Setting the twist

I have now spun at least one of the rovings that I bought from Etsy a few weeks ago and I have decided that today is the day that I am going to wash that, and all the other skeins that I have made to set the twist in the wool.

Once the roving has been spun and then plyed, the next step is to wash the wool in order to 'set the twist'. I guess this is so it doesn't come undone and can be worked with. I understand that this is also the stage where the wool can be 'balanced'. I haven't got into all the techy side of this yet. I am just doing as I am told!

I ran a basinful of hand hot water and added a sachet of Eucalan which is a no rinse wool wash that repells moths and removes any last traces of grease.

Apparently one should just place the wool in to soak without agitating the water or roughing the wool up otherwise it is liable to felt, which is not good. I left it to soak for 15 minutes and then took the wool out one skein at a time, squeezed the water out and lay it on a towel. I popped out to post Christmas Cards and had a chat with my neighbour and when I returned I hung the wool out on the clothes horse.

I have been advised that special care also needs to be taken when hanging the wool out to dry. It should not be hung out in the wind as this could cause felting. I cut up some strips of material and hung the skeins out by popping the material through the centre of the skein and pegging the ends of the material.

Now I just have to wait for it all to dry so I can use it!

Why the need for change?

I think its about time I set out the events and reasons as to why I finished working.

In my previous life I was a Radiographer (technically I am still a Radiographer but I am not practicing) and I was working for a company that bought medical imaging equipment, installed it in hospitals, maintained it and then put new equipment in once it had come to the end of its life.

My job there was varied. I spent time looking at the equipment that was available on the market and writing technical specifications. It had moments of being stressful but on the whole it was enjoyable and I worked with a lot of good people....the only problem was that I felt I wasn't fulfilling my potential and I just didn't feel satisfied.

I am quite prone to depression and I caved in to it again in about April/May of this year. It has happened on numerous occassions but this time was different. I didn't feel sad at home. It took a while for it to sink in that this was a fundamental problem with work and not me (well, not entirely me anyway!). I was due to go back to work, I just had one more appointment with the Doctor when I seemed to take a big drop in how I was feeling despite having my medication increased. She changed my meds and signed me off for another month. I went back to bed and slept and cried and couldn't understand what was going on.

Fast forward one month and I am in a supermarket when I start to feel most peculiar....really nauseous. I realise that it has been a while since I have had a period and decide to buy a test. I took it the second I got home and the line appeared immediately. I was pregnant with our first child! I had an appointment at the Doctor's that morning so I told her straight away and we concluded that this was the more likely explanation for the sudden drop in mood.

I hung on all day to tell Alex, who was on a course that day. I managed to drive all the way home without saying a word. I wanted to tell him in a calm environment, not somewhere we were likely to crash! When I finally told him he couldn't be more pleased and immediately set about finding a prep school!

I returned to work where I told most people that I was expecting a baby. There was a fair amount of shock as it was always me who was denying I was going to be the next 'Mum-to-be'. I didn't think I could have children so I always made a point in public stating that I didn't want them. It got people off my back and prevented probing and me feeling upset if people thought I was against having kids.

The return to work wasn't the best. It started out alright but soon I felt like I had before. I was fed up. I had a chat with Alex who had a look at our finances......which needed doing if there was only going to be one of us working in 6 months' time. He said that we could manage, if we were careful and that if I wanted to leave then he was happy to support me. I had concerns about maternity pay etc not being enough and that if I were to leave at that point then I wouldn't get my maternity pay.

I went to speak with HR about this. They said that they would sort out my maternity pay if I wanted to leave. All they would need from me would be the MATb1 form that you get after the 20 week scan. We had only had our 12 week scan a few weeks before hand. It was a long way off. Eventually I decided to leave. I left there and then on a Monday afternoon, after clearing my desk.

On Wednesday, Alex was in Denmark or somewhere on business. On Thursday I had just packed all my gym things in a bag to go for a swim. I just popped to the loo before I went when I discovered that I was bleeding. I called the Midwife, she came straight away. She made me a scan appointment for the following day and said that if I stared to feel any pain or the bleeding got worse, to go straight to A&E. The bleeding did get worse, so I went to A&E only to be told that there was nothing that they could do. The cervix was closed and they couldn't get me a scan until the next day. I went home. Alex came home later that evening.

The next day we went to the hospital where the Sonographer couldn't find a heartbeat. I knew it. I guess I knew it right from the beginning, that all those weeks I kept saying that I didn't think I was getting any bigger I  wasn't imagining. The tears came for both of us. We tried to put a brave face on and it worked for a while. The Nurse told me that as it was a missed miscarriage, I would have to come in for a D&C on the Tuesday, that I would have to come in on Sunday to collect the drugs that would make it all easier. We went home. We cried. We held each other. We cried some more.

At 4am on the Saturday I started with cramping pain. It was coming in waves, I can only conclude that it was 'labour' starting. I watched the Wales v Ireland match before things started getting really bad. Alex then took me to hospital, back to A&E where the pain was just getting worse and worse. I had endless drugs and nothing was making it feel better....until they gave me IV morphine. Then it stopped and I couldn't have cared less about anything. It was a horrible day. I won't go into any further details because there is no need.

I told my employers that we had lost the baby. They offered me the chance to change my mind and go back. I chose not to take them up on their offer and finished on the 31st October.

I spent the first few weeks cleaning the house. Then I started making stuff. I wanted to sew and knit but more than anything I wanted to learn how to spin wool. I now have so many projects on the go I don't know where to begin.

