[Mammyshaz]

Jaykay, that is one lovely carved wheel. I thought my ashford was lovely but yours is stunning.

STS I've also only been spinning a few months, and am totally hooked. I have been using dog brushes to card. Next plan is buy proper careers and learn a good technique 

Spinning some fleece last night that i brought back from a demonstration on rainbow dying a couple of weeks ago. I'm  about trying it out myself. Got plans for hats, matching scarf, gloves, socks etc.  once  I acquire  circular needles to try out. Knitting isn't my strong point, but with all this spinning I'll master it at some point   

The bug is sooo catching       Enjoy 

[jaykay]

With scotch tension, you can adjust the 'twist' and the 'pull on' separately, which I reckon makes it far better to learn on, as you can have very low take-up while you faff around learning to draft.
It's also much more adjustable but it varies as the bobbin fills up so for consistency you need to adjust as you fill. I started with a double drive and didn't really learn to spin well til I got a scotch tension wheel.

Double drive has the twist and the pull-on connected, so they are not as separately adjustable, but it's consistent throughout a bobbin. My WGC has quite strong take-up and I lace the yarn across the flyer using two hooks to get the twist into the yarn I want - because I'm spinning the BFL I'm on with at the moment quite finely. That done, which is easy enough, it just goes and goes. The big wheel has a lot of momentum, so isn't as good for stopping and starting but is brill for just spinning and spinning (or plying and plying  )

I can also do a true long draw on this wheel easily, whereas I struggled to find the right spot on my Lendrum. Which is not to say you can't longdraw on a scotch tension wheel, and in theory it should be easier to adjust to be just right, but oddly I didn't find it so.

I'm no expert so someone (FW?) who's been spinning a lot longer, please come in and add to this.

Thanks MS  I got back into knitting because of spinning 

[SallyintNorth]

Spinning some fleece last night that i brought back from a demonstration on rainbow dying a couple of weeks ago. I'm  about trying it out myself. Got plans for hats, matching scarf, gloves, socks etc.  once  I acquire  circular needles to try out. Knitting isn't my strong point, but with all this spinning I'll master it at some point   

MS, I promised you some unwanted (by me) short circs, I know - but I gave them to one of the Tulle House knitters a few weeks back, as she was poking her neighbours in the eyes with her long needles making a teeny little something-or-other!  I don't know if she's wanting to keep them or not; if they come back, they're yours.

I had a dyeing day on Thursday with one of the Stanhope group, at her home.  We did stove-top rainbow-dyeing; I did primary colours + turquoise on my own raw fleece, and a few other things too, including a bit of the Castlemilk Moorit, C did dark red, hot pink, dark blue on her newly-acquired Teeswater lamb fleece.  We also did dyeing in the microwave - I dyed some plied but not washed yarn, C did nettle and banana. 

The Teeswater is just gorgeous.  From strawberry pink to deep violet/purple, with streaks of blue, puce, pinks I can't describe - and such a sheen!  You could eat it!   

My favourites of all I did are the rainbow-dyed Castlemilk - I had thought it bizarre to dye a naturally coloured wool, but jaykay's comment about it being 'sophisticated' piqued my interest - and the microwave dyed yarn.  For the latter I used the primaries again, and thought it looked garish going in, but it's just gorgeous now it's done.  The Castlemilk rainbow-dyed looks, well, jaykay's word is a good one, it looks more sophisticated than the rainbow-dyed whites.  I love it.  Still can't spin it, but I will be able to one day! 

Will post a few pics when all is dry.  (It's taking a while, no CH at the mo.) 

[SallyintNorth]

I got back into knitting because of spinning 

Same here     

And I got into spinning because of YOU!     (And Fleecewife, and having bought some rare breed sheep, which was BH's suggestion ... so I generally blame the three of you  )

I can also do a true long draw on this wheel easily, whereas I struggled to find the right spot on my Lendrum

I wonder if it's the momentum that's helping?  You won't have to be thinking about your feet at all while you stretch out the fibre.  I haven't tried longdraw on my Traveller but I think it may be harder than on the Traddy - you do need to "pedal" harder on a Travvy!    (Which is not to say I can do it, really, on the Traddy, but I can see that with more practise I would be doing it.)

