills the walk from home to busstop and back again with the kids each day. That first sock-worth is shown on-spindle in the picture.

Ahhhh. It's another skein I'm really, really thrilled with!

Well, now I'll go back to my more factual post-answers mode and stop sharing ;-) just couldn't resist.

I'd encourage folks to put their handspun sock yarn and handspun socks in the flickr group too :-) that way I can have google reader watch it and get my daily handspun sock yarn dose!

***

Looking for a place to chat about spinning sock yarn? Here are a few:

on Yahoo Groups: SpinToKnitSocks and sockamaniac_spindle_spinners

on Ravelry: STKS (spin to knit socks)

and I've seen sock spinning questions on Knitty's spinning forum as well as TechSpin (Yahoo Group) and Spin Tech (on ravelry).

Do you know any other places where sock yarn spinning gets discussed? I'm always on the look out for great websites and forums on the topic! Post them on the blog or contact me. Thanks!

Bellefeathers! 5 January 2008

Welcome to 2008 at The Bellwether!

The shop's been hopping -- Spindlewood top whorls are up, a nice selection of Kunderts, the Forrester Russian Spindles - Traditional and Fancy, and Forrester Ahkas. Also just listed ... a new shipment of Bosworths - Featherweight, Mini, and Midi! It's almost like spindle overload!

News flash!! Crosspatch Creations and Three Bags Full have 11 new colors available on the website!

For further celebrations for the new year, all the 2007 Three Bags Full colors are on sale -- 18% off! That's just $13.50 for 4 ounces of Diana's luscious Montana-raised fine wool blends with hand-dyed silk, tencel, and silk noil. Yes, that even includes my favorite, Turquoise. I've spun up 8 ounces for a plying experiment in the works.

Fiber and spindles, what more do you need? Life is good!

Be sure to stay updated -- subscribe to the whole blog for regular spinning tips and news, SpinTips for links to spinning tips I find on the internet, or BelleFeathers for shop-only announcements on the blog like this (for BelleFeathers by email use this link). Thanks!

How can I fix my 2-ply yarn?

Did you spin up your yarn, ply it, wash it, let it dry and then decide it just won't work?

Breathe in, breathe out, and take another look. What's wrong with it? overtwist, undertwist, too thick, too thin? I once rescued some too-thin two ply by unplying it into 2 strands, then re-plying two 2-strand balls together into a 4 strand yarn. So now it's a lovely 4-ply worsted weight, perfect for the sweater I want to knit. After all, with purple merino, you can hardly go wrong!

Here are some things you can do with a finished skein of 2-ply:

• add twist then turn it into a cable yarn by plying it back on itself in the opposite direction (singles Z, 2-ply S, cable-ply Z, usually)
  
• add twist while plying on a thin outer yarn that wraps it, then take the twist back out while plying on another thin outer yarn in the opposite direction to make a "diamond" yarn. Ran across this in a plying workshop and just recently saw it written up in the new book Creative Spinning.
  
• cut it into 3-inch lengths, run it through your hand cards to turn it back into unspun rolags and respin it (ok, this is drastic!) -- this is alot of work!!
  
• unply it and then reply 2 balls into a 4 ply (ala my project)
  
• unply it and then with two ballwinders (or two skeiners) working in parallel, wind it into two separate balls (helps if you have 2 helpers each on a ballwinder or skeiner, you on the bobbin making sure it doesn't get all jumbly-messed up by getting ahead of the game) ((ask me how I know... LOL)) - then you can have singles, reply into a 3 ply, or whatever. -- also a lot of work!!
  
• overdye it to make it perfect for a different project
  
• if it's underplied or overplied, add ply twist or remove ply twist, then wash it again to reset the twist without weights
  
• repurpose it for a different project -- I just finished spinning a skein and it's too thick, so it'll not be socks, but a hat maybe. And a new project is also turning out thicker than desired, but I so want to Navajo 4-ply it that it'll be repurposed rather than just 2- or 3-plied. (Navajo 4-ply is when you Navajo 3-ply but carry along another strand, alternating which strand you do the chains with to get color shifts as you change strands).
  

I hope you find some interesting ideas in these to help spur solutions to your spinning "mishaps". Spinning's an adventure with alot of twists in it (ha ha).

