How The West Was Spun

Spinning Friday: Upstream Merino Yarn

This week, I started on my randomly-generated spin list.  First up was 3.8 ounces of merino roving hand-dyed by Freckle-Faced Fibers. The original roving looked like:

I divided the roving in half across the fiber grain, and then split each of those halves into random, lengthwise strips. I spun my singles using a draft-against-the twist method, which I find works best for me, along with a snappy draw-in, for bouncy fibers like this merino.  It was impeccably prepared - no neps, no felting.  Really beautiful and easy to spin.

I spun a 2-ply sportweight (1564 ypp), which gave me a 3.6-ounce skein of 352 yards.

 
 
I was pleasantly surprised how well all the colors blended together in this, even tho there is a fairly high contrast between the blue and the brown. 

 

I'm thinking perhaps a hat and a pair of mitts from this - something simple in terms of knit pattern since the yarn is pretty striking on its own.

Next up will be the Funky Carolina "Stone Castles" BFL.

All for now....
 

Spinning Friday: Kandinsky Batts

Thanks to our snowstorm last weekend, I had some quality time with the spinning wheels.  I finished up the Kandinsky batts from Lori's Oceanwind Knits' Fibre Club.

The original batts looked like:

I spun this up as a 2-ply, attempting to keep the color blocks pretty distinct, and I think I mostly succeeded.  The batts were a blend of dyed Corriedale and merino wool, and silk.

I wound up with a total of 256 yards/3 ounces of fingering-weight yarn (approximately 15 wpi).  I varied my spinning technique while spinning, as the russet color and the green were Corriedale, which needed more of a worsted-type control, whereas the blended section in the middle, I could spin more with a backward draft style.  There were a few sections that had a bit more silk in them than others which I had to stop and open up a bit, as they wanted to try to draft in clumps, but this was handled pretty easily.  I spun the batts (and there were 2 equal ones in the club package) from russet to green.  I stripped the batts each into 5 more or less even pieces, so as to be sure to keep the beginning and ending colors distinct.  The middle sections blend more, but that's sort of to be expected, as the fibers/colors in this section were more blended to begin with.

 

The colors, I think, are truest in this last picture, and give you a sense of the progression of the colors throughout.  I thought this might be pretty as a leaf-patterened lace scarf, sort of a spring to fall thing, although having just finished my other scarf, I think this will need to marinate a while, as I'm not quite ready to deal with slogging through another scarf at this point.

All for now....

Spinning Friday: Kung Fu! Sock Yarn

I actually finished up the Kung Fu! yarn this week.  Woot!

You'll maybe remember, the original batts looked like this:

I divided the fiber into 3 mostly even sections by weight, using my postal scale, and prepped the batts by grasping the fibers and attenuating them out into roving-sized strips.  Once I had done that, the spinning itself was pretty easy, as the fiber was nicely prepared.

I spun this using a worsted technique and put in a fairly tight twist for the singles, with a little less for the plied yarn, in the hopes it will wear nicely as socks.

 

I wound up with 350 yards of 3-ply, weighing 3.5 ounces, with approximately 15 wpi.

 

I'm thinking a pair of nice, basic socks from this yarn.  Not too much patterning to compete with the pretty colors, but I am very pleased with how all the colors blend into a heathery yarn in this finished spinning, and I it was a lot of fun to spin as well!

All for now.....

Spinning Friday: Grey Room

The other thing I did during my stay-vacation was treat myself to a new spinning project.  I dug through the stash, in a merino sort of mood, and pulled out 4 ounces of merino top from the Funky Carolina Fiber Club, November 2008.  Yah - I know.  That's a whole year ago.  About time it was spun up, doncha think?

The colorway is "Grey Room" and has soft purples and chocolate browns and dove grays in it.  Here's the original roving braid:

Here's my first bobbin of singles:

And my finished, 2-ply yarn:

I spun this semi-worsted.  I had to put a fair amount of twist into the singles, because the fiber has a LOT of crimp in it, but it is so soft, it didn't affect the finished yarn in terms of being coarse or harsh-feeling.  Out of the 3.8 ounces I plied, I got 350 yards at approximately 14-15 wpi, which is a nice sportweight.  I think I'll probably work up a neck cowl out of this, and maybe some fingerless mitts if I have enough yardage.

This is possibly one of my favoristist colorways ever!

 
 All for now......
 

Spinning Friday: Spirit Takes Flight

Nothing like a few days off recuperating to get some fiber projects tackled, eh?

I started and finished the Coopworth that Lori had sent for last month's OceanWind Knits Fibre Club offering.  Remember the roving from last week?

The colorway this time was quite muted, as it was overdyed on a natural brown-colored wool, but still quite complex.  I decided to tackle this project trying to stick to more of a woolen style of spinning.  It's been quite a few years since I had last spun Coopworth, and it's a medium fiber, similar in a lot of ways to Romney, although more bouncy and less sleek-looking (although I've also found both Romney and Coopworth fiber that completely blur the lines of what I think of these two fibers in my brain database).  I knew I was going to use this for something fairly hard-wearing and not necessarily next-to-skin.

I divided the roving in half, and then fluffed and opened up the roving, which was a little bit compacted, and then put a low twist and a lot of air into my singles.

I then plied the singles together in a 2-ply, adding a little more twist than I had to the singles, and came up with a 2-ply worsted weight at about 11-12 wpi.  The total yardage was 134 yards.

 

I like how all the earthy tones combine in this yarn!  I didn't worry too much about a perfectly spun yarn, as I was sort of going for a "rustic" homespun look, which I think will be perfect for these elven mittens (Robin Melanson's Aethelwyne) for the winter. 

 I may knit these a little large and felt them down for extra warmth and durability. I'll add it to the to-knit list!