[Bionic]

I had a dyeing day on Thursday with one of the Stanhope group, at her home.  We did stove-top rainbow-dyeing; I did primary colours + turquoise on my own raw fleece, and a few other things too, including a bit of the Castlemilk Moorit, C did dark red, hot pink, dark blue on her newly-acquired Teeswater lamb fleece.  We also did dyeing in the microwave - I dyed some plied but not washed yarn, C did nettle and banana. 

The Teeswater is just gorgeous.  From strawberry pink to deep violet/purple, with streaks of blue, puce, pinks I can't describe - and such a sheen!  You could eat it!   

My favourites of all I did are the rainbow-dyed Castlemilk - I had thought it bizarre to dye a naturally coloured wool, but jaykay's comment about it being 'sophisticated' piqued my interest - and the microwave dyed yarn.  For the latter I used the primaries again, and thought it looked garish going in, but it's just gorgeous now it's done.  The Castlemilk rainbow-dyed looks, well, jaykay's word is a good one, it looks more sophisticated than the rainbow-dyed whites.  I love it.  Still can't spin it, but I will be able to one day! 

Will post a few pics when all is dry.  (It's taking a while, no CH at the mo.)

I have only tried one colour on the Castlemilk so far and have been very pleased with it. I haven't yet tried spinning with the fleece though.  Too many projects on the go at the moment.
 

[jaykay]

I can also do a true long draw on this wheel easily, whereas I struggled to find the right spot on my Lendrum
I wonder if it's the momentum that's helping?  You won't have to be thinking about your feet at all while you stretch out the fibre.)

No, it's something to do with being able to draft back against the uptake, whilst getting the right amount of twist.

I can't say I have to think about my feet ever - maybe both my wheels are just easy to treadle. Or maybe it comes naturally to me to have what my feet and hands are doing totally disconnected 

[SallyintNorth]

I can also do a true long draw on this wheel easily, whereas I struggled to find the right spot on my Lendrum

I wonder if it's the momentum that's helping?  You won't have to be thinking about your feet at all while you stretch out the fibre.

No, it's something to do with being able to draft back against the uptake, whilst getting the right amount of twist.

Oh, I know, yes. 

I can't say I have to think about my feet ever - maybe both my wheels are just easy to treadle. Or maybe it comes naturally to me to have what my feet and hands are doing totally disconnected 

[Fleecewife]

I am not a technical spinner nor a perfectionist, but I love being able to turn the fleece from my sheep into garments the family and I can wear.  That is SO satisfying.
 
 
I have three wheels  .  One is an Ashford Traditional with a giant bobbin and extra large orifice, on which I am attempting to learn to spin very thick singles.  That is single treadle Scotch tension.
I have an Ashford Traveller which is double treadle Scotch tension and at the moment that is what I am spinning on.
 
I also have a Lendrum Saxony http://www.pmwoolcraft.co.uk/html/view_product.php?ProdID=890&CatID=5&start=18  which is double treadle double drive.  I promise you I didn't pay the current price for mine       although it was still expensive.  I use it for bigger spinning projects and I absolutely love it.  Once it's all set up I can sit back in an armchair and go.
 
I don't do long draw and have great admiration for those of you who do     I think you have to have perfectly prepared fibre to use that method and as I rarely use bought fibre it's not something I have felt the need to learn.  Mostly I use my Hebridean fleece which lends itself to fairly thick woollen spinning, although I can spin certain Heb fleeces very fine when I set my mind to it      I also spin Shetland fleece which is easier to prepare well so maybe I will have to learn the long draw after all.  I think I am halfway there with the BFL I'm currently spinning.    I wonder if a double treadle wheel makes it easier to spin using the long draw - it is so much easier to forget your feet and to treadle evenly.  I grew up with a treadle sewing machine, so treadling has always been easy for me anyway - which is great as I can concentrate on my hands.
 
