Sigh. It was tough coming back from vacation. This was our home away from home for 9 glorious days: Sailing Vessel Pink Panther LS chartered from Sunsails, out of Tortolla, British Virgin Islands. Wish I was still back there: sun, tropical breezes, beautiful sailing weather, sandy beaches, wonderful snorkeling, and lobster BBQ on the beach…
Okay, enough of wishful thinking and back to spinning, as the entry title suggests.
Thank you, Amy for your pictorial of how you prep and spin your thick and spin. Believe it or not, I do split my rovings and pre-draft. But, that’s about all we did in common, and where I go wrong (in terms of making thick and thin yarn).
While I was pre-drafting this beautiful hand-painted roving from Paradise Fibers, I realized that, while I’ve always split and predrafted the roving, I don’t always make them into consistent sizes. So, you say, shouldn’t you still get thick and thin? Wouldn’t the thick and thin spots be more exaggerated? If one were to take my statement at face value, that would be so. But, I get the fiber into such a state that it can be drafted again easily, while spinning. Yes, I continue to draft while I spin, so that I get a nice even yarn.
So, following Amy’s advice, I tried really, really hard not to draft again while spinning the pre-drafted roving. But, I keep catching myself drafting more. But I like the results so far.
It’s more DK weight than worsted, but it’s a good first attempt.
I had a little problem with this wool because it’s superwash merino. I don’t know what possessed me to buy this, except that I possibly thought that it was the wool/silk blend that I also bought a bump of. The superwash should have made it good sock yarn, but I thought that merino was too soft and wouldn’t wear well for socks. I was also hesitant to turn it into thick and thin singles because I was worried that it would pill or, worse, fall apart, because the superwash wouldn’t allow the wool to lock together when softly spun.
Oh, well, that’s what experimentation is all about, right? I have about 10 oz of this. I should be able to make something out of this yarn. I really love the colors in this colorway.
Amy
I can see why you bought it, its gorgeous. Thicker singles are so much easier on the indian head wheel. 10 oz might do a nice vest.
spaazlicious
Those colours are really beautiful. Do you know how to make slubby yarn? You could make a slubby single, then a laceweights single and ply them together, maybe starting from opposite ends of the colourways so you’d have different colours plied together. It’d make an interesting yarn and the plying could increase its strength and durability.
The nice thing about fibre you’ve no idea what to do with is it can open you up to different experiments…it’s the fibre I love and have plans for that I’m afraid of ruining that sit in the stash forever.
Do you mind if I ask if that boat was a private charter that you guys sailed, or did you book the boat and crew through an agent, or…? I think we want our next vacation to be a roving one –not the fibre– either by boat or by car, I’d prefer boat but I’m not sure I could face a cruise and we don’t have the skill set to navigate ourselves.