What I've Been Up To...

Spinning! (Surprise.)

A little bit of knitting, too, but it's a project for work and I'm not sure I'm allowed to show it. (It's a test pattern.)

But I can surely show photos of my spinning!

This is 4.5oz of Superwash Merino from Lorna's Laces. The colorway is Gold Hill. I spun it into a 2 ply sock yarn and I can't wait to knit with it.

I had a good time spinning this one. The roving came in a huge bundle of three-ish color blots of red, gold-orange, and green. I split it up into 8 or 10 long strips and spun them end to end to get the most out of the colors.

Plied from a center pull ball to get all the yardage in one big skein. (Kind of a fun way to ply, really.)


Next up is the chocolate-y mocha laceweight that I was working on when I last blogged.

The color in this photo is a bit lighter than the yarn really is. It's more accurate in my previous post.

This one was quite a challenge to spin! All that laceweight and all that time. But I really love how it came out.

I have about 400 yds here - enough to do a lace scarf with. I'll have to look for a great pattern for it.

As much as I like this one, spinning it was a bit of a bore. I really love solid color yarns, or even tonal solids, but spinning a solid is definitely an exercise in prolonged patience. I started with an 8oz bag, fully committed to spinning at least 4oz for the laceweight, and only plowing my way through 2.5oz. Oh well. *wink*


And now for the pièce de résistance!

Fiber is BFL and was purchased at Shepherd’s Harvest in Lake Elmo, MN over Mother’s Day weekend. I bought two 3oz braids that had bits of green, burgundy, and lime green over undyed oatmeal.

In prep, I tore out all of the lime green sections (will later spin those pieces into something else) and split each braid up into 8 long strips. Spun them every which way to sunshine to get the colors to be as random as possible.

I’m very happy with how this yarn turned out. It’s my most even and consistent handspun yet!

And a before and after spinning shot comparison:
(click to embiggen)