How The West Was Spun

Spinning Friday: 2IBH - BFL - Thunder and Lightning

This was a fun spin.  The base fiber is from Two If By Hand.  It's BFL, and dyed in the "Thunder and Lightning" colorway, but this is a gradient version of it (meaning instead of short bands of dye color application, the colors run in longer sections from one end of the braid to the other, with each color only used once).

The original roving looked like:

I decided I wanted to keep this as a singles yarn, to preserve the long color runs, but I also decided that when I get around to using it, I wanted to knit a small top-down shawl, probably semi-circular, or possible half-hexagonal.  Either way, the rows in that type of shawl construction start out short, and then get progressively longer as you reach the hem.  So..... I decided I would like the bands of striping to stay relatively equal as I knit down the shawl.

With that in mind, I split the roving lengthwise into the equivalent of 6 long pieces, and then spun 1/6, 2/6 and 3/6 (holding the 2 and 3 strips together, and matching up the color bands), so that the yarn would have varying lengths of color blocks from short to long.  I wound up with 508 yards of laceweight singles from the 4-oz braid.

I have no idea if this will actually knit up in the fashion I've envisioned, but either way, it'll be fun to see how the color progression works.

All for now....

Spinning Friday: 2IBH Shetland - Cuddlefish

This braid was the November 2011 2IBH club fiber offering.  The theme was "Visit the Aquarium", and the colorway is based on the cuttlefish cephaloid.

The braid is 100% Shetland wool.

I spun this up into a 2-ply light worsted weight yarn, with 254 yds/4 oz.  I'm thinking of using it for mittens or something like that, where it can be warm and wooly. 

I wasn't sure I would like the colorway - I'm generally not a yellow fan, but I like it spun up and plied.  I think it's more than the sum of the parts once the colors have the chance to get married and get to know each other a little.  Still probably not something I'd wear next to my face/hair, so I think warm mittens probably will be the way to go.

All for now.....

Spinning Friday: FatCatKnits - Polwarth - Dragonfly

Let's finish off this extremely depressing and insanely busy week with some handspun, shall we?

This pretty Polwarth wool from FatCatKnits in the "Dragonfly" colorway......

Became this 2-ply yarn (a heavy fingering to sportweight, 354 yards/4 oz):

Stay tuned for a handspun design from this maybe later this summer/early fall!

Here's hoping everyone has a very relaxing weekend!  I'm hoping for one here!!

All for now.....

Spinning Friday: FatCatKnits Polwarth - Dragonfly

I got motivated and popped that pretty "Dragonfly" colorway from Ginny at FatCatKnits onto the wheel this week.  I have just over half the singles spun up, but they are coming out really beautifully.

I think Polwarth is my new go-to favorite wool.  Not as bouncy as merino, easier to spin (IMHO), and softer than BFL.  It's a nice all-around kind of fiber.

I decided I'm going to do a colorwork-type project with this once it's spun up.  It's slated for a 2-ply yarn, and then I also ordered 2 semisolid colors from Ginny on the same wool base: Wasabi and Plum, which are colors found in the multicolored/handpaint colorway of "Dragonfly". 

There are 4 oz of each of those semisolids there as well.  Those will be up next once I get the Dragonfly finished up!

All for now...

Spinning Friday: 2IBH SW BFL - Arabica

I have some finished yarn to share!  I don't think I've posted anything about this yet, so here goes.

Photo courtesy of the 2IBH gals!

The fiber base is superwash BFL (4 oz).  I spun this up with a fairly tight twist since it's been earmarked for a pair of socks, and plied it fairly firmly as well too. The colorway, Arabica, is a nice neutral with dark chestnut, chocolate brown, steel gray and black.

I wound up with a 2-ply yarn approximately 310 yards/4 oz.  I think if I'm careful there will be enough for the simple pair of socks I want to make and I'll do them toe-up just to be sure. (I might also dye and spin up another ounce or so of a contrast color and do the toes and heels from that to extend the handpainted yarn a little further.

Next up - a braid of Polwarth in the "Dragonfly" colorway from FatCatKnits!

Spinning Friday: Alpaca/carbonized/bamboo/sparkle roving

I finished spinning and plying up a skein of gorgeous dark charcoal gray heavy laceweight this past week.

Fiber:  60/35/5 blended roving of superfine alpaca, carbonized bamboo and sparkle.  I had this custom blended and it'll be the featured fiber for the July Ennea spinning club offering (with pattern - which I'll spill the beans on when it's ready for release).
Specs: A 2-ply yarn, 470 yards/4 oz (heavy laceweight/light fingering).

I was super pleased with this blend.  Stone Hedge Mill generally does a great job, but this was beautifully blended, almost a pin-drafted roving, and it spun without any work at all on my part other than choosing how thick I wanted the singles.  I love the drape the bamboo adds and there is just the faintest hint of gray/black sparkle in it (not too flashy).

All for now....

Spinning Friday: 2IBH Shetland

It's been pretty quiet here on the spinning front recently - but here's a pretty little braid I spun up for a just-for-me treat over the last couple of weeks in spare bits and bobs of time.

The base fiber is Shetland from Two If By Hand.  The colorway is from their Harry Potter inspired line: Weasleypants.  It's a bright cheerful blend of pinks, khaki, light blues and a few shades in between.

I spun this up into a 2-ply yarn and wound up with about 350 yards of heavy fingering weight yarn.

A fun, quick spin!  All for now.....

Spinning Friday: Funky Carolina BFL Batts

I have had these finished up now for over a week, but better late than never.

The original batts were primarily BFL wool from Funky Carolina, with a tiny bit of sparkle blended in.  The base colors were dark roses, pinks, a little bit of gray-ish green and the dark pink sparkle.

I spun the batts up after lightly predrafting/attenuating out the fibers, but Carrie's batts are usually very nicely prepped, so there's not a lot of preparation needed to just get down to spinning them.

I plied this up into a 2-ply DK-weight yarn with 275 yards/4 oz.  No specific plans for it, but this finished up my batts extravaganza for January!

All for now....

Spinning Friday: Oceanwind Knits Batts

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...

Spinning Friday: A Two-Fer!

I have two new finished spins to share with y'all this week.

First up is a set of batts.  These were from Desert Garden Farm, and were part of a LOTR offering.  The colorway is "elf".  It's a blend of dark gray longwool (Lincoln??) plus a softer wool like merino, although probably more likely Polwarth (??) dyed light gray, with gold glitz.

I spun these up trying to keep them fairly woolen-y since I didn't want the longwool to get overspun and harsh.  I had 4 oz of batts, and wound up with a nice 2-ply worsted weight yarn with 202 yards in the skein.

Next up was the 50/50 merino/soy roving I showed you in last week's WIP post.  The original roving was from my shop fiber club in 2011, and the colorway was "Fathom".  I did some judicious pre-drafting of this, as the soy wasn't evenly distributed through the roving and I wanted it less clumped.  I then spun it from one end to the other, and came out the far end with 4 oz of singles (for the first of the 12 in 12 challenges) with 428 yards of fingering weight yarn.

My plan is to use this for the pretty ruffled scarf from the Jane Austen Knits 2011 magazine, which was also knit from a handspun singles.

All for now.....