Posted under spinning
Some friends are steadfast and reliable. Other friends are fickle and you never quite know what kind of reception you’ll receive when you see them. My relationship with spinning is a lot like the latter. Sometimes I just can’t get enough and other times when I sit at the wheel nothing goes right. I end up spinning much too thin or I can’t seem to get enough twist into the yarn, so it keeps breaking.
This past week, my wheel has reentered my life and boy have I had a blast with it. I think that my lack of enthusiasm for the whole act of spinning has centered on the fact that I’ve been working on a huge project. In an effort to live up to my resolution to knit with what I spin, I decided to spin up some laceweight to fingering weight yarn for a shawl.
I chose some Colonial Blue that I’ve had in my stash for years. Unfortunately I acquired this wool early in my spinning career and did not realize that unspun wool needs to breathe. Storing them in plastic bags within plastic bins is a strict no-no.
You know what happens next.The wool became slightly felted and I had to do a lot of preconditioning to loosen up the fibres. The first two bobbins has taken me months to complete. When I finally had them done, I knew I deserved a treat. I chose some roving from the Yarn Wench.
It’s called Roots and it’s a Falkland wool roving. You can see more pictures of this gorgeous roving here. Using the method I learned from Kristi, I split the roving into 3 parts lengthwise. My plan is to spin enough up for a 3-ply yarn for socks.
Once I started I could. Not. Stop. I got 1/3 of the roving done the very day I started it. When I was done, I mourned the fact that I did not have any empty bobbins to continue.
Now at least, I have better incentive to finish plying the Colonial Blue.
