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!!
I have been spinning so much this summer that I am rapidly expanding my handspun stash while running out of fiber stash. So I fell down on the internet with my credit card and bought more fiber.
The top two are braids from 316 Dye Studio out of Wichita KS. I picked two braids of each color. The blue/grey on the left is Rambouillet and the blue/white on the right is Polwarth. I am hoping to that with 8 ounces I can end up with more than one skeins.
The bottom two 4 ounce packages from Three Waters Farm. The aqua on the right is a Targhee wool while the brown on the right is more Polwarth. This will most likely end up being smaller skeins for smaller projects.
I have sent all this wool to marinate and cool there heels in my spinning stash. Happy Spinning!!
Back around Christmas time I grabbed some mystery grab bag fiber from Etsy to have for Santa to leave in my stocking. And Santa ended up leaving me some yarn instead of fiber and I kinda forgot about this tucked away in my closet until I did some spring cleaning.
On the left is some mystery fiber that looks to have a blend of silk, nylon and maybe a couple of different kinds of wools based on the wool crimp. I weighed it and it totals 3 ounces. The right is 8.5 ounces of a spinning kit from Melissa’s Yarn Barn. It is a solid merino braid and some locks of multi-colored wool or other fiber.
Both are interesting kits and not something I would usually pick for myself. But it adds nice variety to my spinning stash. Even if I don’t love the colors I will learn new things from the spinning process. Do any of you mystery grab bag?
Happy Spinning!!
My cashmere skein is completely dry and all measured up! This is my softest and finest spin yet. I am beyond happy with this one.
After finishing I ended up with 223 yards weighing 112 grams. This makes this skein DK in most spots with other sections more of a light worsted. I can tell my plying was tighter on this skein than any of my previous 2-plys. With this having cashmere content I put extra twist in it in order to reduce piling in its future knitted state.
I don’t have any projects in mind yet. I think I’m going to let this one marinate in the handspun stash for a minute. Happy spinning!!
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!!
I managed to finish spinning the singles for my merino/cashmere singles this past week after I got back from my travel. I wound the singles into a cake so that I could ply from the inside and outside. IT…WAS….A….MESS!! I neglected to understand how badly the singles would get tangled. I had to break and and untangle my singles many times. But in the end, I made a skein!
The skein had a little over twist from plying as it didn’t hang completely straight off the plying bobbin. But I had confidence that a bath would fix it right up!
And I was right, a bath and a whack had this skein nicely balanced. Since it is 90+ degrees in Kansas now I set this skein outside in the sun to dry. And boy howdy, it dried in four hours! I need to take the time to weigh and measure this skein to find out what kind of yarn I made.
This finished yarn is SUPER soft and might the thinnest spinning I have made to date. I can’t wait to see what this measure out to be! I really feel the need to find a project to fit this spectacularly yarn….
Happy Spinning!!
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!!
My targhee singles are sufficiently rested and ready to ply. I decided to be crafty since my Kiwi wheel currently has lamb singles on it and pull out my Hitchhiker wheel. This was my first wheel but I never got the hang of the single treadle. But I’m a little more seasoned now and decided to give it a whirl!
Turns out, a lot easier to use once my brain and body understand the mechanics of spinning! I was able to successfully ply. I did put on the jumbo flyer and jumbo bobbin in order to get all four ounces in one shot.
I ended up with a lovely barber pole yarn. I will let the yarn sit overnight and then give a wash and a thwack. I’m interested to see what kind of twist I created with this wheel since I am less familiar with it. This should be a fun skein!
Happy Spinning!!
I have A TON of some lamb, alpaca and silk farm raised fiber in my stash. This was donated fiber that came with my hitchhiker wheel. It is not a very soft fiber to work. It is spinning very thinly but I feel like there are maybe some guard like hairs worked into this blend? This my first time spinning this fiber so it’s all an adventure for me.
This is the project I chose after my targhee singles were done but I am not sure how I feel about it. The singles have quite the halo as I work it up. And its not super joyfull to spin. I have to pull quite hard to draft the fiber thinly.
I am going to keep working on this to see if it gets better/easier. But this may be a no go for me. Life it too busy to work on project that aren’t fun. Happy Spinning!!
My prediction for these targhee singles was CORRECT, I couldn’t put them down. I have two finished bobbins with 2 ounces of singles each.
This was a delight to spin and was easy to control as I was making singles. I will 1000% spin this fiber again. Now I just need to be patient and let these singles rest before plying. That and decide what to spin next!
Happy Spinning!!
Michele plays with yarn, food, and music in Portland
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