As promised, here are the spun-up batts.
These were a mix of various wools - some natural and some dyed. I find that blends that have a bunch of different types of wool and staple lengths do best spun as woolen-y as you can, i.e. leaving a lot of air in them and not worrying too much about slubs or trying for a smooth, worsted style yarn. (If you guessed this goes against my natural inclination for things, you'd be right!).
I had 3.5 oz of the batts, which I spun all onto one large bobbin, then wound off into a center pull ball and plyed back from that to make a 2-ply yarn.
I wound up with 145 yards of a heavy worsted/Aran weight yarn, which I think would be perfect for mittens. It's not super soft, but not super scratchy - sort of somewhere in the middle and I think would be a nicely wearing yarn with a lot of warmth.
All for now...
The yarn just exudes warm and cozy! Perfect, perfect for mittens.
Posted by: margene | January 20, 2012 at 06:28 AM
Those stats sound perfect for mittens!
Posted by: Kristi aka FiberFool | January 20, 2012 at 09:19 AM
They don't look ANYTHING like what I imagined after seeing those fluffy batts.
Posted by: Marji | January 20, 2012 at 11:33 AM
I'm on a mitten kick right now, so of course I think that your plan is a fabulous one!
Posted by: Kristin | January 23, 2012 at 12:35 PM
This would be perfect for mittens!!!
Posted by: Christina | January 24, 2012 at 08:47 AM
Great idea of such a cushy looking yarn. I know how hard it is to just let the glumpy parts go.....
Posted by: Laurie | January 28, 2012 at 04:32 PM