Tuesdays are for spinning, no?
I believe it has been since late July that Stephanie has had a Tuesdays are for Spinning post, I’m going to jump in today and fill the void…
You see there was something refreshing about teaching the art of spinning to other fiber enthusiasts and those who were just curious and it lit a fire under me to get back the spinning here while I’m less than enthralled with what is on the needles at the moment.
On the left is my virgin spin on the Mt. St. Helen’s spindle I bought in MN in July. I hadn’t used it yet, until Saturday that is. This was the spindle I chose to take with me to the Knit Out. It took me a bit of getting used to. It’s about 1/2 the weight of the other spindle and I just couldn’t keep the momentum on it like I could with the other one. But, I persevered and ended up enjoying it enough that I spun during SnB last night rather than knit! What is on there is a medium grade blend of wools that is somewhat course. I think a finer fiber and a slightly finer width would improve the momentum of the spindle. But, as I’m getting fiber on there I’m adding a bit of weight and adjusting to that spindle so it’s getting better. In fact, upon arriving home from SnB (nearly an hour late, thanks to some stimulating conversation with Amanda - thanks gal, it sure lifted my professional spirits) I sat in the dining room and spun some more while DH finished the washing, matting, and pressing of his Gouda for this week.
I also *finally* got around to plying up the rest of that blue Coopworth Snow had graciously given me when I was a brand new spinner. If you can cast your mind *way* back to early August you’ll recall I had plied about 34 yds (that’s the skein in the picture). On the larger drop spindle is the remaining 51 yards of 2-ply.
I found the Coopworth *very* sticky and as such ending up with a somewhat slubby yarn that is fuzzy and prior to washing and blocking feels rather coarse. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it. It would be enough to make matching warmlets, but I’m thinking I probably don’t want it on my more delicate inside of my wrists??? We’ll see what happens after the wash and block.
Oh, but wait, there is more about the Coopworth…
Blue isn’t really my color. I like blue jeans and I do have a few navy items in my wardrobe, but I tend for the green-blues to turqoise if I’m going to wear blues. So, I decided this was a perfect opportunity to get my feet wet in the realm of dyeing. I haven’t dyed yarn before, but it’s the end of the month and the budget is tight and the few dyes I do have on hand from dyeing fabric weren’t right for overdying this yarn. So, I went to the grocery store and picked up some packs of Kool-Aid (which coincidently were on sale for 5 cents less per packet). Here we have the yarn after two cycles in the microwave of 2 minutes on and 2 minutes off. I have 1.5 ounces of fiber roughly so I opted for two packets of Kool-Aid mix - Changin’ Cherry (which gives a teal or blue-green color) and since I figured the yarn was already blue and I’d want a bit more green to it I added a pack of Ice Cool Green Apple. We’ll see what I end up with. I might end up over dyeing it once more with Lemon-Lime to get more green in there. But I thought this would be a good start. I’ll report in on it later in the week. I can report that my fingers are about the color I’d love, LOL!
