I like the idea, but I cannot do it.
When I spin in public, I slow down and my grist goes all over the place. At Lambtown, I spun for HOURS and produced a grand total of 350 yards of single, some of which was thin and some of which was fat, and all of which was poor quality. Intended grist for the day was ~9,000 ypp, actual average grist was less than 5,400. OK, there was poor light where I was sitting and other factors, but a week later in a spinning group, with the same intended grist, my actual grist was less than 8,000 ypp.
My hat is off to the folks that can spin their intended grist in public. I have given up trying to spin project quality singles in public. In the future, I will take some of that Blue Romney that I have, and not worry about what I am actually spinning.
When I spin in public, I slow down and my grist goes all over the place. At Lambtown, I spun for HOURS and produced a grand total of 350 yards of single, some of which was thin and some of which was fat, and all of which was poor quality. Intended grist for the day was ~9,000 ypp, actual average grist was less than 5,400. OK, there was poor light where I was sitting and other factors, but a week later in a spinning group, with the same intended grist, my actual grist was less than 8,000 ypp.
My hat is off to the folks that can spin their intended grist in public. I have given up trying to spin project quality singles in public. In the future, I will take some of that Blue Romney that I have, and not worry about what I am actually spinning.
You're not alone. Spinning has been used in literature as an indicator of emotion - total icy calm was indicated as "spinning an even thread." This leads me to wonder: Can you knit to your preferred gauges in public?
ReplyDeleteI never spin the good stuff in public. I talk a lot, and I perform, over and over, the incredible magic yarn-healing trick, to the amazed gasps of non-spinner onlookers.
ReplyDeleteI break the yarn, or allow it to drift apart. I put on my very sad face, pronounce that there is no way to fix this, to the consolation of the bystanders, then put it all right in seconds, and no one can make out where the thread parted. This works over and over and over.
Then, most of the non-spinners move on in search of ANYTHING by spinning, and the one soul left who wants to touch the yarn, and has a hundred more questions, can get what they need.
Well, there's nothing you want to do with that yarn on the bobbin, so I reel off a couple yards, and by hand, ply it back on itself, and hand it to the needy one.
I have no problem knitting to gauge in public. However, there may be a "practice effect" here because the very first sock I knit in public was too big for Paul Bunyan.
ReplyDelete"How do you join on the next bit of wool?", was also the most common question that I got at Lambtown.
I think you are correct about "ply- back and give away" being the right thing to do with yarn spun at a public demo.