handspun

The tree in my apartment is decorated.

The cat is finally satisfied that I’ve paid enough attention to her.

And my yarn is spun.

The fiber is from into the whirled, in the “bird girl” colourway. (Someday, I will remember to take a photo of my unspun fiber before I turn it into yarn, but today is not that day, unfortunately.) It’s 4oz of polwarth, which is my absolute favourite kind of sheep, spun into 212ish meters of worstedish weight yarn.

(I was going for bulky weight, since I planned to knit it into the Capucine hat, but it’s harder than I thought it would be to consistently spin heavy-weight yarn. Most of it is close to a heavy worsted weight, some of it is a bit on the thin side and closer to heavy fingering weight.)

It is a good weekend for some knitting, I think.

more spinning!

3.8oz (107g) of Polwarth fiber from Sheepish Creations, in Ms Merryweather.

I wanted to spin it into a two-ply yarn that was roughly worsted weight, so I started by splitting the fiber in half and spinning each half separately. I split it in half by unraveling the braid, folding it into two, and splitting it when it looked about even. Then I spun my singles, and plied them into this.

About 180m of a DK-ish weight yarn. I’m still new enough to spinning that loud, barberpoled yarns hold a lot of interest for me. I love the effect, and I love watching the colours come together when I ply.

I’m especially proud of this yarn because I got to give it away, to the girl who helped hook me up with my wheel. Not only that, but I feel confident enough in the yarn I’ve made that I’m willing to give it away to someone else. My friend has started making glass jewelry, and I offered to swap her some handspun for a gorgeous grey-and-black glass ring. I love the crafty barter economy.