All for now......

Spinning Friday: October 16, 2009

Alas, while busy working on my knitting projects this week, I've had no real time to spin.  Luckily, my September kit from the Oceanwind Knits Fibre Club arrived this week, so I've got that to show you!

Continuing on with the artist theme, Lori chose American artist Bev Doolittle for this month's club offering.  The work (and the roving) is named The Spirit Takes Flight.  Can you see the hidden face within the painting?

I think this is my favorite colorway Lori's sent out so far this year.  It's 4 ounces of NZ Coopworth, which is a natural brown color, and which helps create the muted colorway you see.

I'm betting this will be a fun one to spin too!

All for now.... 

Stash Rehousing Project

I am doing a small destash via my Stash Page on Ravelry right now. Mostly sock yarns, but a few other weights of yarn as well. 

I'm also selling one of my two electric skeiners.  If you have any interest in that, shoot me a quick email and I will be happy to set you up with a good deal on that. 

Spinning Friday coming up!

All for now...

Spinning Friday: Waterlilies Yarn

I finished up the second 2 ounces of roving that made up the Waterlilies roving from my Oceanwind Knits club kit for August.  You saw the first half of it last week, the pretty yellow and orange and salmon superwash merino that I spun up as a 2-ply fingering weight.

This week, I got the Seacell/superwash merino blend in the cool blues and greens, with hints of pink and periwinkle on the wheel, and spun the singles, and then plied those also into a 2-ply fingering weight yarn.

Yarn Specs:
A total of 4 ounces of superwash merino wool (the warm colors) and Seacell/superwash merino wool (the cool colors), 2 ounces of each, spun using a supported backward draft technique into a 2-ply fingering weight yarn.  Approximately 15-16 wpi.  I got 192 yards of the first 2 ounces (the warm colors), and 178 yards of the second 2 ounces (the cool colors - and I lost a little bit of the singles due to a weird wheel thing where I had twist going in both Z and S for a while, and which I just pulled off and threw out, rather than trying to salvage).

I'm still leaning towards using this for the Joni hat that calls for 2 colors of fingering weight yarn, as I think the slip-stitch pattern will blend these colors nicely together.  I plan to use the blue for the main colorway, which will also be the section of "plain" color near my face, as yellows and I aren't really good friends with the blonde hair thing I've got going.

This was actually a really easy spin, once I just sat down and did it.  The preparation, as usual with Lori's fibers, was excellent, and the colorways are beautiful.  I didn't think I'd necessarily like the one with the yellows in it (but that's the beauty of clubs - you get to expand your horizons with things you wouldn't normally pick), but I'm actually quite fond of the colors in it.

Next week, I'm moving on to sock batts.

All for now....

Spinning Friday: Waterlilies

This past week, having finished up the sock yarn, I decided to get the pretty, 2-colored, August fiber club offering from Oceanwind Knits on the wheel.  Y'all may remember (or not) that this month's theme was the beautiful waterlily paintings by French Impressionist painter, Claude Monet.

I decided to tackle the 2-ounce braid of warm colors on the superwash merino first.  I had decided I would really like these two colors blended in the Joni hat, designed by Kirsten Kapur. (I should also add that Kirsten is having a bundle sale through Ravelry on her hats (2 different bundles) and hand-wear (also 2 different bundles), if you decide you want to purchase several of her patterns.)  Knowing that I wanted a fingering-weight/sockweight yarn, I thinned down my normal heavy fingering/sportweight go-to yarn weight a bit for the singles, and wound up with 192 yards from the first 2 ounces.  This is a 2-ply, which I spun using a supported backward draft.

I am currently working on the cooler blue SW merino/Seacell roving, but I'm hoping to have that finished up over the weekend at the same grist, using the same spinning techniques at the warmer SW merino 2-ply as above.

After that, I've got a 4-ounce batch of SW merino and SW BFL blended batts in a sock blend on deck in the "Kung Fu!" colorway from the Funky Carolina shop.

Spinning Friday: Days of Wine and Roses Sock Yarn

First off, this has been a bear of a week at work.  After a quietish summer, we have now been slammed and this has seriously cut into the knitting/spinning time around here, hence my lack of posts.  However, I DO have some finished yarn to show y'all today!

Since last Friday, I put in some concerted effort on getting the SW merino/nylon roving from Zen Yarn Garden spun up and I finished all the singles for this yarn.  Here they are, divided up, from right to left, with the roving I spun without splitting, the roving I split into quarters, and the roving I split into twelfths.

I then plied these onto each other, for a 3-ply yarn.  I put a fair amount of twist into the singles and spun them worsted, smoothing the yarn as I went, and then also put in an equally generous amount of twist into the singles for a hard, smooth, tightly spun yarn that hopefully will hold up really nicely for socks.

Yarn Specs:

Original Roving:  From Zen Yarn Garden, 75% superwash merin and 25% nylon, hand-painted roving.
Colorway:  Originally #103001, but I renamed it Days of Wine and Roses.  Lots of really pretty burgundies, russets, and burnt-red colors throughout.
Spin Technique:  Short draw and worsted, 3-ply.
Weight/Yardage:  4.8 ounces of finished yarn, yielding 450 yards.

I have to come clean and say this didn't turn out like I expected.  I'm not unhappy with it, by any means, but wow - the colors surprised me. 

I am hopeful, however, the Mim will be happy with it.  This one is headed off to her in SLC as a possible handspun candidate for a project in her upcoming book.  (Do be sure to pop over to her blog to read about the details if you haven't already!)  Looking forward to seeing this one knit up.

Next up on deck, my Waterlilies roving from Lori at Oceanwind Knits - this month's club installment will be here before I know it, and I'd like to at least get started on spinning August's.

All for now....