SPIN012: Merino

I got 50 grams of merino from Sara's Texture Crafts in early October -- in fact it arrived with the BFL I used in my SPIN001 project.

Twice blended from four different commercially dyed colours: Lawn Green, Citrus Green, Forest and Light Green, doesn't it give you a lively sense of primavera?



I tried spinning for about 6-7 grams in October but didn't get any luck. Nada. The yarn kept snapping for 20-30 times on my wheel. Seriously it meant snapping 5 times for every gram I spun! I knew something's wrong but I didn't know what, so I concluded I wasn't good enough to spin Merino yet. I tried spinning Merino again in November, but I still didn't get the hack of it. Therefore I turned my back to Shetland, BFL and Cheviot, leaving Merino behind with a big "fear factor" label.

Last night I decided to confront my fear factor once more. This time I was luckier. The yarn still snapped and broke for 4-5 times, but it felt a lot less discouraging and more manageable.



As I only got 44 grams, I didn't play in order to get a better yardage. There was about 270 metres with 40 wpi spun up before finishing.



It looked like a Christmas wreath before finishing!

I didn't wreck it that much, though still have given it a very hot water bath followed by a cold one. I bet it didn't shrink a lot but should be given enough treatment to make the single a bit stronger.



After leaving it on radiator for one whole night, it's totally dried. Haven't measured the wpi yet, but it feels like a lace weight to me. I think 270m of lace weight should be enough to make a small Ishbel (I made one in Kidsilk Haze with about 230m), but will this blended colour too fuzzy for Ishbel? Hum... I don't know, but I really really want to make something with it!

But I think I do love this skein. It's my first formal encounter with Merino. Not very even but not too wildly uneven neither. I think next time if I can get a bigger braid (100 or 200 grams), I will definitely ply it up and hopefully plying can smooth out the unevenness and give a rounder, nicer yarn.

SPIN008

Look what I did on Saturday morning!



Two skeins of Cheviot from Wildcraft in colourway Shamrock. I am becoming more into greens in the past few months. Plus I was very interested to try out Cheviot so I grabbed this together with another braid in yellow immediately after I saw them on Wildcraft webshop.

I was planning to do a standard 2-ply so I divided the top into two halves in the middle, then further divided each lengthwise into thin strips of about 3-5 grams.

It's my first time to spin Cheviot. I loved it! It's softer than the English Wool Blend I usually got from Wildcraft. With a medium staple length of about 3-5 inches (according to Wikipedia), it is easy to draft and perfect for a beginning spinner like me.

The colours were lovely. I was amazed by the different shades and depths of greens remained upon spinning. I wasn't sure if the subtle changes in colour would stay after plying, so I changed my mind and decided to keep the two bobbins as singles. Hum... I still don't know if it's really a good idea. Because the two bobbins of single were still quite overspun and very kinky even after I ran them into opposite direction once.

It's also my first time to really "whack" my handspun. I usually finish my handspun yarn by a normal bath in lurk water. But recently I saw some discussions on Ravelry about whacking and fulling singles and understand single yarn needs some agitation to get the lovely "softened & smooth round" look. So I decided to give it a try. I gave the yarn hot-and-cold baths 2 times (Hot, cold, hot, cold). I was quite worried it would become some ugly felted ropes, but I think it managed to survive. The slightly felted look not only made the singles stronger but also gave it a cozy bouncy look which I am really happy with!



I now got two skeins of Cheviot. Both are 52 grams in weight. The pre-wash yardage were 157m and 163m. Pretty close right? Honestly I am quite proud of it. They are relatively even (relatively! to me!). However I noticed a significant shrinkage in the length of both skins. I tried to put it back on to the niddy noddy and found  both skein was about 3-4 inches too short to go back so I think the shrinkage is about 5%. Should still be enough to make a shawlette or a pair of mittens I guess?

SPIN006: Low-Twist Singles

I spun up 120grams of BFL/silk yesterday morning.

The fibre was the November installment of Wildcraft Fibre Club. I wanted to try out some BFL blends for a while. Karen from Wildcraft suggested that BFL/silk or BFL/mohair may be a good start (while BFL/nylon can be trickier).  So I was really delighted to find a braid of BFL/silk when I unwrapped the parcel.

The colour repeats were quite long. About 4 regular repeats over the whole braid. Potentially it could become some stripy yarn. But I finally decided to split the braids into 3 different colours: yellows, reds and the intersections between yellows and reds. Spinning at 5.5:1, which is the slowest ratio on my Ashford Traveller, I got a total yardage of about 448 metres, pre-bath.



It's my first attempt at a low-twist single, too. Lots of unintentional thicks and thins. But I guess I should be more forgiving to my first low-twist singles. I wasn't able to get the right twists neither. They were definitely not low-twist enough. Therefore I had all singles spun over once again in an opposite direction to offset some excessive twists. The result was... well, funny. It turned out that the yellow was just right. It didn't twist by itself when taking off from the niddy noddy. The orange (from the intersections between yellow and reds) was still over-twisted and coiled up. The red one became under-twisted. It broke several times when I reskeined it with a niddy noddy. What to do? I felt it immediately by rubbing the breaks on my palm with a few drops of water. Not sure if it'll survive when it's knit up though.

I find BFL/silk a bit difficult to draft and spin compared to BFL. But no doubt it is a very beautiful fibre. The saffron-like yellow becomes a luxurious gold after spun up. Pretty. And it's soooo soft.

Now I have 3 mini skeins of 58m, 160m and 230m respectively. This time I am very determined to knit something with them. But I am still thinking what to do... Mitts or cowls? Or shawls?

Geez I LOVE spinning. I really do. Knitting and dyeing are great. But spinning, and all sorts of preps involved, really brings the pleasure and enjoyment up to another level. Even though handspuns may not look perfect compared to millspuns lying on John Lewis shelves, it's the unique experience and the learning process making this craft meaningful and addictive.

Hum... what to spin next? Maybe the Targhee from Spunky Eclectic or the natural-coloured BFL from WoW?