Fiber Fool

It seems if I don’t have a fiber or project in mind right away my spinning suffers. I got out of the habit early in July when I couldn’t decide what to spin next. Even when I finally pulled it out and started spinning it was a slow process. I’m not positive why. I think partially because this fiber required a different mindset than I normally have when I’m spinning (just let the noils and slubs go, you aren’t going to get a smooth yarn out of this fiber). I also think the prep and the re-entry for the whirlwind Minneapolis trip also didn’t help me to re-establish my spinning habit. Then there is of course the heat and the fact that there just isn’t a good place to set up my wheel in the somewhat cooler basement and the heat in general makes me lazy and unmotivated.

This past week I decided I wanted to complete this 4 oz of roving (yes, I’m embarassed to admit it took me basically an entire month to spin 4 ounces) before July was up so I’d have another Project Spectrum item to show off (other than on the bobbins). Well, I did it!

I learned some things in the process. Don’t try to split 4 oz of roving for a three ply yarn, opt to do so with 3 or 6 or 9 ounces! I ended up with odd yardages of yarns because of the uneveness of the bobbins and am not sure what I’ll do with them. It did, however, give me the opportunity to compare singles, two-ply, and three-ply yarns all from the same singles, which is a valuable thing. I also learned that while silk noils in the fiber produce a nice tweed-like effect in the final yarn, it drives this anal-retentive person nuts while spinning the singles. It also seemed that more often then not, the noils would line up between two or three of the singles which drive me nuts too because it made the final yarn more uneven looking that I would have normally expected. I do like the final 3-ply product, but I have to learn to spin much, much thinner if I’m going to get 400-yds of 3-ply for socks. That also means that I would get a thin yarn more like Lorna’s Laces or that that require a US0 which I hate… So, perhaps I need to figure more like 5 ounces for a pair of handspun socks?

Fiber: Alpine Meadows Wilflowers (17), a blend of soft wools, mohair, silk, angelina, and holographic fibers
Fiber Source: Bountiful at Estes Park Wool Market 2005
Weight: 90 g 3-ply, 24 g 2-ply, ?? g singles
Yardage: ~200 yds 3-ply, ~70 yds 2-ply, ~7 yds singles
WPI: 20 WPI 3-ply, 23 WPI 2-ply, 35 WPI singles

This yarn is not as soft as I would like, so besides the odd yardages I have the issue of whether the yarn is soft enough for say a pair of fingerless mitts or that. I’m open to suggestions for a project with sparkly, slightly scratchy 200-yrds of light sport or heavy fingering weight yarn. Or, even better, one that could use the 70-yds of two-ply in conjunction with the 200 yards of three-ply!

Perhaps I need to put Spinning for Softness and Speed on my wishlist! It’s too bad it isn’t available via Amazon as I have a gift certifacte for them…

You know, I recall being young (grade 7 or 8 probably) and thinking one of my aunts was off her rocker. You could randomly speak one word and she’d break out into song. I now realize that we all have a soundtrack rolling around in our heads and certain phrases or activities will bring at least portions of their lyrics and often their melody to mind. Anyway. just a bit of a long explanation for my post title today :-)

So, I mentioned last week that I was going to try plying the same singles from last week’s skein with a 3rd ply made of wooly nylon. It was an interesting experiment. I went from what looked to be a light sport weight while under tension to very interestingly textured bulky yarn. It was 385-yds under tension and I’m guessing about 257 or so yds not under tension, but that is purely a guess based on the shrinkage of the hank. I have no idea what I’ll do with this yarn. The idea at SnB was large needles so it would be less likely to split the yarn and so there would be plenty of room to see the texture of the yarn. It is likely to sit in the stash for a while.

Here are some comparisons including the 60 yds of leftover singles I had, the 2-ply and the 3-ply with the wooly nylon. Interesting, no?

I also spent some more time with my drop spindle this week. I’ve had some lovely pink and yellow coopworth that Snow gave me over a year ago on my spindle for several months now and I finally finished it up (in only 45 minutes) and then I plied it (andean style - Hannah has pics I believe so that Cathy can show Anne that people really do ply on the drop spindle) on the spindle at SnB. There was more on there than I thought and it took much longer to make the andean bracelet so I stood out in the parking lot for aobut 30 minutes finishing up the plying after SnB was over and Catalyst Coffee closed. Ashley kindly kept me company though and it went quite quickly.

