During the month of April, I'll be partaking in the Spring Stashdown run by Spunky Eclectic. You can join in on Ravelry here. I'm also going to be detailing my progress here with semi regular updates throughout the month.
Here's where I start.
On the top left is 8 oz of Ashland Bay merino in Midnight. Just to the right of that (with a green stripe running around the ball) is about 8 oz of corrie/mohair blend that I picked up at the Ann Arbor Fiber Expo last year. I'll be spinning this on a drop spindle, the only spindle project of the stashdown. The big white ball is either 8 oz or 1 lb (I have to measure to be sure) of shropshire that I picked up at The Spinning Loft in Howell, MI.
To the right of the shropshire (in the plastic) is 1 lb of Ashland Bay merino in Denim. The silver that you see to the lower left of the shropshire, the gold to the right of that, and the reddish color in the front are all Abstract Fiber 50/50 silk/merino in Silver, Gold, and Rosewood colorways, 4 oz each (technically 2 oz for Rosewood as I have that half done already). The silvery blue multi color fiber next to the Rosewood and Gold is 4 oz of Abstract Fiber optim in Burnside Bridge.
And lastly, is 4 oz of Abstract Fiber optim in Rockstar. This will be plied with the Burnside Bridge when they're both complete.
I have a ton on my plate for the stashdown, and I doubt that I'll get it all done. But, isn't that the point of a stashdown, to set lofty goals and try your best to achieve them?
One of the things that I've been trying to do recently is spin thinner. Many people have told me "once you start spinning thin, it's really difficult to spin thick", but I'm not trying to get to lace weight or anything, just to sock weight.
Anyways, one of the troubles that I find with spinning thin is that it currently takes a lot of concentration for me to do it evenly. Which means that it takes forever because I'll spin and concentrate and then have to stop for a while. With a single color fiber, this can become monotonous.
Take, for example, my current fiber that I'm trying to spin thin. It's a 50/50 merino/silk from Abstract Fiber in Rosewood. It's a lovely color and great to work with. Check it out:
The problem for me is that after spending so much time on 2 oz of fiber that takes a lot of concentration, I'm wiped out and quite unmotivated to spin for a while. So, what I'll do to break it up a bit, is spin something that goes quickly or has color variation. Between halves of the Rosewood, I'm spinning 4 oz of Optim from Abstract Fiber in Rockstar. I plan on eventually plying it with 4 oz of their Burnside Bridge colorway.
The optim does come out quite thin but, for one reason or another, takes much less concentration to keep it even while doing so.
Of course, there are downsides to doing things this way. I've found that it can be kind of difficult to make both halves of a 2 ply be the same size when spinning something else between them. I've seen clear plastic gauges with black lines on them to quickly measure WPI while spinning which could help, but I haven't been able to find one to purchase yet. I did just download the iSpin Toolkit app for my phone which includes a WPI gauge, but I haven't had the opportunity to try it out yet. Once I do, I'll update with how it works.
In the meanwhile, if you find yourself not wanting to spin because you're unmotivated to tackle the second half of a taxing project, try spinning something a little more relaxing or fun in between.
Let's get one thing straight right now. This blog is not about bicycling, it's about making yarn by hand. Don't get me wrong, I'm cool with bicycling, but it's not the type of spinning that I do.
My name's Bryan Sebeck. I'm a dude and I spin. I know, spinning isn't exactly the most common hobby around, and it's even less common for a dude to spin. But, it's what I do. If you have a problem with it, get over it, because I don't care.
I also run another blog, Yooper Steampunk, which I've not been so great at updating. Primarily, it's because I've picked up spinning. I've been spinning my own yarn since about September of 2011, after a good friend of mine invited my wife and I to join her at a spinning group. We figured that we'd go along and see what it was all about. What we didn't count on was falling in love. There is no hobby more relaxing than spinning. Between the constant motion of either treadling your wheel or spinning your spindle, the slight vibrations of the fiber as it moves through your fingers, and the soft feeling of wool in your hands, it's almost impossible not to be relaxed by it. If you're allergic to wool, I'll give you a pass, but only if you're allergic to wool.
So, how did a dude who's been spinning for less than six months come to start a blog on the topic? Well, as I said, I haven't been so great at keeping my other blog up to date because I've been spinning so much. What I wanted to do, was to create someplace where I can share my adventures in spinning. This will include not just pictures of fiber and finished yarn (or as I call it yarn porn), but also thoughts and tips as I learn new things and experiment with new techniques.
This post is really just to have a bit of a place holder while I put together the look of the blog. Don't worry though, updates will be regular as I use this venue as a topic specific diary.
I want to try and gain a following here. I don't know the best way to go about it, but I'm going to say right now that there will occasionally be rewards as milestones are passed. I don't know right now if I'll do milestones of page views, followers, or some combination, but the rewards will be yarn, handspun by me. I may at some point start dying fiber and allow whomever wins a reward to have some great level of input in their yarn. But, to start, it will either be fiber and colors completely chosen by me, or with some amount of input from the winner (ex. you give me a list of your favorite colors and I choose a colorway and fiber for you).
So, please join me as I improve at my new hobby and address whatever comes up as a man in what is typically considered a "woman's" activity.
