Tag Archives: singles

Spinning My First Batt

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After getting the Corriedale off the wheel this past weekend I felt the itch to start some of the small batts I purchased recently from Moonstone Dyeworks. I decided to start the purple-ish one.

This is a custom blend that is mostly Rambioullet but has some mohair, nylon and merino. I can feel some longer staple fibers every once in awhile. Overall its been very pleasant to spin.

I have achieved relatively thin and consistent singles for this spin. I have a plan to 3-ply these singles using chain ply. I will end up with a very small skein doing this method as this fiber is only two ounces in total.

This spinning project is really hitting the sweet spot in my brain and I kind of don’t want to stop. I forecast this being a super quick project! Happy Spinning!!

Plying and Coca Cola

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Confession, this blog post is brought to you by two snacks and Hotel Translyvania. I had to distract my children in order to get my Corriedale singles plied on Sunday.

I turned a podcast on in my headphone, grabbed an ice cold coca cola and set to plying. I really really enjoy having my Ashford lazy kate. It’s really helping me to keep better tension on my singles and make a more consistent plied yarn.

By looking at my bobbins, I think this will be a heavy worsted finished yarn. This took about two hours and my finished yarn filled two bobbins. I have those resting before I skein them off for their wash and set. It’s set to be a pretty crazy week so I’m not sure when I will carve out that time, but I’m interested to see how these skeins turn out!

Happy Spinning!!

Resting Blue Corriedale

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Chipping away at my spinning turned out to be the best motivation. I now have two full bobbins of my blue Corriedale complete!

Each of these bobbins holds 4 ounces of the total 8 ounces of roving I had. Theoretically I will have equal amounts and it will be super easy to make a 2-ply. However, I know that this fiber was a little felted/compacted and I wasn’t super successful at keeping my singles consistent.

I plan to let these bobbins rest for about 24 hours and see if I can sneak some spinning time in over the weekend, fingers crossed! Happy Spinning!!

Coffee and Spinning

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Back to school is here and work is, well crazy as ever. I took some time yesterday morning o drink hot coffee and spin for 15 minutes before getting ready for work. PB and Jellybean are getting big enough that they need less TLC to get out the door for the day. So I feel like I can start claiming some of that space of the day.

I had previously been calling this BFL. It is not. This is in fact Corriedale and 100% Corriedale, lol. This is harder for me to spin consistently the same and I’m getting a lot of thick and thin runs. But its fun nonetheless.

I’m on the second bobbin and chugging away on the second 4 ounces of this 8 ounce spin. The solid color will make really cool yarn but it does make for a monotonous spin. Chipping away at this 15/20 minutes at a time is probably the best plan to get through this fiber.

Happy Spinning!!

One Of Two Complete

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My blue BFL spinning has been progressing nicely. I have spun through the first four ounces and filled my first bobbin of this spin.

Because of the compacted nature of this fiber I have been having trouble keeping my singles thin and consistent. However, as my current spinning tack is to just let the fiber do what it wants see what kind of yarn I end up with. I am not currently spinning with the end product in mind.

Now I just need to pop open the second bag of this spin and get the second bobbin cooking! Happy Spinning!!

Starting A Solid

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The sun is shining, my children are away for the weekend and my wheel was empty. So of course I needed a new spin!

I pulled eight ounces of blue BFL roving from my stash and started on the wheel. This fiber was vacuum packed and a little felted. So I am having to work a little harder to predraft this fiber to get it to spin nicely.

But for now I leave you all as I plan to spin while the shade and my iced coffee last. Happy Spinning!!

Singles To A 3-ply

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My blue BFL gradient spinning is ALL DONE. The singles are shown on the left and I ended with the deepest, most navy of the five colors.

I ignored my children and responsibilities for roughly an hour and a half so I could chain ply the results. The singles had rested about three days before plying. The process had a few hiccups and breaks but I managed a pretty decent finished bobbin.

I am going to let that sit for at least a day and then I’ll give the skein a wash and a whack. So excited to get this off the bobbin so I can see how the gradient turned out! Happy Spinning!!

Midway in The Gradient

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My BFL gradient is moving along. I am in the third of three total colors and its a kind of nice solid blue.

The first color was a very bright teal that rubbed off on my fingers and the second was a very light or pale blue. This gradient should develop nicely! I hope to get all these singles spun onto one bobbin and then 3-ply/chain ply the singles to maintain the gradient.

The trick is going to be finding time to spin with the hectic buzz of summer and children’s activities. Happy Spinning!!

Spinning A Gradient!

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Since my Kiwi wheel is free of a spinning project, I decided ot put something back on it. I pulled some BFL roving from my stash that were a teal to blue gradient. I felt like making a singles that would end up a 3-ply gradient!

This yarn might have an excess of dye…..my fingers were a little blue after working the first part of the gradient. Could be part Smurf??

Pretty happy with the singles I have been creating. I still have half the teal to finish before I start the next color. Not too shabby for an afternoon of outside spinning. It’s really getting warm here in Kansas!!

Happy Spinning!!

It’s CASHMERE!

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My spinning of that farm/rustic lamb roving didn’t last. I just couldn’t find the drive to work with it. And some merino/silk/cashmere from Hipstrings may have show up in my mailbox this week, so the lamb got pulled off my wheel and this heavenly cloud is on!

I have never spun anything this soft or delicious. It’s a joy to work with. I only have four ounces to work with so I will fill a single bobbin. I hope then to be able to wind those single into a center pull ball to ply with.

Happy Spinning!!