Tiny Balls of Yarn

So last time I raved about the itty bitty mini Turkish drop spindle. The real question is, of course, how much yarn can such an itty bitty spindle make? And what do you DO with it?

This is the ball I pulled off of the spindle - I could have kept spinning, but I was curious how much I already had. It was probably roughly the size of a dollar (US) coin. No bigger than a cat toy.

Since it was a center pull ball, done in a few different stretches of roving, I took the center and the end of the yarn and tied them back on the spindle, then plied the single of yarn to itself. This gave me a tiny ball of roughly sock weight yarn and I thought to myself, well, why not knit something for one of the dolls?

This is Shadow. She's an Iplehouse EID 1/3 girl, Asa sculpt, and currently sans faceup/eyes/wig in prep for doing some major mods to her, so please excuse the bare bones look! I cast on enough stitches to go around my smallest circular needle and then just did four rows of random yo/k2tog lace to make a little cowl scarf. I actually could have done another round or two - I had yarn left over.

So, THAT's what you can do with a itty bitty ball of yarn. I'm suitably impressed with the mini spindle, and hey, now Shadow has a totally hand made, handspun and knit, cowl scarf! ^_^

Tiniest Spindle

I wasn't going to be one of those people enamored of drop spindles. I like my wheel! It does a lot of yarn quickly and far more consistently than I can do by hand. But... I'm a sucker for tiny things. >_>

How tiny, you ask?

This is a mini Turkish spindle from Snyder Spindes on Etsy. It's a whopping 4.25" long, with 2.5" arms, and like all Turkish spindles it winds a center pull ball around the arms and comes apart in pieces so you can just slide the ball free. I LOVE IT. It's so very tiny! I can put it in my pocket, carry around a sandwich bag of roving, and spin on the bus!

Isn't it ADORABLE?? And it has an excellent spin for making very thin lightweight singles.

The bits of roving you're seeing on it are:
1) A 50/50 merino-bamboo mix (the purple-ish blue) from Opalessence Fiber Studio on Etsy
2) Some 100% tencel (the white) from Dyingforcolor on Etsy.

Merino-Bamboo

Tencel

The merino-bamboo spins up like a dream, nice and easy to get consistent and thin. The tencel is a lot slipperier and hence harder to get consistent - also, it's fuzzy. VERY fuzzy. I end up with puff clouds of it stuck to my hands, my clothes, and sort of free floating around me if I handle it for too long. I can see why people mix the tencel with other things, but I haven't mastered blended combing yet.

Bunnies!

Of all the things I never thought I'd spin, Angora bunny fur has to be on the top of the list. But when my mom found out I had an interest in spinning she sent me a box of Random Rovings - things she'd gotten from a local seller in Pueblo and which came to me completely unlabeled, a sampler box in warm colors. Some of them were only good for felting, some of them I've spun into a multicolored yarn which my mom will get back in the form of a hat, and at the bottom of the little box was... a ziplock bag of pure satin fluff. Angora fluff. Fluffy, slippery, undyed, soft as clouds bunny fur.

There is NO WAY I could spin that on my wheel. I have enough problems with bamboo and silk as it is! But, I have a drop spindle, which I've actually never ever used. And a bag of bunny fur that was staring at me longingly. Well, I thought, why not? What's the worst that could happen?

Color me pleasantly surprised!

Compared to spinning on a wheel I find drop spindles incredibly slow and tedious. But it does give you MUCH better control, and though my spinning is on the thick/thin side with lumps and bobbles, it's still pretty much on the lace side of a single of angora. Success!

Obviously I still have a lot to spin, but it's getting easier (pre-drafting is key!) I have two blue and green silk mawatas to spin as well - maybe I'll do them all on the drop spindle and then ply the silk and angora together for something super soft. No idea what I'd do with it... maybe just wind it up and pet it occasionally. ^_^