Fiber Fool

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…