New book arrived!

(I really want her "Linen: Handspinning and Weaving", but it’s out of print.)  This one, though, is a great little book, packed with terrific information.  I’ve already used it to clarify a question I had from "Women’s Work."

What is this Egyptian ‘splicing flax fibers end-to-end’ business, as a pre-drafting technique?

Baines touches on it just long enough for me to give it a try.  What you do is pull a few fibers with damp fingers, and twist them every few inches.  Then you roll that ribbon into a ball.  (My first attempt I coiled on a TP core, but that tangles horribly in the next step.  A ball, please.)  I put the ball in a pot of water, and spun that clockwise with a supported 1 oz. homemade spindle. 

I got a much finer thread than I’d previously managed by just drafting and wetspinning, though I haven’t practiced enough to give the European method a fair chance.  Just for grins, I plied the finished thread back on itself, and compared it to a commercial samplecard Tori gave me, and it’s right between the two finest threads they sell (the 16/2 and the 40/2 – what do these numbers MEAN?).  Their stuff is much softer – but I think that’s just a matter of time re: my threads.

I posted my achievements on the Yahoo! group Spindlers, asking for suggestions, and didn’t get much useful advice other than to not be scared of my wheel, since using it allows thread processing with two hands.  I wonder if these people use a distaff, per Anna Liese’s wonderful instructions.  I’m going to bring both wheel and distaff to RUM this weekend and see if anyone jumps at me.