I’ve got two finished spinning projects to report! Two at a time! It’s crazy!
I hurried up to finish this first rainbow striping stuff the night before Earl arrived, but then once Earl was here, I was too busy blogging abut and bonding with him to report it.
I started with eight ounces of awesomely dyed roving from Vines on etsy. It’s an interesting fiber blend of 60% superwash merino, 25% mohair and 15% nylon. It came in two 4-ounce chunks, which I split down the middle, tried to spin evenly, then navajo-plied to keep the colors intact. I ended up with 289 and 346 yards respectively, which means that I didn’t do a very good job of keeping my singles the same width. One skein could pass as sport weight, the other one is pushing worsted. Neither is really enough on its own to make a pair of socks.
For some reason, this yarn is begging me to make it into a baby sweater or maybe some pants.
The second batch is my first spinning on Earl. I had eight ounces of hand painted organic merino from Spunky Eclectic. I went a little nuts when she finally updated her store a while back, and this was one of the things that showed up in the box when I opened it.
I love this colorway, but it’s not at all something I can wear. I look horrible in black. What was I thinking? Except maybe it was worth it just to watch the colors come together while I plied.
I managed to spin a little more consistently on this project, and the yarn is overall a bit finer two-ply – a light fingering weight. It came out to 990 yards, which could make a good-sized shawl or even a sweater. I feel like a salesperson, but it could be yours for $75 if you want it. I really wish it were my colors, because it’s smooth and squishy and quite soft.
I think I’m going to take a couple of days off spinning now, because my hands are doing that repetitive stress injury thing. That, and I want to focus on the little crazy lace project I’ve been working on. Next up, though, is the giant pile of alpaca I bought at Shepherd’s Harvest. I’ll be using Rosie for this one, mostly because I have more bobbins for her than for Earl.
Back to Earl for a minute, though. I really feel like I got to know him a bit this past week. It took a bit to get in the habit of starting the wheel in the right direction smoothly, and I have to oil him in different spots and more often than Rose. The drive band broke a couple of days in – he came with what looked like a flax twine, and I scrambled around for a moment before downloading instructions from the internet and digging out some fine crochet cotton as a replacement. It’s working fine now, and the process gave me a little more confidence in my ability to take care of this machine in the long run. I’m even more happy with the purchase at this point, and pretty sure that I’ll use it as more than a piece of decoration.
Pretty yarn. Is there enough for a CSJ (Child Surprise Jacket)? ( new pattern from Schoolhouse Press)
What would my cost be for the yarn. It’s always more because of the exchange.