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Friday’s classes

Posted on | October 15, 2008 | 6 Comments

For the retreat portion of SOAR, there is a lottery style sign-up for classes.  Thursday night, the participants are divided up into four different color groups and they alternate running, leaping and scambling to get to the sign-up tables and on the list for their chosen classes.  You have to decide which class you want the most, sign up for that first, and go from there.  This is very difficult to do when every teacher is incredible!  I didn’t get all my choices, but I was happy with the ones that I got so it was all good. 

My first class Friday morning was with Robin Russon, “Mohair and More.”  Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures during this class since I spent a good deal of time fiddling with my loaner wheel.  Definitely operator-error, and I knew I should’ve spent some time getting used to it prior to SOAR, but I just didn’t make it a priority.  I finally got the wheel operating properly, but the bobbin wouldn’t allow me to wind off the singles I’d spun (three different grades of mohair, pygora (YUM!) and cashmere (double YUM!) – even with all the tension removed, the bobbin wouldn’t spin freely around the shaft (?) and winding off resulted in broken yarn and a frustrated spinner.  In fact, the fibers I spun are still on the bobbin and I’ll have to clear those off this weekend and make sure the wheel is in proper working order before returning it to its home.

So, I don’t feel I got as much out of that class as I could have, had there not been wheel problems, but Robin had a great handout so at least I have that to reference, and I know that I want to spin more pygora.  It was really, really nice.

Friday afternoon was spent in Maggie Casey’s “Spinning Big and Lofty Yarns” class.  WHAT an eyeopener.  Maggie is the nicest person ever and didn’t lose patience with me and my over-controlling habits!  On her second pass around the class to check on people’s progress, she said, “Elizabeth has moved from smoothing the yarn with two fingers to smoothing with one!”  (The goal is not to smooth at all, which is very hard for a worsted spinner like myself).

This is the yarn I spun in class.  It’s rather lumpy-bumpy, but definitely light and airy.

My short-term memory isn’t what it should be and I knew that I’d forget the techniques I learned in Maggie’s class if I didn’t put them to use, so Monday night I began spinning a purple Miss Babs batt from my stash to keep the long-draw techniques fresh in my mind.  I finished up the batt last night and plied it:

The color’s off in this picture, but I think the loft comes through. 

The color is more accurate in this photo.  For comparison – these two yarns weigh 3.8 oz and 3.85 oz.  The one on the left was spun prior to SOAR and is 165 yards.  The one on the right, spun long draw, light and lofty, is 130 yards.  It is quite a bit larger than the skein on the left, although they weigh virtually the same, and it’s because of all that air.  Yay!  btw – neither of these yarns have been finished, and I’m hopeful that they won’t change much in the finishing.

Now I need to learn how to spin lofty SMALLER yards, because I don’t knit with large needles very often.  I love the idea of spinning the fleece I’ve been processing into a woolen yarn for a sweater.  It’s always good to learn new techniques and I’m so glad I got to take a class from Maggie.  It was the number one class on my list because spinning long draw is a technique I’ve been curious about forever but had no idea how to achieve.  There’s a lot of room for improvement, but I have several batts in my stash on which to practice! 

That’s all I have for today, apparently I caught the SOAR cold and am feeling wimpish.  Achy, tired, sleepy, nasaly, you name it, I’m suffering with it.  Hope it doesn’t last long – I have things to do!!!

 

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