I spent the evening on the balcony with my new spinning wheel, plying some merino singles I spun this week. I was enjoying the warm summer breeze, gazing at the sunset, when the gentle whirr-clack, whirr-clack of the wheel suddenly turned into a strange, high pitched sirring noise.

I stopped treadling to investigate further, but the noise didn't stop. That's when I realized the crickets hat started their evening concert. :)

Don't worry, I've not fallen off the edge of the earth. I just got an invite to Ravelry, and a new dropspindle from Wollwolff.

I've spent hours today taking pictures of my stash and projects and uploading everything to Ravelry. And I've spun lots of green merino fiber into a pretty thin thread. And tomorrow I'm going to do it all over again.

My parents gave me an old flax spinning wheel for christmas last year, and after a few repairs I finally got around to trying it out. It still needs to be oiled, it's squeaking like mad – maybe that will help with the high friction as well. I have to treadle very fast and forcefully in order to keep the wheel going, which makes it pretty difficult to concentrate on the fiber drafting.

Also, it only works in one direction, otherwise the drive band gets tangled up on the wheel. So I won't be able to ply with this wheel. Which is bad, because with the wheel, I'm getting way more overspin compared to my handspindle. At the ratio this wheel is spinning, I'll never be able to spin a balanced single.

I've been thinking about getting a Louet beginner's wheel, to properly learn how to use one. But then I remembered that I don't want to spin large amounts of yarn to use for sweaters and stuff (I have enough yarn lying around as it is), but that I enjoy spinning with my handspindle because it calms me down and helps me focus. I also like the way the fiber feels when it is transformed into yarn, and how the colours change on their way from fleece to thread.

With a spinning wheel, the only difference is that I could spin a lot faster, meaning I'd have to buy a lot more roving, and knit a lot more to use up the yarn. I don't think that's what I want right now, so I'll stick to my handspindle, maybe buy a new spindle, and spend the money I saved by not buying a wheel on some fancy coloured merino roving. :)

I finally figured out what my problem with handspinning was the whole time: my draft was way too short. I'd only drafted about one and a half inches of fibre, and had trouble transferring the spin to it. Now that I've started drafting about three inches, all is going smoothly!

I'm working on a very colourful yarn right now, out of merino fibre I brought from the LYS. It's going to cheer me up during the dark and cold season. To view an image of the roving, click here.

So I'm not allowed to buy any new yarn yet ... but I want something new ... wait, I still have this fleece for my dropspindle, I can finish that ... et voilà, new yarn:

( selfspun yarn )

I think I'll make a naalbinding cap out of it, or maybe a felted bowl for storing yarn in it ...

Now, it surely won't count as buying new yarn when I get a little unspun merino wool in black and purple, will it? That's a lot smoother and easier to spin than the coarse sheep wool I had before!

( more yarn )