Fiber Friday returns: Devil's Sprout

Fiber: Hello Yarn Fiber Club April 2011, "Sprout" Targhee
Spun/plied: 15:1, 12:1, 2-ply
Final stats: 946 yds/~8 oz, around sportweight.

I knew as soon as this fiber darkened my doorstep that it was destined for one person, and one person only:
Is there any way that could match her eyes better?

 

I split each 4 oz piece of top into three pieces, then stripped those down to 4 pieces each. I threw it all in a bowl bag (the Wee Ridiculous Dog LOVES fiber, and I had several heartbreaking instances of finding him on the floor gnawing on a large hunk of Targhee - wretched creature!) and spun the sections at random using a short forward (worsted) draw.

I was hoping to finish all the singles before RAB, but such was not to be. The day we got back from Cornwall, I started back in, and managed to finish up the plying by this past weekend. I tried to ply a little more loosely then I usually do, hoping for a less dense finished yarn. It seems to have worked out - almost a thousand yards from half a pound is pretty good!

I think Dev is pretty pleased with the result. She wants a simple crewneck cardigan out of this stuff, which I think will be gorgeous. Although the prospect of a sportweight cardigan for a 6 year old who will grow out of it nano-seconds after it is finished is a bit daunting. Thankfully Boo's eyes seem to be tending towards a similar color, so maybe she'll get some use out of it as well!

I can't wait to start. Maybe by September - there are too many projects already in the works! Like this pile o' wool:

This is my pile for the TdF (detailed notes on the Flickr page). It works out to 2.75 lbs total, which is just over last year's total (39 oz vs 44 oz). That is, provided this plan doesn't get completely thrown out the window because of a super secret handspun project(TM) that may be in the works. We'll see...but a weekend with Wimbledon and Le Tour? Bliss!

FF: Shaking Leaves

My resolution to make Tuesdays a spinning day/night seems to be working, for behold: my second finished yarn in the last month!

Fiber: Hello Yarn Fiber Club January 2011 offering, "Shaking Leaves" Finn top
Spun/plied: 9.25:1/7.5:1, chain plied
Final stats: 10-14 wpi (worsted/aran weight), 275 yds/~4 oz (~1100 ypp).

I love these colors (which are a bit greener then they're showing up on my monitor) - they remind me of the beach in Charmouth on the Jurassic Coast. I decided to spin this fiber up for a Baktus scarf (or a scarf with a similar construction), so I wanted to spin it in a way that would generate stripes of more-or-less the same width as the scarf was knit from end to end. I split the entire length of top in half, then split one half again, and spun it up as follows: 1/4 width, 1/2 width, 1/4 width. Then I chain plied the singles to keep the striping.

I've noticed of late that my spinning output seems to have shifted towards a lighter, loftier, less dense yarn, and this was no exception. I spun the singles with a short forward draw at 9.25:1, and chain plied at 7.5:1, trying not to overply. And I managed to end up with a yarn that came off the niddy noddy balanced (!) - I don't think that's ever happened before.

You can see in these photos how much less tightly plied this is then some previous chain plied yarns. Before washing I had 298 yds at 17-20 wpi. After a soak in cool water, the Finn Puffball Effect worked it's magic and I ended up with 275 yds at 10-14 wpi. Poof!

I still like the Baktus idea for this yarn. Maybe a lacy one. Or an extra lacy one. Anyone have a vote?

May is for Red

May 1st was the beginning of the fifth round of Project Spectrum, the brainchild of Lolly. Originally started as an exploration of color, before moving on to inspiration from the cardinal elements and the four directions, she's gone back to the color wheel. May's color is red, followed by green, blue, pink, yellow, cyan/aqua and black/white/grey. My goal for Project Spectrum is to end up with either a spinning or a knitting project for each month/color, and to do some photography. The photography might end up here or on the other blog, so check there if you haven't seen any project spectrum stuff.

I've also come to the conclusion that if I don't designate one night a week for spinning, my wheel will rust away and I'll go insane. Last week was spinning night, and I happily went off, on time for once because my MIL was in town, with two bags of Hello Yarn fiber to play with. I was beyond excited.

