Persistent Knitter

I have this purple roving (top?) that I bought - beautiful colors. Already prepared, just sit down and spin away. Here’s the history of the stuff:

From top to bottom: The roving. First skein (super fat). Second Skein (much thinner) that I just plyed today. This is very loosely plied (a 3 count when treadling), Third skein that I also plyed today (a 5 count when treadling). On the left is my “sample” I want to match, and on the right is the singles that were left over from all the plying I did.

I bought this stuff thinking I’d love to make myself a pair of beautiful handspun gloves. Well, my first attempt was so over bulky that I’d have looked like a purple Michelin man had I actually tried to knit it up into gloves. It’s pretty thick even for just mittens. I did make a hat out of it though. (see all hat pictures).

I had two of my bobbins being used up by this purple stuff, and with Sheep to Shawl coming, I really wanted all four bobbins that I own free for whatever I felt like doing at the time. So I decided to ply together what I’ve spun so far. The second bobbin I did wasn’t so great, it was really overspun and the plying with it kind of sucked. I haven’t set the twist in it yet, but it’s pretty loosely plied. I don’t know that it’s anything I can fix now that it’s already plied, but I’ll figure out someway to use it.

The second plying I did I decided to put a bit more twist in the plying process. I’m much happier with how this came out. Even if I can’t use that first skein, it was a good learning experience. I also realized that it’s very hard to ply from one ball of yarn, using both ends. I ended up rewinding half my singles yarn into another ball so I could ply without all that extra twisting and tangling. Thus that pile of singles on the right.

The more I spin, the more I realize I don’t know about it. It’s still fun, and that’s the point.

* bonus points to anyone who can figure out the reference in this post’s title. It’s pretty obscure, but maybe not if you have kids.