One of my goals for the Tour de Fleece was to attempt new things. I recently purchased Spin Control and The Intentional Spinner and I must say, these were the books that have been missing from my spinning library. Everything I’ve had has been either too basic or too complex. (Alden Amos? Love him, but that stuff is complicated. Have you seen that math in that book?!?)
Between Amy’s excellent information on making your wheel work for you and Judith’s brilliant explanation of woolen vs. worsted (she has flow charts!!) I finally figured out how to spin woolen style. For you non spinners it means you are drafting (pulling) the fibers as they are being spun. Much trickier than worsted spinning, in which you don’t let any twist into the drafting zone. But woolen results in a nice, fluffy yarn with air trapped in the core. Both authors explain this stuff in a very understandable manner. Add to that this You Tube video I found….
…and suddenly I’ve got it!
Here are the singles. The singles look terrible:
But once I plied it there was a huge improvement:
Apparently the trick with woolen is to underspin, overply. Sadly I do not have a picture of the finished yarn, because once I gave it a good soak it looks even better. Nice and fluffy and fairly even despite that once thick hunk you see.
Not bad for my first attempt and now that I have it figured out I’ve got lots of experimenting to do!
Knittymama 
That is so interesting! I keep telling myself that I’ll learn to spin once the kids are older–but you defy my excuses! You make it look so tempting. I’m definitely going to learn to spin one day soon!
Go go go!
Yay! It looks great. I think I’ve finally figure out woolen spinning, too, just wish I had more time to practice.