Spinning Class Redux…
Yesterday I showed off my center pull ball of the plied yarn. Here you can see that I used about 1/2 of that ball and knit my swatch. It’s 30 sts on US 2.5 Bryspun DPNs knit in the round. I had a tough time deciding on a pattern, as the yarn is still pretty rustic (though I’ll likely want to re-swatch when I really sit down to spin all the yarn for the socks as this skein contained all my experiements of different drafting techniques and fighting with the plying as well). So, I chose a simple embellished rib. I then wash and blocked the swatch too. There really wasn’t much difference at all. The one end is small in circumference because I didn’t pay attention to BO loosely - oops! If I had paid attention it could possibly be worn as a cuff. Oh, and if you click on the picture it’ll give you a larger image of just the swatch that will give you a bit better feel for the depth of color in this yarn.
So, last night was sort of a free form class. Once we all finished disucssing our project plans we got to just try different fibers. From left to right we have bombyx silk spun from a cap or bell (similar to a hankie), bleached tussah roving, linen roving (these weren’t full length fibers and weren’t spun from a distaff or wet as you would need to do with full length flax fibers), lastly is a combination mini-skein of combed cotton (the brown) and cotton spun direct from the seed pods.
My favorite to spin last night would have to be the bombyx silk cap and then the cotton from the pods. But I had very little fight with any of them. I did have some trouble doing a worsted draw on the tussah roving, but I got it down towards the end - mostly when Maggie started talking about the linen process so I got caught up in listening to her and just got into the rhythm. I’ll want to be trying that again here very soon to try get that engrained in my head. But I was having difficulty pinching my forward hand hard enough to keep the twist out from between the hands. It seems I tend naturally towards the long draw so I had a good time with the cotton. The first little bit of the combed cotton resulted in some really large slubs, but I thinned it out quite well and then had a blast with the seed pods. I was amazed at the length of yarn you would get from one seed pod!
I need to give props to my peep, Amanda for letting me tag along these past four weeks. It was so much more pleasureable to make the trip and take the class with a friend! Of course being able to take my pain meds was a great plus as well.
And, because I know I’ll have an e-mail or comment waiting for me if I don’t post this…
The very beginnings of Fiber Trends’ Leaf Lace Shawl in copper Zephyr (wool/silk lace weight). I’m afraid I haven’t made any progress on it today, but there should be at least some quality time with it this weekend.
Have a great weekend everyone!
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