Over Coming the Hurdle

I took a two-week hiatus from spinning: the week before and the week during vacation. It was great to get back to my wheel when we returned. The spinning wasn't co-operating though. I started working the targhee braid and the fiber was so compacted, almost felted, making it difficult to draft. Also, the fiber would pull out of my hand and then get lost on the bobbin.  Seriously! I was so frustrated! I couldn't find the end to continue spinning.

So I flipped to a different fiber I'd put aside before vacation because I was frustrated with it. It was doing the same thing. What the heck?  A search through Ravelry's forums soon put me right. It turns out that if you don't move the yarn guide to a new place on the bobbin often enough, the singles will pile up until they fall to either side, breaking the fiber and burying the end of it at the same time. I had recently changed how often I move the slider on my Lendrum and that's why this problem was now occurring when it hadn't before.

Other things I learned on Ravelry's forums was to lay a life line by spinning the yarn on in one direction, say bottom to top, then moving all the way back to the start in one move. This lays a thread along the bobbin and makes it easier to find the end if it gets lost. Also, to find the end, I learned one can spin in the opposite direction real fast to make it pop out, or cup one hand over the bobbin while spinning in the opposite direction to tease the end up. I didn't need any of these tricks though because moving the yarn guide more often solved the source of the problem.

So I finished up both these yarns. The first a mohair wool blend (Spinning Moon Farm), the color in keeping with our heat wave again:

The second the Targhee, soft squishy and fine:

I joined Natchwoolie's Take Out Club, snack pack size. I get one ounce of fiber every month for six months. The fiber arrives in cute little takeout containers. This month it was Merino:

Last month it was blue faced leicester that had a wonderful sheepy smell. I worked my first laceweight with it:

I'm hoping that I can work the other snack packs into more lacewieght that I can then knit up into one shawl. It would be a wonderful sampler.

Yeah, but I sooooo need to stop spinning and get back to the needles. I have a ton of almost-done projects that are pining for some TLC. I think I'll have to put the wheel into time out for a bit. Whaaaaaaa.....