I have spun silk and alpaca but always end up itchy and coughing from both.  I suppose asthma and spinning don't always go well together 

 
I absolutely love dyeing.  Mostly I have used acid dyes, although the ones I started with became unobtainable so I have recently bought some from George Weil but haven't used them yet - something to really look forward to.  There are so many techniques to try.  I have Deb Menz's book 'Colour in Spinning' which has some very exciting projects in, although it's all a bit anally retentive for me as I'm more of a 'throw it in and see what happens' kind of dyer.  Having said that I have kept notes so I can reproduce the more successful colour schemes.
 
I want to do more natural dyeing but am handicapped by our very iron-rich private water supply, which saddens the colours.   However, I have now saved up 125g/ 4 3/8 ounces of onion skins (Bionic  ) so once my energy levels increase a bit more I will have a go at that.  Very exciting 

[Anke]

At the moment (and probably for the foreseeable future) I have a Lendrum, upright/foldable - love it to bits and had specifically decided to get it in preference to an Ashford. It took months to arrive though...
Sadly while I still have two very untidy children living with their equally untidy parents around there is juts not enough space to have another wheel set up in our main living area (the one with the fire going...), so I have time save up for a Schacht! I am alo a sucker for modern design wheels...

[SmallTimeSmallholder]

I have been spinning my first soft spun singles. I have used washed and uncarded south down fleece and am now soaking it in hot water, as apparently that sets in the twist. I'm then going to spin it again running through some metalic thread to give it some sparkle.


I've been trying to source things like threaded pom poms etc to spin into some fleeces. Does anyone know of a company that does that kind of thing? At the moment I'm getting bits from all over the place.


I didn't know what longdraw spinning was so I've just googled it- Wow!! What type of fleece do you use for that?!

[jaykay]

I've learned long draw with merino tops. Truthfully I don't do it much because though I find it fun, I prefer the result from worsted-spun yarn.

As for pom poms, there's this sort of stuff? Folk are selling more colours on eBay.
yarn with bobbles

[SallyintNorth]

I didn't know what longdraw spinning was so I've just googled it- Wow!! What type of fleece do you use for that?!

You can spin it with anything that doesn't have too long a staple.  It's almost a must for very short staple fibre but is suitable for anything up to and including Blue-faced Leicester.  I don't think you'd get it to work on Teeswater or Wensleydale - but am happy to be corrected and told the techniques to use! 

You can do longdraw from combed tops - here's a video that shows you how to spin from the fold (she's using merino top, as it happens), which is the technique you would use to do longdraw from tops, but it is more usual to do longdraw from carded rolags.

[jaykay]

I don't do longdraw from the fold with tops, I do it from the end, I find it 'runs' better.

Those Longwools are perfect worsted wools, so no you wouldn't woollen spin them.

[sallyanneclarke]

With scotch tension, you can adjust the 'twist' and the 'pull on' separately, which I reckon makes it far better to learn on, as you can have very low take-up while you faff around learning to draft.
It's also much more adjustable but it varies as the bobbin fills up so for consistency you need to adjust as you fill. I started with a double drive and didn't really learn to spin well til I got a scotch tension wheel.

Double drive has the twist and the pull-on connected, so they are not as separately adjustable, but it's consistent throughout a bobbin. My WGC has quite strong take-up and I lace the yarn across the flyer using two hooks to get the twist into the yarn I want - because I'm spinning the BFL I'm on with at the moment quite finely. That done, which is easy enough, it just goes and goes. The big wheel has a lot of momentum, so isn't as good for stopping and starting but is brill for just spinning and spinning (or plying and plying  )

I can also do a true long draw on this wheel easily, whereas I struggled to find the right spot on my Lendrum. Which is not to say you can't longdraw on a scotch tension wheel, and in theory it should be easier to adjust to be just right, but oddly I didn't find it so.

I'm no expert so someone (FW?) who's been spinning a lot longer, please come in and add to this.

Thanks MS  I got back into knitting because of spinning 

[SallyintNorth]

Were you trying to say something, sallyanneclarke?