New Electronic E-Spinner

I've become obsessed with Spinning again, it's been at least 8 years since I really dove into the fiber world, but for Christmas, my hubby got me some felting kit of little sleeping mice and bunnies and I'm in love again. Anyhow I need to track the wool I spin and photo log it all from my upcoming spins and projects and just to have. I'm so making a loom also. 

I'm going to list the fiber and the results in each section to catch up with all those that I've already spun in the last month. I actually bought 2 spinners the past month. The first arrived on March 17th and I call her Amethyst.  She's a cute Nano 1.1 by Electric Eel made from 3D printed parts. I still have my favorite drop spindles but these new e-spinners are a dream!

The 2nd one I got by luck right after the Kickstarter backers got there 2 weeks ago. So 2 new spinners in a month may seem a little obsessive for me, but I love them both. The Nano is so cute and small you can take it and spin it anywhere. Both e-spinners run off rechargeable battery packs too!  Onyx, the last Electric Eel 6.0 spinner holds 8 oz a bobbin and I made some lovely art yarn already on it.

Anyhow I'm sure I'll talk much more about these spinners as time goes on, again for now I just want to log all that I did this past month before I forget ha :p

When I got Onyx I loaded up the practice wool I dyed with Kool-Aid Mango and Blue Raspberry to give the Ecru wool some color. I will say it spun like a dream. my little Nano I use for the fine spun finger weight yarn and silks and cotton and wool blends for now. I've been spinning this lovely roving for a few weeks now in the mornings when I sip coffee and listen to the Daily Audio Bible.

So first off I took a few photos of older yarn I spun back in 2012 with my drop spindle that's been in my fiber box. I ordered this beautiful Cotton dyed by a lady down in Huntsville which sadly I couldn't find her shop online anymore. I do love cotton, but it was so hard to spin with the staple length of less than an inch so I'm going to spin it on the Nano what I have left from that bagful of 3.7 ounces. 

I just love the feel of cotton. I hope that in the future I'll be able to spin directly from a cotton puff. I have a few cotton seeds that I could plant by law you can't plant more than I think 8 for educational purposes in my area. It's too late for me to start the seeds now, so next year I'll start a few indoors by seed come Feb 1st.  Hopefully, I can find someone selling the pods. I know of a few places local near the Hermitage that let people come pick the cotton by hand if you want. 

I did spin 1 bobbin full on the Nano already, I just need to fill another and ply it. Photos will come when it is done.

When my Nano first arrived I used up the practice wool I had gotten of Knitpicks a few years ago. I was able to spin a lightweight yarn and measured, weighed, and made them into center-pull balls on my ball winder. I decided to do that with all my current yarns made for the month while Jason was on a business trip to Cinncinati.  Here are a few pictures of the finished balls.

 

After the practice Ecru, I spun up this fun roving from I ordered off Etsy from Canada. It was a blended Glitter Superfine Merino Wool roving. 4 ounces and she named it Once Upon a Time.

It was beautiful to spin up and I wish I had ordered more. I really am still learning how much roving is needed for projects and size of yarn I want. For now, I'm still learning.  I also spun this on my Nano so there is a learning curve with every fiber I think and making it consistent yarn is so new to me. I'd love to spin it again and on larger bobbins. 

I did end up getting quite a few balls from that 4 ounces. It's soft and I'm going to include the sellers description here: 

 Blended Glitter Super-fine merino wool roving collection is a mix of 16% sparkle and 5 beautiful merino colors. This wool is great for felting, nuno felting , weaving or spinning and is so soft against the skin.

Washing it all and drying before spinning into balls took only a day. I have several new yarns made since these 2 weeks ago to do this week. 

I did forget to beat the yarn after wet to snap it for the fibers to release or what not. I'm still learning! This next round I'll be sure to do that and am interested in seeing the difference in bounce and drape.

Next I spun this beautiful and soft Merino. It was a blend of a natural lighter Sheep and a Gray sheep and I had gotten 4 ounces. Again I wish I had ordered more. This was lovely to spin.  Here is a photo of what I had received before I spun it up.  I may just order some now that I think of it since I think this would be a lovely soft sweater or beanie or hat/scarf. I love the natural colors of it, but I had bought it thinking I would try to dye it. I just like natural too so I'm not sure. Here is how it looks after I spun it up. It's still not fully done. The yarn is on the list of those to wash/dry and ball up this week.

Lastly, I joined a Fiber club of the month. So for April I received some lovely BFL wool to spin and instructions on how to dye fiber with Kool-Aid. Now I didn't want to dye my BFL with Kool-Aid without practice dying first so I used the practice wool I had to use on my new larger E-spinner - Onyx.  Here is that process and photos. I did the Kool-Aid by patches and I like the way it variegated. I Chain Plyed the finished single threads into the 3 ply chain and think it turned out very well for the first spin with some wooly wool!