Plying The Crazy

I decided to break out my Hitchhiker spinning wheel to ply my 2025 Pigskin Party spinning project.

I got all three bobbins situated on my lazy kate under small but of tension. I chose my Hitchhiker because it came with a jumbo flyer and bobbin.

I rarely use this wheel as it is single treadle and not as intuitive for me to use. And this go around I ended up needing to replace the tension spring before I could go very far. Eventually I got going and consistently in the correct direction.

I am pretty sure I have enough fiber I will need to fill this jumbo bobbin and let it rest to take off the first skein before I can do the second. I am confident 12 ounces is too much for this.

Happy Spinning!!

Washed And Wound Handspun

I learned a lot with this spin. Especially about using my Sparrow e-wheel.

For the 2-ply skeins, I had two of the three that I did not ply well due to my not managing or setting up the tension on the e-wheel correctly. I fixed that for the third skein which is the bottom left skein.

This yarn will still knit just fine. And it was a lesson I needed to learn to make my future skeins better. I finished with roughly 236 grams and just over 700 yards of a sport to heavy fingering weight yarn. I am thinking some sort of baby blanket or garter throw to show off the handspun?

Happy Spinning!!

All The Skeins Swimming

The skeins are all dunked, swished and hung to dry. This handspun is really turning out to be something!

I did have to scrub some questionable things from the sink to be able to wash this yarn. And I was so surprised with how much water this yarn sucked during its inaugural wash. I let it rest and then squeezed out the water and towel dried them.

After a good whack on the floor, I have hung them to dry near the window where they can be warmed by the sun. I am hoping to have these measured, weighed and finalized when they are dry. I can’t wait to see how many yards of yarn I managed to make with the 2-ply skeins!

Happy Spinning!!

All Plied Up

It took me a few bobbins and about 1,000 adjustments but I managed to get all of the singles into plied yarn. And it only took four bobbins for this SSK fiber mini spinning project.

Bonus points, the view has been pretty nice here at the Grandparents. I need to wait until I get home and get this yarn wound off into skeins to wash and measure. I finally felt more comfortable with the tension and moving the parts around by bobbin #3.

The three bobbins on the right are all 2-ply skeins where I just let the colors combine as they came off the singles. I had a little bit of singles left on one of the bobbins so I chain plied all those to use them up. It will make a wee little skein.

All in all, I am pretty pleased so far! Happy Spinning!!

Plying Deep & Meaningful

I knuckled under and spun my heart out. I finished the first bobbin of Deep and Meaningful and then this past weekend evening I watched a long movie and busted out the complete second bobbin.

I was so in the zone, I just crafted and no photos. In fact I was halfway through plying before I grabbed the photo of the two bobbins. It plied fairly well but I was right that my second bobbin was thicker and ran out sooner than my first bobbing. Too much time had passed and my ‘default’ spin has changed.

I’m not precious about my handspun so when I ran out of the first bobbing I just chain plied the rest of the singles at the end of the skein. I will either use it that way or break off the 3-ply from the 2-ply when I went to use it. I just couldn’t be bothered to change my bobbing for such a wee bit of yarn. Now this needs to rest and then a wash/whack.

Happy Spinning!!

Clearing The Bobbins

I already plied my batt experiment and my long draw class and while I was looking for bobbins I found some singles from an abandoned spin.

This was some lamb I inherited in a de-stash. It was from a farm stand and very rustic. The staple was pretty long and I was fighting a lot of guard hairs. I really hated spinning it and gave away the rest of the fiber. But these singles were just sitting on a bobbin. So I chain plied them to get them done.

I had a lot more singles than I remembered so this ended up being fairly significant amount of finished yarn. With this one done I need to wash and whack all the plying I have done recently. Then I can turn these in for prizes maybe!

Happy Spinning!!

Plying Roses

More on the spinning marathon from last weekend. I started plying my Roses singles as the shadows started to get super long.

These singles plied fairly well. I did have some thin spots where I had to rejoin as I was plying. And FOR SURE there are some thick spots disburse in this yarn. But overall I was happy with the yarn that came out. It’s still unwashed so I have zero clue what it came out to. I really need to get to this weekend for the washing and whacking.

Oh, and I was TOTALLY right about the uneven bobbins. I had so much left on the second bobbin. I didn’t feel like messing around so I chain plied this last little bit to make a mini skein. Silver lining I guess?

Finished skeins next week! Happy Spinning!!

Plying and Puppy

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!!

Plying The First Sock Yarn

I zoomed right along since my second bobbin of sock yarn singles. I have all the singles spun and appropriately rested on bobbins. I am moving on to plying!

I purposely managed the colors to make singles with a similar color story. I foresee then the finished yarn will be VERY marled. Which I am all for. Some of my singles were more successful at staying very thin than others. I maybe playing yarn chicken trying to make socks. But I am going to see what yardage I get before I worry.

Happy Spinning!!

Blue and Gold Plying

The PV Rambouillet singles are ready for plying. I managed to get the last two ounces of fiber on the bobbin fairly quickly. They look fairly even and I’m hoping for a pretty decent amount of a 2-ply.

This fiber is marling up beautifully. There are places where the colors line up and places where opposites are matching. This should make a wonderful variegated yarn in the end.

Happy Spinning!!