Spinning Friday: Stone Castles BFL Laceweight

I plunked myself down this week and finished up the singles for the BFL roving in the Stone Castles colorway I've been working on:

 

Then, I got going on the plying.  I plied and plied and plied... oh wait.. yup.. plied some more.  And finally have a finished yarn to show for it.

Yarn Specs:
Fiber:  Blue-faced leicester roving from Carrie/Funky Carolina's shop.  This was one of the Inspirations club colorways Carrie did for me.  I send her a gorgeous photo of Castle Wicklow on the coast of Ireland, and she came up with this, the "Stone Castles" colorway.  As with all the fibers I've spun from her shop, super nice, well prepared, and of course, gorgeous colorway.
Yarn:  I spun this using a mostly worsted method, as the long-stapled BFL does well with that.  This gave me a very smooth, shiny and sleek 2-ply yarn.  Final yardage was 855 yards (out of just those 2 bobbins of singles you see above) with 5.6 ounces, and 19 wpi, settling it in a nice laceweight weight.
Notes:  I didn't really "prep" this fiber, per se.  For the first bobbin, I divided the roving into half first, and then that half into 8 lengthwise strips.  For the second bobbin, I took the second half of the roving and divided that into 12 lengthwise strips.  No real rhyme or reason, but the colors are so subtle and muted, there isn't really striping that you can see in the yarn.  I spun the singles with a fairly brisk twist, but then plied them more loosely, as I wanted to extend out my yardage as much as possible.

As far as my plans for this yarn, definitely something shawl-ish.  I really needed closer to 1000 yards to knit the pattern I had in mind for this (although I'm checking with the designer to see if I can squeak by with the 855), but I also have a backup in mind that I know will be fine, yardage-wise.

Next week, my plan is to get the second ounce of that pretty pink superfine merino spun up.  And replace the now very tired drive-band on my wheel.

All for now....
 

Comments

[Judy]

Can't wait to see what you do with that. Really beautiful and subtle color.

[Christina]

Wow. The color is earthy without being bright. Warm without browns. And just flat perfect! I can't believe the yardage you got out of it!

[Marcia]

Very beautiful! I do see some Irish castles from our trip years ago! I must drag a wheel out and plunge into these piles of roving one of these days soon. For the past two years I've been buying no less than 2-3 pounds of fiber (or getting whole fleeces processed, ditto), so you can imagine the mountain I have to spin up!

[Katie]

That is gorgeous yarn you've made. I look forward to seeing which shawl you pick.

[Toby]

I bet it's even prettier in person, isn't it? It looks like it has lots of subtle undertones. Looking forward to seeing what you knit with it.

[Kristin]

That's a lovely - squishy looking yarn. Makes me wish I could give it a little squeaze!

The story about the colorway is charming. What a great treat!

[Yarndude]

Wow, that's a whole ton of spinning! It looks great and I love the colorway.

[Bea]

Wow, beautiful yarn. Lovely muted colours too. That was some serious spinning going on there ;-)

[DebbieB]

I can feel the SOFT from here. Lovely!

[Laurie]

That is pretty yummy. Shawl designer...Susan?