twistedloops

Yesterday, the Rose & Ram Knit Shop in Independence, OR held a New Year’s Day Knit/Spin-in for a few hours.   Since I didn’t have anything going on, I decided to head up there.  I forgot my camera, and didn’t remember to use the cell phone camera, so there are no photos to show.  However, it was a nice event, and about 30 women showed up to spend a few hours together.

I packed up to head out.  I decided to take my wheel to the event, but took some knitting along too, just in case.  In an overly optimistic bit of planning, I took a second bobbin along, so I could switch bobbins when the first got too full.  Needless to say, that second bobbin never got used.  I ended up spending all two hours there spinning, talking, and watching others spin.  At this point in my spinning, I learn a lot from just watching other spinners in person.

I was spinning some really pretty handpainted superwash merino roving from Lanas de Libelula.  It’s roving I won as a contestant in Black Sheep Bingo this summer, long before I learned to spin.  I’d almost traded it away for some sock yarn.  Now I’m glad I hung onto it.  In total, I had about four onces of the roving.  I spun a bit at the event, and then came home and spent the rest of the day spinning.  I managed to spin all four ounces in one day.

I was aiming for a finer yarn than the corriedale that I spun earlier, I was hoping to even make a fingering weight yarn.  I wasn’t sure I could do it, since the previous yarn I spun was more of a heavy worsted to bulky weight yarn.  However, the singles were spun up at approximately 30 wraps per inch.

I split the fiber over two bobbins so I could turn it into a two ply yarn.  After plying, I had about 266 yards of an 18 WPI yarn.  I then soaked it in a sink full of hot water for about 30 minutes.  When I returned to the sink, there had been some bleeding of color, and the water was a pinky-red color.  After soaking, I squeezed the water out of the yarn, rinsed it in a sink full of cold water, and then thwacked it on the counter a few times.  I hung it to dry and waited.  I was rewarded with a nice, 15 WPI yarn.

15 WPI is more of a sport/DK weight than fingering, but still a lot finer yarn than I was spinning with the corriedale.  I’m pleased with the way this yarn turned out.   With 266 yards, I think that there is enough to make something – maybe even some handspun socks!