Plying with Caroline

What a lovely afternoon of spinning we had yesterday. Caroline learned to ply so very quickly. As Caroline noted in her blog, we improvised a pretty cool substitute for the upturned flowerpots Jenny Bakriges recommends,instead using two book boxes weighted with hefty tomes. Caroline didn't have felt-cover pebbles for winding the singles around so I suggested tennis balls. They really worked well.



The green fiber was used as packing material in a carton from Grafton Fibers. Thank you, Linda Diak! The black fiber was in a little sample in a registration bag from MAFA or SOAR (??). It's Black Welsh Mountain Sheep, spindled in the grease and the roughest, uckiest fiber I've ever spun. It'd make a great rope because it seems awfully strong. Or, perfect for medieval hair shirts?



As you can see above, we have here a definite case of the student surpassing her teacher. As I was plying Caroline could tell that I wasn't plying tightly enough. It's my consistent issue, actually. The yarn strand running horizontally across the skein is the model I'd made from the fresh yarn and meant to reacreate while I was plying. After washing the skein last night, I could see that I'm going to have to add a little more twist.

I'm really enjoying sharing spinning with my daughter whose innate mechanical skills were again apparant as she understood what I told her almost immediately. I decided, too, to pass on two of my way-too-many spindles, a Golding ring spindle "(3" maple) and a Greensleeves barebones. She's also "borrowing" my mid-sized niddy-noddy. Oh well, one does need all the proper supplies.