I have spent a lot of money. I have learnt a lot. I have made stuff. I am happy. Finally.

Guess what I've got.....

 Louet 'Julia' with Lazy Kate and Niddy Noddy

Yesterday I went for my second spinning lesson. It started off OK but it soon became apparent that I had lost the skills I had learnt last week.

The lesson started off with carding which is the process of placing wool on what looks like a large hair brush. These brushes come in pairs and there is a technique to it.....brushing wool is not as easy as it may first appear! You have to brush it in a particular way and then use the back of the brushes to roll the fibres into what is called a 'Rolag'. I was then taught to do long draw spinning, which is a totally different technique to the one I learnt last week. It took me a long time to get the hang of it. I laughed my way through it, which is quite surprising because normally when I can't do something, or something isn't working, I tend to shout at it.....not that that approach is tremendously helpful! Anyway...I got there in the end and couldn't stop grinning like a loon!

Next up was the drum carder, which was a whole load more fun. The drum carder is basically a wooden box with a feed tray, a small drum with brushes, a larger drum with brushes and a handle with which to turn the drum.

The drum carder is used to not only prepare the wool (or whatever else you may be spinning) but can be used to blend different types of fibres prior to spinning. Carole pulled out  a big box of dyed wool and some dyed alpaca. I have to say I was dubious about her choice of colours, they all looked a bit strange together and I was starting to doubt her sanity....but then the magic happened. Upon turning the wheel, all the fibres were blended together and looked really very pretty. Apparently it is called a 'heathered wool'.

It was my turn next and I have to say I was more conservative in my choice of colours. The process was quite relaxing...I think I could quite happily sit all day carding. The end result wasn't as stunning as Carole's but she has loads more experience than I.

During the break, I started looking at the wheels that Carole has in her studio. I had been looking on line for one and had drawn up a shortlist of the Kromski Sonata, the Ashford Kiwi and the Louet Julia (S11 DT). We discussed the Kromski and decided against that. The Kiwi is more in the range price wise but being the impatient so-and-so that I am, decided that as the Julia was there, I would take it...even though it was twice the price of the Kiwi. Apparently the Julia should hold it's value well, which is a relief as I am a swine for collecting equipment for various hobbies and then losing interest!

Carole set the wheel up so that I could have a go and then spin the wool that we had just prepared. It was lovely. Nice and smooth....quiet and quite nice to look at. It is definitely more of a tool than an ornament and while it isn't like the spinning wheels depicted in fairy tales, it is still aesthetically pleasing.

Once the coloured wool had been spun, I plied it with a plain grey wool. The result was stunning. I am so pleased with it and can't wait to get it knitted up.

30 minutes and a trip to the bank later and I am sat in my car with my Julia in the passenger seat, a bag of roving and a 'Niddy Noddy'. It was really hard not to race home to get started.

Once home, I plonked myself into a chair and got started. I spun the whole roving and then tried to ply. It wasn't working for me, probably because I had been at it too long by that point. I thought I should leave it a while. Reading my book later, I realised that you should really leave the wool on the bobbins overnight anyway. I fear though, however long I leave it, the strands are so twisted that it will be difficult to ply in any case. I have trouble with my tension that I should really sort out first.....and for that I need fibres!

Cue me sat, at about 1am, buying roving from Etsy......hopefully it should arrive tomorrow to I can have a play....not forgetting to put a non-slip mat under the wheel so it doesn't keep scooting across the floor!

My New Love.....

Yesterday I went for my first spinning class, and I don't mean the one that involves sitting on a bike in the gym!

I have been wanting to learn how to do this for quite some time now. It all started when I was reading a publication called 'The Green Parent' which had an article, albeit brief, about spinning natural vegetable fibres such as nettles. Couple this with a genuine love of wool and the light bulb came on.

I searched the Internet for classes and found a few teachers relatively local, but they were all fully booked. The lady did offer me the opportunity to book a class in the week but I had to have a partner. One of my friends, Mona, said she would come with me as she was in between jobs at the time but the proposed dates were after she started he new job so couldn't make it.

Last week I decided to have a look for another teacher when I stumbled across a lady who has recently retired from sheep farming and has been spinning and weaving for as long as she can remember. She wasn't too far away and only charged £10 per hour. Perfect!

I booked straight away and then started to look forward to learning something new.

I arrived at the studio and was greeted by Carole. She has a lovely log cabin at the bottom of her garden which is filled with looms, spinning wheels, wool and all sorts of creations. It was my idea of heaven.

Carole is a very thorough and patient teacher. She started by going over the history of spinning and showed me how to operate a drop spindle. Next was having a look at some unprepared wool...pretty greasy and not the lovely fluffy stuff you would imagine it to be. Then I was let lose on the wheel.

The wheel was a beautiful looking machine, dark wood with a skein winder attached to the top of it. I was shown how to attach the leader to the bobbin and then we were off. It seemed to come fairly naturally to me, there were a few mishaps but that is only to be expected when you are learning something new. I was so grateful that I was having one-to-one tuition.

After spinning two bobbin-fulls of yarn (and a quick cup of tea) I learnt how to put the two yarns together in a process called plying. I then made my skein and that as they say was that.

It felt so good, just sitting feeding wool into a machine may sound dull but I found it so relaxing. There is a rhythm to it and it is mildly hypnotic. I feel that I could do it forever. So, it seems I may have found a niche for myself after all, who knows, I may be able to make a living out of it. All I have to do now is get myself a wheel and get practising!