Playing with my two new toys.........to make Apple Snow!

After all the excitement of getting the new wheel last week life has been a little tame, except for Andy Murray and Peter Norfolk getting through to their finals in Australian Grand Slam, that is.

Over the weekend I ordered a new sliding hook flyer kit and a drum carder 'Packer Brush' from the HandSPinner which was a good move as I heard this week that Ashford are putting up their prices again, and this after quite a big increase back in November!! The cost of wheels are going up around £40 and even a bobbin is going up £1.....




I digress, the new toys arrived Tuesday afternoon and both were soon in action.

First I had been inspired by Peahen's Wheatfield colourway. She had blended cheesecake and white merino with silk and it looked gorgeous. I am not that keen on yellow, so I dug around in my stash and found a pale green which I thought would make a nice blend.



I managed to get 78grams of well blended merino and silk (it is really harder to get the silk to blend in invisibly)which I have called Apple Snow as it reminds me of a pudding my grandmother used to make from cooking apples and meringue



This I spun on the Trad with the new flyer. Pleased with the result, although I am finding it hard to move the squeeze and slide stainless steel yarn guides. Not sure whether this because it is new, or that I am not squeezing right - or what? No doubt practice will improve the technique over time.

Anyway here is the result.


166 yards of yarn from just under 80 grams of fibre (the 88 grams in the pic is due to the ties) although it isn't as even as I would have liked. Two reasons:
1) Carding the fibres produced quite a lot of little blobs (a bit like when knitting is roughed up) which I should taken a picture of. This meant that I had to keep stopping and removing said blobs from the twisted yarn - tedious to say the least!
2) I am not sure whether I had then tension right on the Trad for the new flyer. There appeared to be too little twist once the yarn was on the bobbin and in some places the yarn was very loose, so when I plied I had to make quite a few joins although you can't see them in the pic, but you can see the untwisted yarn...

I think that I shall take the Trad down to the Spinning evening next Monday and see what Sarah has to say - there are so many variables to consider.

Next week I am going to take the Trad to pieces so that it can be sanded down ready for its new coat.....