spinning wheel and drum carder
8 February 2008 by colouritgreen
yes, new toys.
The recognised way to learn to spin is to join a group.. usually a guild even, and be shown by experienced spinners how to prepare the fleece and go on to spin, to have a go at different wheels, and then eventually make your choice.
So we did the obvious thing, did not join a guild but did a little research, homed in on Ashford , a company with a good reputation, and bought their cheapest wheel, which is the ‘Kiwi’, which is apparently good to learn on. Well… we shall see…
We also bought a drum carder. We had a go on one of these when we went on the ‘deal with your fleece’ course, and we preferred it to the hand carders. It’s still hand powered.
We found that so much about spinning seems to be down to opinion. A neighbour prefers to spin before cleaning the fleece, whereas the instructions that come with the wheel requests clean wool! - at a demonstration we saw, there was a minor disagreement over whether some carded wool was suitable for spinning or not.. and so on. We just thought we would start by having a go.. then we can search for help!
Hey! We meet again!
I recently bought the Ashford Joy as I am a newbie to the spinning world. There are a few spinners in my area, but I have yet to get them all together in one room with their wheels. I envy your drum carder! Though I don’t know if I’m adventerous enough to card my own fibers yet. 
ye..es… it might be easier to learn on fibres carded properly… rather than on our own attempts! but then again - we have the wool.. the sheep.. bless em, are growing more…
and besides… what could possibly go wrong
How have you learnt then? trial and error? via books? or do you have a handy teacher nearby?
I hate to admit it, but once we have sheared our ewes, we’re going to be lazy and join the ‘Southdown’ wool share scheme through a company called Woolcount in Brecon.
More power to you for doing it properly yourself - good luck and let us know how the spinning goes.
well yes that is plan B - our local place is the Natural Fibre company, but we don’t hit the minimum weight for fleece in one year, so would either have to save a couple of year’s fleeces, or share with others. We may yet do that. I know there is a share scheme.. I don’t know if there is the chance to share with other Devon closewool owners though.
But we are enjoying our adventure in dyeing, carding and spinning the wool… the results are… erm ‘interesting’ so far…