Persistent Knitter

So this weekend I spent some time spinning. This was helped along by the fact that my spinning group met Sunday.  I was very ambitious and took 2.5 fleeces to work on; in addition to the Merino top that I was trying to finish up.  One of the fleeces I took with me to get some opinions on it’s current state. I had washed it this summer; and it had turned Crunchy just recently.  Icky Crunchy. It wouldn’t separate and it was very very icky feeling. The concensus was that I should try to re-wash it. I brought the other fleeces along to compare their status with the crunchy fleece (and to have something to work on just in case I got bored by the purple).  Luckily the crunchy fleece was only a small part of a free fleece. If it weren’t crunchy it would be really nice.  At some point when I have time I’ll rinse it out; I’m debating using soap at all - I don’t want to make the problem worse, but I’m not sure the sticky icky crunchiness will get out with only a hot water rinse.  I’m quite willing to throw it out at this point - but would really like to save it.

So what did I spin? A two ply yarn, probably about fingering weight. I’m really pleased with how it looks plied up. Debbie always says "Plying solves all sorts of problems". That’s a paraphrase, but the basic gist of it.  My yarn was not super smooth as a single.  I was trying different methods of drafting out the yarn, and my ability at the different methods varied.  The look of the plyed yarn on the bobbin was really nice. (It looked like "real yarn" :) I wet it down last night and am hung it up without a weight it to set the twist. It wasn’t twisting back on itself too badly in skein form, but I thought it needed the extra encouragement to be nice to me when I start knitting with it.

I am hoping I can make some mittens or gloves out of it. That’s what
I told myself when I bought the fiber 2 years ago.  I need to check a
couple of patterns out and see how much yardage they require (I have no
idea what yardage I have, but I can count the number of loops in my
skeins to get an idea)

Here are the skeins (3.4 oz total)

A closeup of all the gorgeous yarn glory:

I had some singles left on one bobbin; but thanks to Rebecca, I know how to Andean ply (which is taking one length of yarn and making a two ply out of it without measuring, cutting or creating any waste)***. I told the husband that he was in charge if the kids woke up (one did), as I would be attached to my yarn and wheel for a bit of time.  Here is what it looks like all wound on my hand:

The single strand that goes across my palm is where I started, and then after winding on, the strand coming off the middle finger to the left is the final bit.   The way you wrap it ’stacks’ the yarn around your middle finger; similar to how you’d make a God’s Eye from yarn when you were 10 and doing hideous craft projects at camp. (I do remember liking Lanyards though)

Considering how much was on my hand, I thought I did pretty well in not having my middle finger bent down even farther. Once you slip it off the middle finger, you get a bit of a mess like this:

You have to be careful to keep the two ends of the strands held out, and don’t mix up the yarn on your wrist or it’ll get nasty to unwind.  I plied it on the wheel; which has it’s own problems. You can’t go as fast as you would if the yarn were on bobbins. You have to carefully work the yarn out of the mess so that it doesn’t make any knots. If done properly, it will feed nicely the whole time.  I’ve found the first 10 or so lengths coming off are a bit difficult to feed off your wrist.

I tried hard to make the same kind of ply I did with the first two skeins, it’ll be close enough. It was just barely 0.2 ounces; so I have 3.6 ounces total. I’m really crossing my fingers this is enough to make the gloves I want to with it. I’m actually very excited to knit with the yarn; we’ll see how soon it makes it onto the needles.

*** You can also wind it off into a center pull ball; and ply from both ends. I’ve tried that in the past, and if the singles have any life in them at all, it turns out to be a big huge yarn-tangle mess for me. Using my wrist as resistance as I’m unwinding seems to work just perfectly. Someday I will get a wooden tool to do the winding on; although having the ‘excuse’ to have the husband respond to the children getting up and down in bed is wonderful in some ways :)