So my last entry was about spinning up the skeins to enter in alpaca shows along with fleeces and, of course, live alpacas. After letting the yarn sit for a day or two on the bobbin of the spinning wheel, I wind it onto a skein winder. This serves the same purpose as a Niddy Noddy (if you know what THAT is) but the skein winder's a lot quicker. Strangely enough, I bought this one at an auction in Frederick during which the auctioneer repeatedly called this item a "Ship's Captain Wheel!" No wonder I was the only one bidding on it seriously. Someone had turned this thing into a hideous lamp!!! And, in the process, they had broken the clicker that is used to count out how many yards of yarn you are winding up with each turn, but I ripped the lamp wiring out of course.
After you loosen the brake on your spinning wheel, wind right off the bobbin of the wheel onto the skein winder.
Before you take the skein off of the skein winder, don't forget to tie it with figure 8 ties at 6 or more places in the skein BEFORE you pull the skein off the winder. If you forget this step, you will have a huge pile of yarn spaghetti and you can go ahead and throw it in the trash - you will NEVER get it untangled.
After washing up this skein, I wasn't that happy with the amount of twist in it. This is the 1st yarn I have spun on this particular wheel (I recetnly traded a Louet S51 for for this wheel, an Ashford Elizabeth) and I seem to have overtwisted slightly. No big if you're going to ply the yarn because plying un-twists a little but this one is meant to be entered Un-Plied. So, just in case, I decdided to whip up some roving from a different fleece (NOT babyfine) and spin that up to compare results. If I finish it in time, and it looks better, I'll enter the black skein instead.
Meanwhile, back at the farm, I received a box of fleeces from my pals Sue and Judy at Wildwood Alpacas
In addition to their 4 fleeces for entry at Frederick, they included a skein, commercially spun up from one of their girls, Galadriel, who used to be one of MY girls before they bought her. I am SO LUCKY to have made so many cool friends in this business! That skein means a lot to me - a little piece of one of my girls. Not that I am sentimental about them or anything. Thanks Sue n Judy!
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