Tag Archives: wool

Starting Targhee

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We are getting peaks of warmer days here in Kansas. It was about 60 degrees so the whole family got outside to play. The kids played soccer and I peddled on some new Targhee Singles.

This fiber is a gorgeous aqua colorway. The targhee is not as soft as the polworth I just finished. Again I’m going with my default spin of short forward draw and two plies.

With some concerted effort on drafting, I am achieving some very thin singles. This could end up being a lighter weight yarn. Which is very exciting to see I am going more control of my technique.

Happy Spinning!!

Plying And Picking

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All three bobbins of my Finn fiber are complete and I moved on to the plying stage!

Even with the fiber having been carded and the singles gone through the wheel once, I am still getting a lot of veg matter out of the fiber. My pants and black shirt were a little messy after my spinning session.

I did end up with a nice plump bobbin of a finished 3-ply. I will let this rest on the bobbin for a day or two and then I will give it a wash and whack to finish the process. I am predicting a nice heavy worsted to bulky finished yarn.

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!!

Washed And Thwacked

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I am OBSESSED with this handspun. I gave it a wash and thwack yesterday and set near my dehumidifier to dry. And this morning, these are two gloriously dry skeins.

It is a very well balanced yarn that hangs fairly straight. I have just under 200 grams total in yarn. I need run it through my yardage counter to see what I ended up with. The yarn did plump up quite a bit with washing so this might be a heavy worsted. And I’m still super proud of that! Stay tuned for finished yarn photos 🙂

Happy Spinning!!

I Think I Accidentally Made Worsted Weight Yarn

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It took me a minute to get all my plying done. Had a few fits and starts, but I now have two pretty bobbins!

I did a quick wraps per inch gauge on these….and y’all this might be a true worsted with spots of a heavy worsted. This is the finest I have spun and plied thus far! I need to give this yarn a bath and see if it plumps up any. I am kinda excited to see what this turns out to be!

Happy Spinning!!

Plying All The Romney

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My spinning mojo has really caught fire. After starting some singles out of 100% Romney last week, I spent all day Saturday playing outside with the kids and finishing the singles. I let them rest overnight and played the “mother’s day card” so I could drink wine and ply my yarn.

I really enjoy using my tensioned Kate. It helps prevent overspinning and having the singles fold back on themselves. The wine doesn’t hurt either!

Happy Spinning!!

Mystery Handspun, But It’s Finished!

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I have had some singles finished and just waiting on bobbins. I got a wild hair to ignore my adult responsibilities and stay up past 11 to ply everything the other night.

The singles were really inconsistent and prone to breaking. So I decided to chain ply/3-ply them back on themselves. It made a really thick and thin yarn but I think it came out really pretty!

I ended up 242 yards out of 182 grams of wool. So this is probably a bulky skein with a few worsted spots on it. The wool was some unknown wool I was donated so I don’t know the fiber content is. It’s a little crunchy/wooly so I think not merino. But also not alpaca as there was no drape.

Whatever it is, I will make something fun with it! Happy Spinning!!

Warm Spinning

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After finishing my Mirror, Mirror spin, I put some mystery wool on my wheel. I have 6.6 ounces of mystery brown wool of unknown origin. I am not a great wool investigator but I know its not merino at all. It’s a bit of chocolate brown for a Valentines treat!

February has been pretty cold so I have been taking advantage of the fire to spin where its warm. I also have been wearing more of my wool socks. And I’m just spinning and letting the fiber become what it wants to be. I am not spinning with any sort of goal in mind.

Stay warm friends and happy spinning!!

Romney Spins Fast

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I have been sneaky spinning some 100% Romney I pulled from my donated stash. I started with a pretty large amount of fiber as it was 7.8 ounces. I let the fiber tell me what to do and I spun the roving with a pinch and pull method. I didn’t even grab any in progress spinning photos, I just couldn’t put this one down!

I ended up filling two bobbins without really having measured or splitting the fiber. After resting the singles I started plying them as two ply. I filled one bobbing and had to start a second one! This was for sure my biggest spin thus far. I did have a little bit of singles left on one bobbing so I three plied it back onto itself to finish it out.

In the end I created two 100 gram worsted to light bulky weight skeins that had roughly 328 total yards. And the small three ply mini was 15 grams and just under 17 yards of a bulky. All skeins got washed, whacked and finished. I was surprised at the amount of grime that came out of this relatively light colored wool.

Now on to my next spinning project!

All The Canadian Sweaters Quantities

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I have been zooming every Monday evening with the ladies from the Wet Coast Wools LYS (Vancouver, CA) for their knit night. I enjoy it very much but I was WILDLY enabled this past month.

The shop ran a huge sale after Christmas on their yarns and add to that the favorable exchange rates for Americans…..I fell down the sweater quantity hole. I ended up giving Glenda all my Christmas monies (and then some).

I picked up six skeins of Lagom by Katia in a wonderful heathered grey color on a worsted weight. That is roughly 1,300 yards of yarn to make a nice nuetral sweater. Next up is eight skeins of Holst Garn Coast in a brown color. This is a fingering weight yarn I intend to hold double for a garment of sorts. Lastly I grabbed five skeins of Briggs and Little Regal in a heathered blue. This is another worsted weight but this one is pretty sheepy feeling. I think this will need to be a cardigan to be worn over an under layer for my princess skin.

All in all it felt nice to add some heavier weight to my stash. I have a TON of fingering/sock but I tend not to buy the heavier stuff to have on hand. I’m working on that in 2021.

Happy Knitting!!