Yarn Along returnee

I haven't joined in with the yarn along recently after having doubts over projects I started, and then spinning taking up more of my crafty time and then not being well taking away my crafty time.

But I am back to it all now. Spinning quite a bit, as you can see in my previous post and spinning more this week as it is National Handspinning Week this week in the UK.

Back to the knitting and joining in with Ginny's Yarn Along - I shared a project a while ago using some handspun yarn but it wasn't going as well as I hoped and I decided to rip it back and start again. I then deliberated much over what I was going to cast on and have settled on a tunic style jumper and I will finish it this time!

 Handspun yarn

I am using my handspun wool spun last year which is a zwartble/Suffolk cross breed wool sourced locally and taken from raw fleece to lovely yarn by my own fair hands. I think I spun almost a kilo of yarn in a worsted weight (DK/Aran-ish) which is my preferred spinning weight as I am slow at knitting so spinning fine yarns isn't really my thing.

The original  fibre before spinning

Here is some of the yarn, and progress pictures of my tunic ...

Casting on for the tunic

Growing ...

... and growing (although bad light for the picture)

 Onto reading, and I have been slow on reading too just lately but have been dipping into a few things. I am re-reading Walden by Henry D.Thoreau in PDF on a tablet periodically, it was the 150th anniversary of his death a few days ago - a great writer, everyone should read Thoreau at some time in their lives. Inspirational author, naturalist, philosopher and more - a man whose writing inspired and influenced other notable people from history as Gandhi, Tolstoy and Martin Luther King.

 

"Thoreau seemed to be ahead of his time, viewing the world with intense curiosity and calling for the connection between humans and nature." Today he would be labelled an eminent ecologist, and it is a delight to be able to read his writing, his journals are particularly wonderful reading as are his other books including Walden and Civil Disobedience.

Other reading at present is some technical books on spinning borrowed from a friend, I want to learn some of the technical mathematical stuff around spinning just to tell myself that I can if I want to. I am more of an organic spinner though, go by feeling and rhythm which suits me well.

 

The books are by Mabel Ross, considered "the mother of modern spinning techniques" applying her mathematics skills (as a teacher of math) to spinning and developing simple calculations to the creation of all sorts of yarns. Her methods create debate in the spinning world, some people love her work, others don't. The books are full of tables and diagrams to master techniques and I think have a place in teaching spinning - I shall learn what I can from them and develop my own path.

Unfortunately her books are out of print, and sell 2nd hand for ridiculous money which is a shame as they are useful books  and should be read and used. I am lucky to own other books by her and have the ability to borrow the ones I cannot afford.

I'm now getting my things together to go to a spinning in public event tomorrow and looking forward to spending the day with like-minded friends just losing myself in the rhythm of the wheel.

Look forward to seeing other projects, and one day sharing this as a finished project.