Best and worst purchase?

natalie · Best and worst purchase?

What has been the best thing you have bought, in a fibrey sense, and what do you wish you hadn't bothered with.

For me, the best thing I have bought would probably be my drop spindle, a simple Ashford one, because it got me started on all of this, but it's a close run thing between that and the three sachets of acid dye I got last week which are taking me in a direction I never thought I'd go in.

Worst purchase. 100g of merino, in cream, rust, green and grey. (There's a picture of it on my blog). I haven't enjoyed spinning it and the colours are sludgey and I have probably 40g left and absolutely no enthusiasm for using it for anything. In fact if anyone wants to swap it for something they are more than welcome. More dye, perhaps?

natalie

spinningsue

The best thing I've bought is my Ashford Traveller. I love it and now I can produce yarn in useable quantities much more quickly.

The worst is probably the wool/viscose mix tops from Texere http://www.texere.co.uk/ not that there's anything wrong with it but I definitely don't like spinning it. I'll have a bash with the stuff I haven't dyed yet to see if I like it better but I think it will probably sit in the fibre stash for quite a while!

fibrespace

The best thing I have bought is a drum carder, I had been after one for ages but the price put me off. Then i found a company from the netherlands who sells them on ebay a lot cheaper than UK companies. I am a felter and think the carder has made a huge difference to my work as it creates a more subtle blend of colours.

my worst buy has to be the hand carders i tried to make do with before i took the plunge and invested in a drum carder. Maybe my technique was wrong but they were hard work!

Beth

hellomango

My best buy was an Ashford Niddy Noddy from Ebay. It was only a few pounds and so much better than my homemade effort that kept breaking!

My worst buy was hand carders as I just couldn't get to grips with them at all. I really want a drum carder but cannot afford one at the moment.

sally

I'm struggling to think what I've actually bought, being a great believer in barter/making things and being lucky enough toi have been given my wheel as a present.

I bought something like 20 kilos of Alpaca for next to nothing from a friend in the fairtrade trade a while back, came direct from the producers in Peru so they got a decent price and I got a bargain. Beautiful colours, havent had a chance to do much with it yet but its in my stash waiting for me to magically find some spinning time.

Worst purchase? Probably a giant knitting nancy that I intended to loom socks on. Just never got the hang of it and much prefer hand knitting,though when I get time to practice on my csm there will be no stopping me Very Happy

Spinning Fishwife

One of the best buys I ever made were five sets of metal 7" dpns, 2.00mm-3.5mm range, still new in the packets from a charity shop. 25p each. I only recently took up sock knitting and I find I loathe tiny 5" toothpick bamboo dpns, bamboo dpns, any soert of wood dpns, short dpns.....basically any dpns but the charity shop ones. They have a slightly rough finish, like raw silk, and that`s just enough to hold the stitches.

But the No1 top buy has to be the second hand Louet
I bought off Ebay when I first started to learn to spin. Still my favourite wheel.

Worst buy? Either the second hand roller loom I bought before I discovered I hated weaving, or a kilo of unwashed BFL which was so full of lanolin that even boiling it in almost neat washing up liquid couldn`t clean it. It made great compost, though.