Category Archives: spinning

Finished Spotted Circus

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My Spotted Circus spin is complete!

The larger skein is my 2-ply intended spin. I got 255 yards to 100 grams so I’m likely in the light worsted arena. I think this was 12 (ish) wraps per inch but I forgot to write it down. Based on the singles I was hoping for a finer yarn but it really plumped during washing. Probably should have suspected based on the alpaca and nylon content. This yarn came out barber poled/marled and its lovely

The smaller skein was the singles I had leftover chain plied back to them selves. This skein was 18 yards over 17 grams so a worsted/bulky. It’s finish is more self striping since the colors folded back in on themselves.

These are off to a nice nap in my handspun bin while I plan my next spinning project! Happy Friday!

Plying and Puppy

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The singles from my Spotted Circus singles are finished and thoughtfully rested several days. So I sat down a perfectly cold beer and Welcome to Wrexham and got to plying last night.

The puppy is now half grown and FULL teenager phase. Spinning requires tiring him out before hand and making sure lots of toys are on hand.

The finished bobbin is resting and I hope to find some time later tonight to wash and whack it. It is a fairly fine 2-ply and has a nice marl in places. There was some more singles left on one bobbin so I chain plied a little mini skein of a 3-ply. But its a wee baby of a skein. I haven’t done any measurements on the 2-ply so I am ballpark guessing at heavy DK?

I need to pick my next fiber to spin so I don’t lose steam! Happy Spinning!!

Spotted Circus Finished Bobbin

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I’m slowly getting back to my spinning. It’s not been as enticing as the knitting. I did manage to finish my first bobbin of singles for my Spotted Circus 2-ply.

These ended up spinning VERY fine and thin. So this could be very interesting when I ply together. This project I did design to be a 2-ply. All of that depends on me finishing the second bobbin of course.

For now, I am just going to delight in the pretty!! Happy Spinning!!

Spinning Sunshine

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The oppressive heat has finally broke for a brief minute here in Kansas so I broke out my dusty AF wheel. I still have my Spotted Circus fiber on the wheel from this past June.

I got several hours of peaceful spinning in whilst watching PB splash about and throw reusable water balloons. We literally had to drag her in for bath and bedtime at the end of the day. I managed to get almost all of the first bobbin spun up.

Duke even got in on the action and got VERY wet by getting too close to PB’s splash zone.

Nothing beats the last rays of sunshine in the day and some simple family fun. Happy Spinning!!

Washing Poopy Floof

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Awhile back my winery friend gave me a shorn fleece. It’s not professionally done and pretty much all short cuts. But I thought it was perfect for practicing washing and other bits.

I canned some apple jelly earlier this week and had a ton of hot water that I would normally just dump. I had a flash of genius to use this excess water to wash a sample of this fleece!

I grabbed a few ounces and put in some laundry bags and into a water safe tub. I added the hot water with pour scour wool wash in batches to get all the poop and dirt washed off. It was HOT but cool to see the lanolin release.

I got a ton of dirt to release and I have fleece left with a TON of veg matter. Was pretty cool to see the change. And I’m not 1,000% sure I did any of these steps correctly.

I may have felted some parts slightly in this process with too hot of water and a little too much agitation from little miss PB. But I am going to comb a few bits to see if the veg matter comes loose or not. This is all pure experiment with no end goal in mind. Score one for scientific curiousity!

Happy Spinning!!

A Bag Of Dirty Floof

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A friend of mine runs a local winery where they use sheep for natural grass control and fertilizer. They normally only get hair sheep but a wool sheep snuck in as part of a hair sheep lot. They shore the sweet momma before she lambed and gave me the fleece!

My friend has ZERO clue how to sheer and this bag may all be short cuts and non-spinable fiber. But I think it makes the perfect way to practice fleece washing! I just need a weekend where we aren’t scheduled to hilt!

Happy Fiber!!

Finished Purple Floof

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As promised, I let the fates decide. I had my children roll dice. Even numbers meant I would split the singles and make a 2-ply and the odd numbers meant chain ply. Numbers came up odd so it was chain ply!!

I don’t have a catchy name for this. I have been calling it purple floof spinning. My brain waves aren’t catching on to the theme here, lol. This skein still needs soaked and thwacked so I measure it. I’m guessing its somewhere between light and heavy worsted?

Now I just need the executive function to dig out my washing supplies from my disaster of a home office. Happy Spinning!!

Fresh Air Spinning

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We had a brief break in the oppressive 90/100 degree days here in Kansas and I took full advantage! After finishing the purple floof singles I pulled out the next fiber that I had on hand and headed for the patio. It’s a de-stashed braid of Spotted Circus. I don’t remember the fiber content (I’ll look it up in my notes in Ravelry here some time soon).

My sister has been visiting with her standard poodle Greer and I was mean and made the dogs play outside too. It’s shady on the patio and only 88 degrees with a nice breeze. I split this fiber roughly in half and my plan was to spin a two ply. The dogs divided all the sticks they could find into many pieces.

Did I weigh or measure the fiber? No! I’m winging it because that is all the brain cells I have. If I get any leftover fiber I will chain ply the remainder and make a little mini skein. Happy Spinning!!

Now What!?

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I have a four ounces of fiber singles all spun on to a single bobbin, now what?!

This is a sparkly fiber that is a mix of merino, rambouillet and sparkle. I just spun this fiber short forward draw and kind of let it do what it wanted with minimal changing by me. So now do I wind off these singles and split into two bobbins? Do I chain ply everything back on itself?

My work world has been incredibly stressful this summer and I just took on a HUGE full time project on top of the two FTE’s worth of work I already do. So I am decisioned out!! I legitimately may roll dice to decide this one, lol!

Happy Spinning!!

No Chewing

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The puppy is finally allowing me to spin small amounts without biting my wheel. So I am working on progress with my purple floof!

Duke is working on his sit and stay. It works best when he is worn out or tired of course. But either way I am getting smidgeons of spinning tiem. I am still working on the singles of my Hipstrings blend that is Merino, Rambouillet, and and sparkly nylon.

Given my the speed at which my life is hurtling and the life of a new puppy, this fiber is just spinning up to what it wants to be. What the end result might be….might even surprise me!

Happy Spinning!!