Tour de Fleece day 8; very thin experiments

One of my long-term spinning aims has been to spin a very large quantity of very fine, cobweb weight yarn. I've read / watched a couple of different articles describing how changing the break-band on your wheel can affect the tension or take-up of your wheel. A thinner break-band means less surface friction with the bobbin, so less tension trying to pull yarn on to the bobbin & out of your hand, which is a good thing for very fine yarns.

First attempt; some sewing thread, attached by a hair elastic. This snapped straight away.

Second attempt; mercerised crochet cotton, using the wheel's original spring. This worked! And it definitely changed the take-up of my wheel, giving me more time to draft very fine fibres.
I spun some lovely soft baby alpaca fibre, from World of Wool; I decided to try spinning from the fold with this fibre....
... and it seemed to work! I made about 25 metres of 2-ply yarn.
My spinning is not entirely consistent, nor as fine as I was hoping.

The alpaca feels very different from anything I've spun before; it does not 'spring' quite like wool, but drapes with a slight fuzz.

I don't think it's entirely suitable for the intended project, but I will certainly enjoy spinning more in the not-too-distant future.

I had hoped to actually go out on my bicycle today & bring the spindles to the park but discovered I had a puncture & no kit to fix it. Poor bike will have to stay sad & lonely for another couple of days.