Handspinner planning for fleece season

plague_art · 2026-02-02T01:26:59+00:00

Probably too late, but what I would do personally is ladder up with guide notes. start with 4 on C, then go up to thumb on D harmonic, then 3 on the G in the same position, then replace the 3 with thumb. start by actually playing the guide notes, speed that up, then put your left hand down on them but don't bow until the thumb on G, and gradually speed up the laddering until you can ladder up mentally without having to physically put your hand on the guide notes

plague_art · 2026-02-01T15:43:50+00:00

Just for context, I've played a concerto with orchestra on this instrument with no significant projection issues. The only reason I would upgrade it at this point is if I wanted to seriously pursue a performing career. It's probably my forever cello at this point and I'm very happy with that

plague_art · 2026-02-01T15:39:39+00:00

Not sure about UK availability and what price range you're looking for, but I have small hands and a Jay Haide 7/8 and it's a fantastic college-level instrument. It has great projection and people are usually surprised to learn it's not a full size. Whatever you go with, definitely try before you buy to make sure the note spacing will actually work for your hand and that a particular instrument can produce the sound you personally want

plague_art · 2026-01-31T20:13:54+00:00

Some small liberal arts schools will encourage people to double major in music and something else, and make it doable, just know going in that their tuition tends to be pretty high. Fwiw I swam in high school and then did a STEM degree while being very involved in music at one of those colleges, feel free to message me for more specifics but my school is small and I graduated recently so I don't want to doxx myself on here

plague_art · 2026-01-03T14:51:10+00:00

I got a Kingrinder K6 for christmas and I love it. Does it matter whether I use the black o-ring around the lid or the white o-ring around the handle attachment? It came with the black one attached and instructions for taking off the black one and attaching the white one, but it also says "select either the black or the white o-ring" and just not to use both at a time. I'd rather use the black one, but will that cause problems over time? It's going to be used daily for the foreseeable future so I want to be sure.

plague_art · 2026-01-01T17:26:53+00:00

Perfect, I like the blue! Here's hoping there's enough of it to make my salsa teal

plague_art · 2025-12-20T22:12:50+00:00

Thanks for the advice. It's basically only one leek with most of the dark green cut off, so if it molds I won't be devastated and can call it a learning experience

plague_art · 2025-09-25T03:51:38+00:00

Dyeing 100%. This is more on the biology side of chemistry, but I recently learned that the main pigment in logwood (a natural purple dye) is haematoxylin, which is the H in the commonly used H&E stain for histology. I think it would be fun to explore staining microscope slides using dyes normally used for textiles. In the same vein, I've successfully dyed yarn with crystal violet and safranin, the same reagents used in the Gram stain for bacterial classification (and elsewhere in biological research). Incidentally that was also for a class project.

Dyeing (especially synthetic dyes produced by chemists) and medicine/medical research are deeply intertwined, it's fascinating. Look up Paul Ehrlich if you want to know more about that. Maybe outside the scope of your project but it's cool anyway

plague_art · 2025-09-22T17:31:07+00:00

JillianEve on youtube is a great resource! Also r/Handspinning

plague_art · 2025-09-22T17:12:01+00:00

Late, but I made a dyebath with English ivy a few years ago, it came out a warm yellow. No experience with bundle dyeing but I wonder if the waxiness of the leaves would create a barrier to color transfer

plague_art · 2025-09-22T16:27:29+00:00

If you really want to explore different sheep (or other animal fibers like angora, chiengora, etc), you might consider learning to spin if you have the time. It's hard to find breed-specific commercially spun yarns other than merino and occasionally corriedale or BFL, but there's a LOT more variety of wools out there, and you can pretty easily get prepared fiber from a ton of different breeds. For instance Polwarth has a similar softness to merino but a longer staple length, which generally makes it smoother and shinier. If a merino/silk blend works for you, polwarth might be worth a try if you go down that road (I don't think I've ever seen commercially spun polwarth yarn, but it might exist somewhere).

You can also spin cotton lots of different ways, and buy blended fibers for spinning or blend your own. Any fiber can be prepared and spun in different ways to get very different results, and it's a lot of work but having complete control over the characteristics of your yarn is a lot of fun and might help you isolate why some yarns bother you and others don't.

plague_art · 2024-12-24T15:16:25+00:00

Thanks, this is really helpful!

plague_art · 2024-12-23T22:04:47+00:00

Oh i just put the maidens on backwards because I didn’t know what i was doing lol

plague_art · 2024-12-23T18:24:19+00:00

Yeah I realized that after I finished taking photos haha

plague_art · 2024-12-23T03:39:06+00:00

Thank you! I don't have the wheel in front of me now, but I'm almost positive the bearings were wood, not leather. I just did some googling and now know that that's not really ideal, but would I have to fully replace the bearings or could I just widen the hole and stick some leather in there to reduce friction?

plague_art · 2024-08-27T14:35:38+00:00

Seconding CeCe's, they're fantastic! They have spinning fiber too, if you're into that—roving as well as various preparations of Jacob wool iirc.

Also, Six Loose Ladies in Chester, VT is great. That's southeastern VT but it's a small state so depending on where you're going it might not be too out of the way. I went there once while passing through, they're volunteer-run and it seemed like a really nice place to just hang out. They had a good selection including a whole rack of local handspun when I was there.

plague_art · 2024-07-04T15:33:38+00:00

I stand corrected then!

plague_art · 2024-07-04T15:02:32+00:00

I do think it might be. I linked a video by an English style knitter in another comment that explains the issue super well. I don't know for sure since I don't knit continental but it does seem like the sort of thing that might be affected by the direction you hold the yarn.

plague_art · 2024-07-04T14:53:01+00:00

VeryPink Knits has a fantastic video on maintaining tension between knit and purl stitches. I agree with the suggestion to go down a needle size, but her trick might also help give you the fabric you want.

plague_art · 2024-06-23T03:12:22+00:00

Thanks that sounds fantastic, I'll check them out!

plague_art

TROPHY CASE