Tag Archives: spinning

Energetic Corriedale

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I have my blue Corriedale off the bobbins and ready for a nice wool bath.

This two ply is really energized as you can see the skeins are twisting back on themselves. I can tell I really put some extra twist into these skeins as I plied. I will lose some of this overtwist/energy when I was them.

And I can confirm that these skeins will be heavy worsted to maybe a light bulky weight yarn. The corriedale is not next to skin soft but I am interested to see if this softens any after washing. Happy Spinning!!

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!!

Handmade Batts

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My indie dyer obsession with Moonstone Dyeworks continues. She got a drum carder and now makes batts to sell.

They are unique blends that she decides to pull together from her bulk fiber. I picked out a lovely blue color in a rambioullet/merino/bamboo/nylon mix. The second bat is rambioullet/merino/sari silk/nylon blend. Both bats are 2 ounces and will make cute small skeins of yarn.

I still have my blue BFL on my wheel with lots of spinning to go yet. So I don’t know when either of these will hit the wheel but I feel it won’t take long when my wheel frees up!

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!!

An Ocean Gradient

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My BFL gradient is washed and fully dry. This turned out to be one very happy skein!

This is 100% Blue faced Leicester long wool that I spun from one end of the gradient to the other. Then I chain plied the singles into a three ply to preserve the gradient. The finished skein ended up being 138 grams and roughly 166 yards. I calculated 9 wraps per inch on average so this is a worsted weight yarn with thicker and thinner spot throughout.

This handspun is superbly handsome all skeined up. I have zero ideas or plans on what to do with this skein so into the precious handspun stash it goes. 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!!