The newly spun yarn has been wound off, washed and (almost) dried.
It's gorgeous, even if I do say so myself. I absolutely love the way the colors blended together. The photos really don't do it justice.
The final statistics: spun at 8.5 ratio, 4 oz colonial wool (roving from Hanks in the Hood), 2 ply, 216 yds, 12 WPI (about dk weight).
I did not achieve my desired thinness, nor did the yarn end up as even as I thought I was spinning. But it's a huge improvement over my last handspun and I'm feeling a great sense of accomplishment. With more practice, I'm sure I'll eventually make my goal of spinning beautiful sock yarn. I read you need to use a higher ratio for thinner yarns, so maybe I'll try stepping up to the next ratio next time.
So what's the plan for this yarn? I've got to swatch it and see how the fabric looks, but I'm still leaning towards socks. I don't mind heavy socks this time of year. Especially since I live in clogs that can accommodate the thicker socks. They'll have to be toe up since the yardage is pretty small.
So I really liked the look of the 2nd handspun yarn and decided I was tired of spinning just plain cream colored wool. So I pulled out the dyes last Sunday and tried my hand at dyeing some roving. I more or less followed the instructions in Teach Yourself Visually Handspinning. I measured out about 4 ounces of the corriedale wool and loosely tied it in a few spots. I soaked it in warm water, then transfered it to a pot with a little water and vinegar and poured 4 colors of dye in quadrants. I used blue, purple, orange and black. Then I cooked the wool on medium low heat for an hour, let it cool, gently rinsed it and hung it to dry. I'm afraid I didn't take time to take pictures. I didn't have much hope it was going to be useable. When wet, the roving looked pretty hopeless. It took forever to dry, 2 days for the whole thing to be thoroughly dry. And even after it was dry, it was pretty compacted. But I gave it a try anyway. I split it into 2 pieces, then sectioned each strip into eighths. It took me all week to spin two bobbins full. I thought I was doing pretty good. There were almost no overspins this time. But I'm still struggling with keeping an even thickness. I'm sure it has to do with the way I'm drafting and will just require more practice. I plied the two bobbins together and here's the result...
I love the colors. I'm calling it Brambleberry. The yarn is a bit darker in person, but the colors are just fabulous. Doesn't look anything like the dyes I poured in the pot. That's one of the joys of kettle dyeing, the colors blend into very unexpected and usually fascinating results. I got 140 yds in 4 ounces. Still a long way from my goal of spinning a sock weight yarn. I'm feeling somewhat frustrated that I can't get my consistency down. I'm not into the whole thick/thin yarn so I'd really like to spin more evenly. Now I'm faced with the dilemma of what to spin next. I've got over a pound of the corriedale left. I could spin that as is, or dye off another hunk. Or I have the Hanks in the Hood roving I would love to spin. I wanted to try to spin that into sock yarn, and I know I'm just not there yet. Maybe I'll just take a few days off from spinning to think about it. The toddler sweater is coming along really well. I finished the body and have started the first sleeve. If I put some serious knitting time in this weekend, I should be able to get started on the yoke and possibly finish it by next weekend.
Day three of spinning was not good. I sat down and started spinning and became so frustrated with how over twisted and uneven my yarn was coming out. This just HAD to get easier. Rather than chopping the lovely Minstrel into kindling, I walked away and turned to my good friend Ravelry for solace. I didn't post anything, just read every spinning forum I could for tales of other's spinning troubles. I came across a thread talking about Scotch tension and it was like a light bulb went on. My wheel could run double drive or Scotch tension. Maybe that would make a difference. So I got my Teach Yourself Visually book and set about switching the tension and getting it adjusted properly. It didn't take long and with trepidation I picked up some roving and tried again. It was such a HUGE difference. Now, maybe I just had the tension set wrong on the double drive (although I did fiddle with the tension quite a bit on days 1 & 2, I did it more by feel than actually following the written instructions) so I will try the double drive again some day. But for now, I'm spinning along like a lark. Its fantastic! I'm still getting some thick and thin spots, but that's really improving. This stuff actually resembles yarn. I even managed to get enough singles on 2 bobbins to try my hand at plying. Here it is folks, my very first handspun yarn
It's about 15 yds of 2 ply corriedale wool. It looks just like the book says, like a string of pearls. Its not enough to really do anything with, but seeing how it's my first yarn, I want to keep it as a souvenir anyway. My next goal is to spin 2 full bobbins and see how much yarn I can get.
The lovely roving came from Hanks in the Hood. Look how pretty!
I am really tempted to spin a little bit of it. But I'm going to try to resist temptation until I get more consistent. I would really like to turn it into yarn I can make something with. Maybe a hat. Oh goodness. I just went over to Etsy to grab her URL and see she has new rovings listed. m u s t n o t s p e n d m o n e y. Quickly closing Etsy.
And, I'm back to knitting. Hubby asked if I'd knit a sweater for his friend's little girl. Quite serendipitously, the new Lion Brand catalog arrived the same day and I found this adorable little Eyelet Yoke cardigan. I didn't have enough Cotton Ease that's called for in the pattern, but decided to make it with some Knit Picks Bare superwash merino worsted yarn. I can't remember what I originally bought it for (yet another reason for the yarn diet!) Someone on Ravelry mentioned she knit the sweater in one piece rather than in pieces. And she was right, it's very easily converted to be knit whole. The yarn is lovely. I decided to put the swatch through some washing tests since it is for a child. So far it's been through 2 cycles with no shrinkage or felting and it appears to only be getting softer. When the yarn diet is over, I may have to get some of this yarn to make myself a sweater!
It's gorgeous, even if I do say so myself. I absolutely love the way the colors blended together. The photos really don't do it justice.
The final statistics: spun at 8.5 ratio, 4 oz colonial wool (roving from Hanks in the Hood), 2 ply, 216 yds, 12 WPI (about dk weight).
I did not achieve my desired thinness, nor did the yarn end up as even as I thought I was spinning. But it's a huge improvement over my last handspun and I'm feeling a great sense of accomplishment. With more practice, I'm sure I'll eventually make my goal of spinning beautiful sock yarn. I read you need to use a higher ratio for thinner yarns, so maybe I'll try stepping up to the next ratio next time.
