You Spin Me Right Round

I feel like I've expressed how much I am enjoying my time spinning, but then haven't shared much of what I've finished.  I think that would fall into the "all talk" category.  But I assure you, I am more than talk!  I've been experimenting with different techniques and feel like the learning curve has been steep, but the enjoyment has been astronomical.  I haven't worked out exactly the right format to share what I've finished, but I will do my best and hope it all comes together in a nice post...you know, like magic.

This fist image has three yarns, two of which I dyed myself.  The bottom two in the frame are merino, hand-painted by yours truly.  I tried a bubble crepe with the merino on the bottom, didn't like how it was going, but did like the ply size differential and spiral affect of using thread with the merino- so I abandoned the bubble crepe and went with a just a normal ply with two very different sized fibers.  The middle hank is also a merino, but I didn't do anything too interesting.  I'm still practicing consistency in my yarn thickness.  The resulting yarn for this one was a very gentle thick and thin.  

The hank featured at the top of the image was created from an art batt created by Purple Lamb.  I had two "Anduril" art batts of approximately 2 oz each.  It was my first attempt at spinning a mixture of fibers and decided to do a short forward draft from the fold.  I spun two bobbins, one batt for each, and then plied them together.  The result was a beautiful fingering weight yarn with a nice glossy finish and a lovely drape.  I gifted all three of these yarns to my mom as stocking stuffers for Christmas.  

Next up is my dive into some art yarn.  With another art batt from Purple Lamb called "Rainy Day," I spun a rather careless single (intentionally...I wanted thickish parts and thin parts without a lot of organization.) I then took some commercially spun wool and make a super coil yarn by holding my "Rainy" single perpendicular to the wool running through the orifice.  I allowed the "Rainy" to wrap around the wool and then pushed the resulting wrap up, making the coils tight and close together.  I think this will look interesting in a weaving project I have in mind.  I will say it is a little labor intensive for a very low yield of finished yarn, but it is very funky and fun.  I do not have a picture here, but I also spun a true thick and thin art yarn with my thick bits being spaced at regular intervals.  

Last up for today's post is my subtle gradient yarn, which finished at about a sport weight.  I did a short forward draft on a 4 oz Malabrigo roving (merino) called "Glitter."  (The name is a little deceiving, there is no glitter in the traditional sense to be seen in this colorway, but it does have nice metallic hues without the shine.)  Before I began, I divided the wool up into color groups.  The dye on the roving was such that there were no big sections of any particular shade (light, medium or dark) but I sort of went for averages.  This meant there were some dark bits that got in the light, and vice versa.  I liked it, though, it made for a dynamic and very subtle color shift.  Once I completed the single I did a chain ply to create a very nice pseudo 3-ply yarn.  In this way, I was able to maintain my color groupings without having to worry if separate bobbins of singles would line up properly.  Even with the chain ply I was able to get 200 yards of yarn.  

So...that's what has been coming off my wheel lately.  Next up, I think, will be some beehives.  Woohoo.  I'm learning lots while having fun, and that's pretty awesome.  I'd love to hear about what you're making!