***

Related posts:

How do you make a good looking 2-ply yarn?
Why won't the twist go into the thick spots of my singles?
Why are my singles separating during plying?
How fine do I spin my singles to get a target WPI in my plied yarn?

***

Subscribe to SpinTips for the nuggets I've found about spinning on others' blogs and websites.

Questions on repurposing yarn? See the comments in this post for questions so far! I'd love to hear them! Contact me or post them on the blog. Thanks!

What thread do you use for spinning beads into yarn?

For the beginning of the thread on spinning bead yarns, see this post. For the entry before this one, see this post.



For spinning beads into yarn, usually I string the beads on thread and use that as a core for one of the singles, spinning the other single plain and then plying the two together. I've used regular sewing thread, quilting thread (which is a little stronger), rayon, silk thread, and polyester thread. I think the 100% cotton thread snaps the easiest, and tend to like the silk the most (though it is harder to find -- my local Sew & Vac shop had it, Joanne's and Wal*Mart didn't). None will felt, but I do tend to rough up the skeins a bit so the wool at least grabs onto the yarn a bit more to help everything stick together. But be careful about "whapping" the yarn on the counter if your beads are breakable (luckily I thought about that and haven't done it!)

The Winter 2003 Spin-Off article talked about tieing the beads in place, so that if your thread did snap, only the bead where it snapped might be lost. Also (my own opinion) if you ply the yarn, then the plying action will help hold the beads in place should the thread or the yarn be cut.

I went overkill on my bead acquisition because I was worried about having enough beads -- I had 1 package plain seed beads, 1 package mixed colors, and one strand of semiprecious stones for some yarn; I ended up with way over half of each left over, 75 yards of hard-won yarn (chalked up to learning!), and beads way too close together on the finished yarn -- the skein shown above weighs a ton! I had beads about every 6-4 inches. Now I place my beads not closer together than every yard or two, for a nice effect.

Not bad maybe for an edging on something, but as an overall effect, I'd probably put a bead every foot or so for a scarf, every yard or so for a sweater. And I'd seriously consider beading just one ply rather than both -- so I know where my beads will end up.

I'm not an expert on bead sizes so I can't say what size I'd recommend, but there appear to be two common sizes, one easy to thread onto a DK yarn and one onto finer yarns. The outside diameter of such beads also varies -- the larger hole is in a larger bead. I like the small beads, unless I'm going for a particular effect with the big ones.

My latest favorite thread is now quilter's transparent nylon thread -- it matches everything! Though I have a lovely rayon turquoise thread I'm using to ply with Three Bags Full Turquoise in a bead-spinning experiment that's in the works.

My thanks to Rhonna for this question!

***

All the bead yarn articles and more can be found in the Art Yarn category.

See my other "bead" yarn on flickr for some non-conventional "beads"

***

Have any online resources for spinning bead yarns or other art yarns? post them in the comments on the blog or contact me. Thanks!

Meme: Spinning Resolutions 2008

Ahhh, vacation's over, time to get back to the blog! But let me ease back in with an "easy" meme for me and for you!

What I hope to accomplish in fiberland in 2008 ...

Finish my "bus spindling" that I do when I take the kids to their bus stop and back; granted, in colder months, it becomes my "waiting in line" spindling.

Make progress on my (stalled again) silk spindling ... perhaps I can finish the yarn in 2008 and then do the embroidery on my shawl in 2009.

Complete the pluckyfluff study group ... we're about 2/3 of the way through the book now, been meeting for 14 months, so we may finish this year!

Figure out how stash trading works on ravelry, so I can move out some of my store yarn in favor of my growing stash of handspun ;-)

Weaving! Finish the yardage for the undulating twill, and if I expect to "keep up" with the weaving study group, at least one basketweave scarf.

Revisit old projects and play with them a bit -- alpaca fingerless gloves, the newest old project: a mohair lace scarf, the handspun/handknit socks, I'm sure there's more!

Replace some of my (3 pairs!) wearing out socks with newly cranked ones ... and hopefully make my mom a pair of fingerless gloves on the sock machine too, with some lovely Debbly Bliss Cashmerino.

Do you have some spinning resolutions? link them back to this post, or put yours in the comments here. Let's spin through 2008!