Lock spinning to make a boucle style single (unplied) yarn is one of my favourite novelty yarns to spin.
It's fast to spin. It is pretty. It is SOFT!
What's more, you don't need fancy equipment to prepare the fibre. We can do a little plug for my etsy shop where you can buy some lovely Cotswold locks and just start spinning on a wheel or spindle.
Most importantly, this is a great yarn to spin to learn more about making good joins. An essential skill that can transfer to all other yarn making. IF YOU SUCK AT JOINS, SPIN THIS YARN! To be textured, strong, and yet unplied, is more of a challenge than it looks.
To test the joins, put your bobbin on one side of the room and winder your skeins (niddy noddy, skeiner, yarn blocker, whatever) on the other side of the room so that there are at least 5 yards between - 10 is better. The further the distance, the better the test for strength and a better idea of how the yarn will hold up in use (this is true for all handspun yarns).
This is the very first serious video I made for my youtube channel. I made it on the software Windows Movie Maker. This software is a lot like a 50-year-old Dorthy Loom. You can do some amazing weaving on it, but it has so many ... um... what's a kind word? Limitations? It has so many limitations and takes so much effort just to do a simple shed change (cut and paste), that if someone wants to keep weaving/making videos after their first project, then you know they are going to do well in the craft.
At least that's what I hope.
Windows Movie Maker was a good stepping stone, but looking back on this video, there is so much wrong with it. So much I would do differently! Even just taking the same footage and re-editing it, I could do better.
And yet, when I look at the youtube metrics, it's not doing too poorly. It is doing a darn sight better than some of my more recent videos edited with better software and more understanding of the "right" way to make a video. Just shows that doing things 'right' doesn't always get the best results.
We're back to equipment - and not needing fancy stuff.
This yarn avoids a lot of the difficult steps of preparing the fibre with hand cards, flick carder, drum carder, or combs. It just jumps right in and teaches us how to perfect the most difficult part of spinning - joins.
Same with videos - I wish I had started making these 10 years ago. I knew I wanted to, but I wasted so much of my life waiting for the right... whatever. Imagining perfection came from reading/watching, rather than just doing the thing. Maybe that's why the video did (and is still doing) so well? Because I took a chance and made a thing?
If you like this sort of thing and want to see more of it, here are some things you can do to support me on my creative journey.
- go to youtube and give me a thumbs up! Or even a subscribe! That would be awesome
- or pop over to my Etsy shop and support me that way.
2 comments:
Spinning and video making are an interesting comparison. But both are creative processes, have a learning curve, and are rewarding. Well, I don't know that from experience about video making, but it is with spinning.
I would never have guessed you see things in this video you would do differently now. It looks good to me and well done. I'm sure different software makes a difference, but starting with something basic is probably less frustrating.
Oh, spinning from locks is something I'll have to try one day! I imagine it'll take me quite a bit of practice for it to become as smooth and effortless as your video makes it seem, but it sure looks like fun!
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