# Some more spinning...



## cat_woman (Sep 21, 2014)

Some more of the jumbo yarn I respun to a light fingering/lace weight. I forgot to flip the switch back to Z twist on my Nano so this is spun S twist for the singles and plied Z twist. I was half way into the first bobbin when I realized the twist setting. So, I decided to practice my chain plying with this batch. I basically had to do a "park and draft" technique to chain ply. I couldn't get it to chain without pulling yarn off the bobbin and over twisting the already plied stuff on the bobbin. I'll have quite a bit of practice since I have another 5 bobbins to ply.

I guess in the end the mistake was a good thing since this yarn is a 3 ply and still about the same weight as my previous batch. Need more practice to spin more consistent singles, but overall I like the finished yarn. This was one Nano bobbin's worth. Came to about 175m on two small skeins. Still needs to be soaked.


----------



## crivitz (Apr 12, 2015)

Very nice. That is quite an undertaking. This "backward" way of spinning is perfect for yarn for crocheting which twists the yarn as you go the opposite way than knitting does.


----------



## Maureen Therese (Dec 31, 2014)

Nice yarn. Which of the Nano's do you have? I decided not to buy into the newest model, but was wondering if it was worth buying one of the older models.


----------



## cat_woman (Sep 21, 2014)

Maureen Therese said:


> Nice yarn. Which of the Nano's do you have? I decided not to buy into the newest model, but was wondering if it was worth buying one of the older models.


I have the Nano 1.0. Bought it during the kickstarter for it. Overall I'm happy with it. Had a bit of falling out with it and the love affair was interrupted, but we're back on track now. Had some issues with take up and couldn't spin anything more than half a bobbin and it wouldn't take in the single. Took off all my noise dampening felt washers I had put where the bearings ride - that was sucking too much out of the little thing, so now it clacks and clatters, but at least I can spin and ply with it now. Its not all that noisy, I just really liked having it whisper quiet so I could spin while my husband napped on the couch and I could watch/listen to tv. I still can, but it may disturb his highness as he watches tv through his eyelids. :sm16: :sm09: I mostly have been spinning thin yarns with it, so will have to try some heavier weight yarn again. It did bog down a bit with the heavier yarn as the bobbin was close to full. If you don't spin all that often and can find a used one relatively cheap (if someone is selling their 1.0 or even the upgraded motor 1.1 when they get their new 6.0), I would buy it, especially if you have another wheel you can ply on. I find the little bobbins don't hold much for finished yarn, so usually I've been plying on another wheel. I like to have a larger continuous ball of yarn and don't like piecing together a bunch of smaller skeins.


----------



## Maureen Therese (Dec 31, 2014)

Thanks Cat woman. I have looked at these for a while. I watched a girl doing some beautiful spinning on one at a craft fair. I'm not sure if hers was the original, or one of the later models. The new one seems very large in comparison and the price has shot up too. I will go back on line and check out some of the previous models. Thanks again.


----------



## AKRaven (Mar 2, 2013)

I bought the original with the kick starter. It had been sitting on the shelf for close to a year due to frustration. I did all the hacks to help her perform better, and they did. However, I think I got a lemon motor, because it would overheat severely after about five minutes spinning, so I would have to stop and wait for it to cool down. I only recently ordered the new, slightly larger, motor because I was able to order one for each of five of us here in town who have Nanos… otherwise postage would’ve been as much as the motor and I found that annoying. Anyway, all who have the Nano wanted the larger motor, but nobody else had the overheating issue that I had.

I still find the tension fiddly, the bobbins small (I ordered several), the power rather limited, and the overall spinning just satisfactory. All five of us prefer our other spinning wheel options...but it is probably not fair to compare. It is tiny and very portable. I am thinking about getting a battery pack so I can take the Nano camping as it is just about the right size for that!


----------



## Maureen Therese (Dec 31, 2014)

AKRaven said:


> I bought the original with the kick starter. It had been sitting on the shelf for close to a year due to frustration.
> 
> I have noticed that the motor sizes have been increased as they went along. Thank you for telling me of your experience. As I am in Australia, postage is certainly a big 'added extra' onto the original product price.


----------



## AKRaven (Mar 2, 2013)

Maureen Therese said:


> AKRaven said:
> 
> 
> > I bought the original with the kick starter. It had been sitting on the shelf for close to a year due to frustration.
> ...


----------



## cat_woman (Sep 21, 2014)

If you know someone who knows anything about electronics, you can get another motor off Amazon very easily and without the outrageous shipping cost that Dreaming Robots is charging. It needs either a motor with more torque so it doesn't lose power under load, or can spin faster so you can increase the speed as it slows down as the bobbin fills. I was looking into it when I was having issues with mine, but I'm going to wait until my motor gives up the ghost.


----------



## cat_woman (Sep 21, 2014)

This is the finished yarn. It's been soaked, dyed, and wound into a cake. It ended up at 642m of fingering weight from the one 200g ball of super chunky roving yarn.










Since it's 90% acrylic, I used some leftover Rit Dyemore dyes to dye it. I'm not sure what I'll do with it yet, but it will probably end up as a shawl and some light gloves for driving.

If anyone is interested in trying out this particular roving, this is what the package looks like. It's from Dollarama. I'm not sure if it is available everywhere, but I have seen it almost every Dollarama I've been to in Calgary and Airdrie.


----------



## raedean (Apr 25, 2011)

lovely spinning cat_woman!! very very nice.


----------

