Monday, May 18, 2009

Spinning Spinning And More Spinning

I've done a lot of spinning over the last few weeks. The steady rhythm of the spinning wheel and the instant gratification is what draws me to spin each day. I've finished a few skeins and am going to dye up some more fibers this week. Here are some finished (and almost finished) projects.
First off I decided to make a scrappy yarn with some smaller batts that I got in a speed swap on Ralvery. There is a huge variety of wools in each batt. I think in hindsight I should have ripped each batt into smaller pieces. The colors did more pooling than I had anticipated. But, all in all the yarn is pretty. It's a bulky weight and I ended up with 3 skeins equaling about 210 yards or so. I started to knit up a hat with it. It's almost finished. I used up one skein and need to ball up another to finish it. The patter is really cool. The top part is crochet and the rib part is knit. I found it on Ralvery here.
Also, I spun up some of hand dyed wool mill ends. This was intended to become a scarf for my mother in law. She deserves a special little something right now. But, looking at it all spun up, it doesn't have her "spirit". So, I think I'll save this stuff for another project. It's gorgeous... just now quite her. I still have one more skein to do. I'll finish that up tonight. The finished skein is worsted weight and has about 100 yards.
This one is my favorite. I was really concerned about this one because when I dyed it up, the pot got a bit to hot and some of the fiber "burnt" a bit. But, I was able to pick off those parts and still ended up with some yummy and soft yarn. I plied it up with some recycled cashmere mix yarn. So this stuff is insanely soft. I got 282 yards in the large skein! Worsted weight. I've never gotten so much yardage in one skein before. The smaller skein has about 100 yards. I'm thinking this stuff is destined to become a balaclava. It's a hat and scarf all in one. Alaina loves this one, so I think it will be for her.
This last one is still on the bobbin. I'm not sure what to do with it. It's hand dyed merino that I received in a trade. It's the color of fire. Reds to oranges. Right now it's a sport wt. single. I'm really debating weather to leave it like this so it will stripe from reds to orange or to ply it onto itself or onto an other string or yarn.

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