SPIN007

Few months ago, not long after I started learning to spin with a spindle, I got a fibre bag from Fibreholics. It contained fibre samples from ten different dyers in the UK. I didn't really spin much as I was really bad at spindling -- I still am.

Last Thursday night, we were watching The Simpsons after dinner. I didn't feel like to knit. Nor did I want to leave my fingers idle. Hence I took all the scraps out and was planning some practice. I left all the bright and feminine colours behind, only picking about 60 grams of darker shades from three dyers. Too bad that I lost all the labels so couldn't tell where they were from. Sigh. A note to myself: Should keep a better record next time if I order any sample bag again.

The three samples I used were:

(1) Royal blue - Only used a teeny bit as it was a bit felted and was difficult to draft. :(

(2) Grey/blue - probably an overdyed grey Shetland. Got a hunch that it's from The Thylacine. Good stuff!

(3) Dark green

I split all the above samples into 4-5 short strips so each was about 4-5 grams in weight. I also found 50 grams of natural brown Corriedale which came with my spindle. It was also split into 5-gram segments. Then I mixed them up and spun all up randomly into two bobbins of single at 10:1 on Ashford Traveller.After plying there was about 86grams with 90 metres pre-wash.

It's generally chunky, but there are some places of thins as fingering. Maybe I should have done more pre-drafting for a better control. Although this attempt at thicker yarn wasn't very successful, I think it's an  enjoyable spin. It's so quick, too. What an instant gratification.

Surprisingly it's not as rough as I thought, though not soft enough to be a cowl. I think I will make a hat or a pair of mitts out of it. :)