Autumn Handspun
Remember Where’s Waldo? Well, this is Where’s the Handspun? Do you see it? How about a better look…
Fiber: Color Me 100% Wool Top, Earthy from Creative Fibers Summer 2005
Drafting Method: Supported Long Draw (Woolen), Subtly Thick/Thin
Wheel: Majacraft Suzie Pro
Ratio Singles/Plying: 4:1 (both)
Yardage: ~150
Ply: Traditional 2-ply
WPI/Yarn Classification: ~6 WPI/Bulky
TPI: ~2-3 TPI
Notes: I bought this fiber at Creative Fibers (sadly closing, or closed) in the Twin Cities on my first trip home after buying my wheel in 2005. It is “100% Wool Top” from Color Me in the Earthy colorway. It was nice and soft, but very compacted and I feel somewhat felted as it did not draft well or very evenly, nor was it easy to figure staple length. I actually questioned whether it was really top, hence my choice to spin it woolen despite the fact that top would normally dictate worsted spinning. The fiber was quite crimped so the yarn would have bounce and loft if not spun too tight and I loved the colors so it was just a matter of finding the right kind of yarn to spin with it. It seemed the perfect choice for trying my hand at spinning a 2-ply at a bulky weight after progressively getting my spinning finer and finer.
A while back at SnB I said I was going to try spinning some bulky yarn. I was wished good luck and there was some joking about my lack of any bulky yarn or needles for knitting bulky yarn residing in my house. I have to admit, using needles over US7s is very unusual for me unless I’m felting something. But I am so excited and thrilled with this yarn.
You always hear how hard it is to get back to a thicker yarn once you’ve been spinning fine, but I let the wheel do most of the work for me and it went quite well with little concentration or work to maintain the thickness. Despite some issues with the fiber, putting my wheel down to the slowest ratio and doing supported long draw quite quickly I ended up with a wonderfully lofty 2-ply yarn with a subtle thick-thin nature. The loftiness helped to maintain the softness and should provide some very nice insulation.
The fiber was in an 8 ounce package so I have another 4 ounces left. I am knitting Urchin from this 2-ply. In the skein format I preferred the singles over the 2-ply and was thinking I would spin the rest into singles and knit thrummed mittens. However, now that I’ve knit two of the eight wedges for Urchin in the 2-ply I am really liking it. I’m not sure whether to stick with the most recent plan to knit the thrummed mittens from the singles or revert back to my original plan and spin a finer 2-ply yarn to knit the mittens. But I am really excited about this yarn and these projects. Who would have thought I would be excited about bulky yarn? Me? Queen of sock knitting? The woman who feels knitting with US8’s or larger is like knitting with tree limbs? I can’t help it. In some ways I think I may almost be prouder of this yarn than my fine 3-plies just because it is such a change from my normal fine and dense yarns.