And then I got there and realized I'd forgotten kind of a critical piece of the spinning wheel – the mother of all. So I prepped all that lovely fiber, and then ate crisps and drank wine for the next hour and a half. The next night I sat down at the now complete wheel and got to work on some Wensleydale laceweight singles.

Fiber: Hello Yarn Fiber Club August 2010, Wensleydale, colorway “Heirloom”. I got 510 yds out of about 4 oz.
Spun at 7.5:1, short forward draw – no plying.
Finished with three rounds of hot water, cold water with agitation.

I spun this fiber in a color progression. First I separated out all the colors: chartreuse, orange, red/purple, pinky brown and brown/black. My idea is to knit a shawl with this yarn, with stripes of approximately the same size, so I started with the color I had the least of (chartreuse), and then went in order by weight to end with the brown/black. I'm thinking either Citron or the Holden Shawlette would work well, but I'm open to suggestions...

So for now, a la Yarn Harlot, Tuesdays are for spinning. We'll see what else comes off my wheel over the next few weeks, and also what else pops up in the red corner of the color spectrum.

Monogamy is boring

Project monogamy that is. I've been slogging away on the handspun sweater without a break for the last week plus, and I'm almost to the underarms. It's lovely, but I've had to tink back 300+ stitches several times because I used the wrong color a few rows back, and I'm getting a bit tired of it. Thank goodness it's April 1st and I can start my new socks!

Originally this yarn was slated for Vinnland socks, but when I pulled it out I decided that particular pattern really needed a solid color yarn. So I cast on for Nornir, the Round 2 pattern for Sock Madness 5 - it's working beautifully with the short color runs in this yarn (Woolcraft Superwash Sock Yarn).

I also had a fit of procrastination last week and finished spinning up the Little Barn tweedy fiber I started at the last Spin Night at the beginning of March.

 

It's actually a lot darker in real life - teal and navy and fuschia. The two big skeins are 562 yds of true 3 ply, fingering weight. The teensy skein is the remaining singles chain plied - I didn't both to measure the yardage, but it's probably somewhere in the range of 15-20 yds. Aka not much. This is not the softest yarn in the world, but it will be okay for mittens or something like that, somewhere down the road. Spun/plied at 15:1/12:1, drafting style was short forward draw from the fold.

I've also got a couple more sweater projects on the brain, so there's been much swatching going on.

This is the latest one. The plan is to knit up the prototype in the next month and write up that pattern for testers to finish by early June. I think it will be cute, but we'll see.

So, Month 3 is done - socks were finished, sweater was not, but I'm still plugging away. Hopefully it will be April's sweater.

There has been spinning

But only a very little bit.

Finished before the half-term holiday:

Mom's All Spun Up Falklands. This little hank (~50 yds) was left over from my failed attempt to get the whole 4 oz on to one bobbin while I was plying. It's nice and squooshy and fluffy. I love how the browns and greens and bit of blue in the fiber blended together in the finished yarn. Now must find some itty bitty project for this.

Last week, I was feeling spin-deprived, so I pulled out this and whipped it up in a couple of nights.

Hello Yarn Fiber Club, superwash merino in "Curiosities". It's been a long time since I spun anything but friggin' Falklands wool, so it took me a little while to get used to the slipperiness of the superwash. It was so slippery! I also noticed this time around that it felt a bit plasticky while I was spinning it - none of that remained in the finished yarn, but it was just an observation.

Spun/plied at 9:1/6.5:1. Finished with a soak in warm water and wool wash, then thwacked and hung to dry.

I ended up with 200 yds from the 4 oz, at ~8 wpi. As you can see, not the most even spin I've ever done. I found it hard to control the superwash slipperiness, and it took a long time to get comfortable with it. I was planning on a baby surprise jacket for a friend, but since the yarn came out pretty bulky, I'm going to have to reconsider that plan. A hat maybe? A cushy cowl? Hmmm....