I don't know, I don't blog for a couple of days then a couple of posts come along at once.
I thought I was time I started posting a bit about the fun I've been having with those samples I posted a photo of back on the 4th of August. As I've got a braid of beautiful Corriedale from Yarnscape begging to be spun I thought I would start with the undyed New Zealand Corriedale sample.
My first attempt was a fairly fine set of singles, the idea being to then ply them to a laceweight. I may have overshot my initial idea a bit when I ended up with a plied yarn at 44wpi! The problem is that the yarn is really rather "crunchy". I suspect I've overplied rather than underspun as, when comparing the final yarn to the self plied sample it looks miles out. That I've overcooked something in the spin/ply was rather highlighted when I then knit up a small sample square. From the photo below you can see the blatant bias when it is knitted up using stockinette stitch. Believe it or not that sample was knitted on 2.25mm needles which are the smallest I own!
As you can see I'm documenting the stages of the spinning, partially in the hopes that I learn from my mistakes, but also so that I can recreate the bits I appear to get right. As it all fits into an A5 folder I'm hoping it will be small enough for me to throw in my bag when wandering around fibre fairs. That way I can see at a glance what type of yarn I can produce from which breeds, and compare the braids etc on offer with the samples that I have also stuck in.
It has to be said that I'm enjoying the freedom of having bought fibre purely to play with. The first 10g or so turned into an utter snakes wedding, resulting it a fast trip to the bin, after I decided that making a plying ball with singles the weight that went into that sample above was a good idea... using a ball winder! It really wasn't. Not keeping them under tension resulted in the biggest yarn barf I've ever seen! Most irritating. The next 2g or so formed the sample above, and another 8g (can you see what I'm doing here :) ) has been spun into 22wpi singles. So so soft! Although I've finished the yarn I've yet to knit up the sample so that one has yet to be documented. You really wouldn't believe both mini-skeins came from the same fleece though.
As to the rest, I've almost finished spinning 10g up on the Russian and there is another 10g on the Amboyna. The stuff on the Russian really is experimental as I'm still not comfortable with a long draw. The slubbyness is decreasing although I'm still very very much at the park and draft stage. The slowness with which I've picked up supported spinning is driving me nuts, but providing many good lessons if only I had the patience to learn them! I've not really decided what to do with the singles on the Amboyna yet. I don't want to leave them as singles as I've got a good sample of that already. As I'm probably going to use the last 10g to redo the lace 2ply (after I've figured out what went wrong last time!) I'm thinking a 3 ply could be interesting. Going that route I suspect will give me a sock-ish weight, probably tending a little towards the lace side rather than the chunkier side. Either way it will be interesting to compare 3 ply to the 2ply. Then I just need to get another bag to spin chunkier yarns, low twist, high twist, n-ply.... or maybe not until I've worked through all of the other samples!
I thought I was time I started posting a bit about the fun I've been having with those samples I posted a photo of back on the 4th of August. As I've got a braid of beautiful Corriedale from Yarnscape begging to be spun I thought I would start with the undyed New Zealand Corriedale sample.
My first attempt was a fairly fine set of singles, the idea being to then ply them to a laceweight. I may have overshot my initial idea a bit when I ended up with a plied yarn at 44wpi! The problem is that the yarn is really rather "crunchy". I suspect I've overplied rather than underspun as, when comparing the final yarn to the self plied sample it looks miles out. That I've overcooked something in the spin/ply was rather highlighted when I then knit up a small sample square. From the photo below you can see the blatant bias when it is knitted up using stockinette stitch. Believe it or not that sample was knitted on 2.25mm needles which are the smallest I own!
As you can see I'm documenting the stages of the spinning, partially in the hopes that I learn from my mistakes, but also so that I can recreate the bits I appear to get right. As it all fits into an A5 folder I'm hoping it will be small enough for me to throw in my bag when wandering around fibre fairs. That way I can see at a glance what type of yarn I can produce from which breeds, and compare the braids etc on offer with the samples that I have also stuck in.
It has to be said that I'm enjoying the freedom of having bought fibre purely to play with. The first 10g or so turned into an utter snakes wedding, resulting it a fast trip to the bin, after I decided that making a plying ball with singles the weight that went into that sample above was a good idea... using a ball winder! It really wasn't. Not keeping them under tension resulted in the biggest yarn barf I've ever seen! Most irritating. The next 2g or so formed the sample above, and another 8g (can you see what I'm doing here :) ) has been spun into 22wpi singles. So so soft! Although I've finished the yarn I've yet to knit up the sample so that one has yet to be documented. You really wouldn't believe both mini-skeins came from the same fleece though.
As to the rest, I've almost finished spinning 10g up on the Russian and there is another 10g on the Amboyna. The stuff on the Russian really is experimental as I'm still not comfortable with a long draw. The slubbyness is decreasing although I'm still very very much at the park and draft stage. The slowness with which I've picked up supported spinning is driving me nuts, but providing many good lessons if only I had the patience to learn them! I've not really decided what to do with the singles on the Amboyna yet. I don't want to leave them as singles as I've got a good sample of that already. As I'm probably going to use the last 10g to redo the lace 2ply (after I've figured out what went wrong last time!) I'm thinking a 3 ply could be interesting. Going that route I suspect will give me a sock-ish weight, probably tending a little towards the lace side rather than the chunkier side. Either way it will be interesting to compare 3 ply to the 2ply. Then I just need to get another bag to spin chunkier yarns, low twist, high twist, n-ply.... or maybe not until I've worked through all of the other samples!
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