A Kiwi to dye for...

So I got myself a spinning wheel.

I loved drop spindling (I still do in fact!), but at one point I felt the need for speed... We became friends quickly, and now we'll celebrate our second anniversary in November. We started out spinning our way through fibre samples, and eventually came to the point where we dared tackle pretty braids like this one (Malabrigo Nube - Posión)...

... which we transformed into this yarn, that is still waiting to be knit up. This was the first time I intentionally used the method known as "fractal spinning".

Soon after I got my Kiwi I also felt the urge to dye fibre braids (and, to a slighlty lesser degree, yarns). So far, I've tried Easter egg dyes, Kool Aid and plant dyes. I have kettle dyed and hand painted both fibre braids and skeins of yarn, I have even tried ice dyeing. Oh, let me just show you the ice dyeing result, since I've spun that up already.

So this was the result of my first attempt at ice dyeing. I used several colours of KoolAid for this colourful braid.

I learned a lot from that experiment, and will have to try again with some improvements to the dyeing process, but well, not too bad for a first try. When the time came to make yarn, I decided that this spotty braid called for another session of fractal spinning, and I think this pretty skein proves me right:

That tiny skein in the front were the leftovers I quickly n-plied because I didn't want to waist a single yard...

I must admit that little Kiwi did not get quite the attention I would love to give him lately, due to the fact that there is now a rampaging toddler in the house, but I feel our time will come again soon. I can't wait to spin up the pretty braids that are waiting in my fibre stash. In the meanwhile, I have been using my spindles again more often - I love taking them out to the playground when I watch my girls play and / or sleep. I am almost garantueed to attract at least a couple of kids who are eager to find out what it is I am doing (some kind of witchcraft for sure...). I am always happy to educate them ;).

Oh, and I have even had a try at making my own spindles out of chopsticks and polymer clay.

And you know what? I used them to spin the finest yarn I've ever spun! I love them, and want to make more!

Oh well, that's it for today... little one will wake up soon.

Mindful Spin-Along

Mandobug from Mandobug Crafts has been hosting a "mindful spin-along" in her ravelry group these past two months - and it's still running until the end of August. The whole point of this spin-along is to know what you want to do with your yarn before you start spinning.

The goal I set for myself was to spin enough chain plied worsted weight yarn to make a cushion cover. I did not have a specific pattern in mind - I decided I would make up my own pattern. The hardest part for me (as a new drop spindler - this is my first "big" spinning project) would be to spin consistently over more than one skein. I'm spinning on my 75g bottom whorl spindle.

So what have I got so far? I am trying to spin approximately 50 grams at a time, and the spinning went really smoothly when I spun the first single in June - it took me just over a week. I was really happy with the evenness of that single.

After plying I ended up with 52 grams and 97 m of DK weight (11 WPI) yarn. Not quite what I was aiming for, but hey - it looks surprisingly good, and since I'm designing my own pattern I'm flexible when it comes to yarn weight, right?

So I was quite enthusiastic when I started my second single. I was off to a good start, but then I seemed to be hitting some kind of a wall - the fibre suddenly seemed to be very hard to draft, I had trouble producing an even thread, etc. I'm still not sure what the real reason for those problems was, but they lasted for about two weeks, until about a week ago. At that point, I had spun up about half of my second chunk of fibre - which had taken me WEEKS. I spun up the second half in merely FOUR DAYS! Only difference I can see: the weather. It had changed from very hot (around 30° C) to what to me is comfortable temperatures (around 20° C)...

Anyway, all those problems aside, I was now curious to find out if I would match the DK weight of my first skein... The single did seem very thin...And...uhm... nope. When I took the plied yarn of the spindle and wound it on my niddy noddy I measured it in five or six different spots, and always got the same result: 18 WPI (give or take a wrap). Oops - looks like I've spun a light fingering weight...? The picture was taken before I gave it a hot bath - the yarn is almost dry now.

I will not be able to use this second yarn for my cushion - so what will I do with it? My meterage estimate for this skein is 167 m, which might just be enough for a pair of fingerless mittens.

So while I seem to be getting fairly good at spinning one single evenly, I need to work on matching yarn gauge when spinning more than one skein. My next step will be to try for DK weight again. I've still got plenty of Coburg Fox top, so I'll keep on spinning...

My first handspun yarn

I finally started spinning my own yarn. I bought a spindling starter kit last September, but it was just lying - until about two weeks ago. Since I do not know anyone who is spindling and can show me, I am relying on youtube videos and a Craftsy class to learn how to do it.

The starter kit came with about 100 grams of top in a nice dark brown (the picture only shows a small portion of it). I fear I can't tell you what kind of wool it is - I just don't know!

Anyway, my plan was to try spinning two singles and then ply them together. So I spun up about half the material I had and ended up with this single:

The thickness of the yarn varied greatly, it was quite lumpy bumpy especially at the start, but my spinning got more even towards the end. So the next thing I did was spinning up the rest of the roving - and I loved the result! Of course it was not perfect - how could it be after just a couple of sittings - but the thickness of the yarn was way more consistent than on my first try. I was so excited that I even forgot to take a picture... Anyway, because of the huge difference in how my two singles looked I decided to chain ply them individually rather than make a 2-ply yarn out of those very different singles.

The first third or so of my first wonky single didn’t really ply very well, and the yarn even broke at one point - I guess it was the yarn I produced during my first sitting and I didn’t put enough twist into it. After that plying ran slightly smoother, and while the result looked quite bumpy as a whole, I did actually see some stretches of yarn that look really nice. 

Plying the second single was a much more pleasant experience than plying the first one, although the yarn still broke once near the end - at a point where I had obviously rushed a join after the yarn had broken during spinning (I was able to fix it, though). My second yarn came out a lot more even than the first one - there still are some slightly thinner or thicker stretches, but the differences are by far not as extreme as in the first one. Overall I have to say I am really pleased with the look of my second plied yarn.

Right, so how much yarn did I make? My first wonky skein weighs in at 43 grams (1.5 oz), and has about 18 meters (just under 20 yards). Most of it is bulky to super bulky. The second skein is 51 grams (1.8 oz) and about 43.5 m (46.5 yards) of worsted to aran weight yarn. Just for comparison, a picture of both skeins together:

I had so much fon making my first yarn(s) that I have already bought more wool to spin. Just trying to decide what my next yarn will be... Bluefaced Leicester, Icelandic Sheep or Coburg Fox Sheep?