There was a total of 66 yards of 2-ply when all was said and done. It’s really fuzzy and sort of soft, but sort of itchy too. The plying could have been a little bit better, but I was performing for an audience and in a bit of a hurry, not a good recipe for a great plying job. I’m not sure what I’ll do with it, but I have some two-tone blue coopworth that was also spindle spun that I overdyed. That one is about 85 yards, so between the two I should be able to do a little something. Wrist warmers come to mind, but I’m a little concerned about the itch factor…

For the summer spinning challenge instead of running out of steam this week as I feared I spun more this week than last week! My total for week two was 6 hours of spinning. 2 hours and 10 minutes of that was spent with my drop spindle! That six hours also does not include the time spent finishing the 511 yds of completed yarn (60 yds singles, 66 yds of spindle ply, 385 yds of 3-ply with wooly nylong) from this week either - wrapping onto the niddy noddy, washing, etc. If I did not spin again until week five I’d still be on pace with my goal of averaging 3 hours per week. So, I’ve given myself a bit of a break. I didn’t spin on the 4th or yesterday (hubby was still home). Part of it was for a bit of a break and partly it was due to my inability right now to make a decision I don’t know what to spin next!

Do I spin up some of the lovely purple blend that will be one of the prizes for the challenge? That would also count for project spectrum! How about some silk? I have the lovely 3 ounces of hankies that Amanda kindly brought back from Stitches West for me or the two ounces of sliver I bought at Detta’s last year… Or, I’ve still got samples that Snow gave me last year as well as some other samples that Cathy gave me for my birthday, those would not require a long commitment to any one thing… What shall I do?

A couple of you were correct, the blue yarn is handspun. It’s the same fiber that was on my wheel in the first June PS post. It was purchased at Brown Sheep Company when we went on our Spring Break Road Trip up there back in March.

Overall it has been very nice to spin, though I do make a double pass at pre drafting. I know some feel pre-drafting isn’t necessary if you are “skilled” but I find the more time I put into the fiber prep, the better quality and more even my yarn is so it is worth it to me to make that effort. Especially when spinning finer yarns.

This skein is exactly 4 ounces and about 310 yards. It seems that is my default yardage for four ounces when I’m aiming for sock weight yarn. Though, this could probably pass as a lighter weight sport. It seems I routinely end up on the lighter end of the next size of yarn up from what my goal is. And yes, I do test it while I’m spinning to see what it will look like. I’m hoping I’ll be better at turning out a desired yarn weight by the end of this challenge. I haven’t washed it or measured wraps per inch yet as there was probably about 1 ounce of singles still spun on each of the two bobbins I was plying from and there was also another 3 ounces of fiber that hadn’t been spun yet.

Originally I was going to use some wooly nylon serger thread as a third ply to see if that would increase the durability of the yarn, but I forgot until I already had several yards plyed. So, I decided to go ahead and spin up the remaining three ounces onto the two partially filled bobbins and hopefully I’ll remember the wooly nylon when I’m ready to ply once again. I’m curious, has anyone out there used wooly nylon as a ply? Will it work, or will I just get a crepe yarn because the wooly nylon is so much thinner than my singles?

I did reach my sumer spinning challenge goal for this first week. In fact, I exceeded it by 2 hours! I spun for 5 hours this past week! It feels good too, as I can tell my singles are getting more even and my plying has as well. I’m very, very happy with this skein of yarn. I’ll wait until I have the rest spun and plyed.

For a person who isn’t a big fan of blue this yarn as really grown on me. There were areas where there was some lighter blue in the fiber and it doesn’t really stand out, but it adds to the shiny appearance of the final yarn I think, making highlights that look like it is light reflecting when it isn’t. I really like that! I may still end up overdying it slightly in the end. I’m not sure yet. It is probably destined to be socks so maybe it doesn’t matter, but I don’t have much of anything in my wardrobe that these socks would go with…

In case you missed it, yesterday was summer solstice. Did you do anything special to celebrate midsummer? We got together with our friends Anne and Rod and picked pie cherries at Anne’s mother’s home. We then came home, had some beer (or alcohol of choice), pitted cherries, made, and ate a cherry cobbler. It seemed a great way to mark the official beginning of summer - visiting with friends and eating something made from things we picked. We ended the evening with a small fire in our backyard fire pit (after a good lawn soaking).

The summer solstice also marked the beginning of the summer spinning challenge. I started off kind of weak yesterday, logging in only about 15 minutes of spinning but I had overtrained the day before with about 1.5 hours of spinning. I’m still working on my blue superwash that I brought back from the Brown Sheep road trip.

If you are in the challenge (or would like to sneak in a little late) you need to have your goal set no later than the 28th in order to qualify for the fiber prizes that I’ll draw for from those who stuck with their goal until the autumnal equinox. If you’ve already signed up and didn’t get your Blogger invite to be an author on the blog let me know and I’ll resend. There are several of you signed up who haven’t accepted the invites yet.

Want to see the prizes?

I’ll be drawing for one ~4oz bundle of the roving on the left which is Wildflowers roving from Bountiful. It is a blend and includes a touch of angelina. I’ll also be drawing for two ~4oz bundles of the roving on the right which is some superwash “beast” from Brown Sheep that I got during our March road trip. There may be a prize or two added as the summer passes, we’ll have to see.

Click on “More” if you’d like the cherry cobbler recipe. (Read on …)