Spinorama
Had a lovely time yesterday at Jetsyknits’ home, where a group of us got together to sit by the fire and spin wool into yarn. Meanwhile, the menfolk went out and hunted bear for the coming winter. Okay, maybe not, but it does sound rather colonial.
I hadn’t spun in a while, except occasionally on Pat’s fiber. I think it’s because I can’t bear the thought of actually finishing that fiber up. So I decided instead to start fresh with a bag of fiber I got on the way back from St. Louis in 2007. If you were around then, you may remember the post about Murfreesboro, TN and the wonderful people I met and the great time I had during my oh-so-brief trip through town. This was the Three Bags Full wool that I got from The Knaughty Knitter.
This spun up quick! After about an hour and a quarter, there was only about 1/3 of the bump left. There are a few reasons for that.
One, I always find myself spinning up about dk weight. That just seems to be what my hands go to by default. This time, the fiber had such a rustic quality that it seemed to want a little more heft to it, so I tried to spin thicker. Naturally it went faster. It’s mildly uneven in thickness, since if I let myself stop thinking about it, I started pulling less fiber into the yarn and it thinned out. Fortunately, the fiber has so much character that it doesn’t really matter.
Two, this fiber had a lot of silk noils and bits of tussah. There was really no point in going for a nice uniform texture, because it was going to be bumpy no matter what I did. Might as well go with it.
I also have a tendency to underspin, so this time I cranked up the twist, which may not have been so necessary with a thicker yarn, but was still fun to do.
Here it is spun up. After this photo, I sat down and spun up the rest, and it pretty much filled the bobbin. It’s still on the bobbin, because I cannot decide whether I should ply it or not. Opinions?
I also can’t decide what I should knit with it. It’s got such a great rustic character that it could go a lot of ways. You really wouldn’t have to design a busy stitch pattern to let it shine, this yarn would do a lot of work for you.
I should also mention that Jetsyknits’ husband sells gorgeous drop spindles on etsy and I look forward to seeing him put some new ones up. But no pressure. Ahem.
Anyway. Jet, I had a great time. Thanks for having us over. I think this got some of my spinning mojo back. And that’s good, because I don’t have enough other things to do with my time.
Oh, wait…