Thursday, September 18, 2008

September Strawberry

Do you remember that merino that was calling my name? There really was only one way that that was going to end, and here it is:
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50 grams ish of Strawberries and Cream handspun merino. The next step is to wind it into a centre-pull ball and then go for the plying but for some extraordinary reason H just didn't seem that keen on the idea of holding onto the spindle while I wound - who would have thought it?

Luckily for me, ingenuity is not an alien concept, nor is construction of anything out of plastic boxes, loo roll tubes and sellotape - as evidence I offer you (a) the niddy-noddy, and (b) the fact that my sister had a working lighthouse made out of a washing up bottle which my father made when we were small - you squeezed the sides to make it flash, it was very cool.

So, here is how you make your very own Lazy Husband (who was Kate anyway?):

First you need a plastic tub. This one has in its lifetime encountered both Cornish ice-cream and patchwork pieces so clearly yarn was the next logical step.September 112

To that box, I sellotaped half a loo roll tube to each sideSeptember 113

And my spindle slots in perfectly.

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There are two tiny hitches with my otherwise perfect plan. Number 1 is that you have to keep a foot near the end of the spindle to stop it sliding too far and falling out and number 2 is that it spins a little too easily so sometimes it is best to let the yarn run through your fingers to stop it looping up on the ball winder.

Until it looks like this:
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And with a 10p for size

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All plied up it went all stripy and swirly

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And now, I have real yarn - yippee

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September 122

I have 135 metres of what I think is about 4ply and I'm longing to knit with it. This spinning malarky is getting serious. Run, run while you can.

7 comments:

  1. Ooooh, how lovely.

    How do you ply it?

    It does look gorgeous.

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  2. Clever idea.

    beautiful yarn. love it. we love strawberries.

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  3. Do you have a container of recordable cds? They come on a spindle and the ones we have come on a HOLLOW spindle, just the right size to drop another type of spindle inside.

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  4. Wow - that is definitely Real Yarn. I'm impressed.

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  5. Anonymous7:19 pm

    That's just gorgeous. I need to get a ball winder.

    You know, I have the last 2 most recent Spin-Off magazines where they talk about choosing your first wheel and then list all the pertinent info about the majority of wheels out there. I'm just saying...

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  6. Very cool! I'm a new drop spinner so I appreciate your work. What did you ply it with? I love your creation!

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  7. Anonymous9:02 pm

    Gorgeous! And I love LOVE your MacGyver-ing for spinning tools!

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