Exploring the world of fiber, one draft at a time

My posting can be as frequent or infrequent as my spinning, so be as patient as that fiber, sitting in my stash.

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

A large chain plying project


This is 8 oz of dyed Shetland single I spun during TdF15.  I want to keep those colors so I decided to chain ply. That is my Aura bobbin, which is very large.  The single is 24 WPI.


Three ply.  I am not sure the whole project will fit on one bobbin in spite of the bobbin's large size.

I obviously can not do this many hour project all at once, which means having to figure out how to stop.  Stopping in the middle of chain plying is not easy!  I came up with the solution of putting my loop around the bobbin flyer, it keeps the loop open and has been pretty easy to pick up and start again each time.  It looks like this when I am not spinning.



Monday, September 14, 2015

Batch one, The Big Wash up

This post and the following five are connected to my podcast Yarnspinnerstales, episode 128.

I have been in the habit of just sticking yarns into boxes with the intention of washing them later, in a batch.  The 'later' finally happened, over the last few weeks.  I took photos of each batch as well as updated my Ravelry handspun stash pages as I worked on this project.  You can find me on Ravelry as Yarnspinnerstales.


Polworth dyed by Rovings.  Plied with a natural brown color polworth single.

The roving was one large continuous color progression with no repeats.  When I saw this, I decided I wanted to keep those colors in that progression.  So I rolled all the roving into one big ball, started at one end and kept on spinning until the end.  The challenge was then to keep those singles in order (the start being on the inside of each bobbin) during spinning and plying.  I did this by marking bobbins well and notes.  Also to keep the colors I used the brown for the plying single.  It was a beautiful fiber to spin. Since I was spinning on my Roberta with the regular bobbins, I ended up with 13 skeins of various yardages.  Total is 1243 yards of a 12 WPI 2 ply.


Second batch The Big Wash up


Merino/silk/bamboo top dyed by Lisa Sousa with remaining fiber to be spun.  I got this fiber at Stitches Midwest, and also my Trindle spindle.  So I started spinning this fiber on that spindle right away.  I am still working on this project  and just love the process and the yarn.  170 yards 2 ply 16 WPI.


From left to right:

Magic Five challenge skein, TdF 13, I call it anything but wool.  The challenge was to put 5 things into a batt and spin it.  I used brown llama, light gray angora,white mohair,bright blue bamboo and rainbow color fire star.  This is the order from most to smallest amounts no exact percentages.  I made three batts and spun a single and then chain plied the yarn.  70 yards, 11 WPI 3 ply.

Wild Hair Studio art batt. 47 yards, 2 ply 10 WPI.

BFL dyed by Frabjous Fibers 83 yards, 2 ply 8 WPI

Salish fiber sample skein, woolen spun 2 ply 40 yards.


The next two skeins are the same fiber with different appearances.  
BFL dyed by Cloudlover.  Both skeins are chain plied and 9 WPI.   First is 40 yards, and the second is 124 yards.  The first skein was a state fair entry skein.

Mohair one single dyed purple, milk one single dyed blue, spun on spindles and plied together as a sample skein.  Fondly called my Jimi Hendrix skein because hubby said it looked like I was spinning a purple haze.

Alpaca etc, sample skein to practice support spindle spinning. 17 yards, 2 ply 11 WPI.


Third batch The Big Wash up

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Various dyed fibers in this batch, from left to right:

Merino/tencel dyed by Bonkers.  This 17 WPI, 230 yard 2 ply was spun on my Ashford traditional with a lace flyer.

Enchanted Knoll art batt spun bulky on my Roberta.  This skein is 100 yards 6 WPI 2 ply.  There is a second skein (see photo batch four) that is 72 yards, 7 WPI.

Portuguese Wool Top dyed by Painted Tiger color way Portagallo.  This was a challenge skein.  First I split the fiber fractal for spinning.  I made four singles, but planned them so that those 2 ply would make a cabled yarn.  It is an amazing yarn.  135 yards, 12 WPI 4 ply.

Mohair 100% dyed by Majora Acres.  Sample skein, 38 yards.  Spun on drop spindle.

Merino/ tencel dyed by Damselfly fibers.  225 yards, 18 WPI 2 ply. Spun on the traditional with lace flyer.

Merino tencel combo skein of the green and pink yarns.  I want to put those colors together in a project and as I was spinning it I decided to see if I like the singles plied together.  I do but not for a whole project.  It was a good visual test though of what the two colors looked like together.

Milk fiber 100%. Tiny sample of the fiber made a tiny test skein spun on the Royal Hair spindle.




Fourth batch The Big Wash up



That top photo shows the unwashed skein, the skein in the second photo, far left shows what a difference a nice soak in water will make in a skein's appearance.  I often feel the same after a nice hot bubble bath!

That skein is BFL/silk blend dyed by Natural Obsessions ( sadly no longer in business) the color way is Herb Shoppe. I split the entire roving in half lengthwise and spun each on bobbins from the same end, then 2 plied those singles.  There is 522 yards, WPI? This was spun on my Roberta.

Going on, left to right:

The next two skeins were not in this batch but we're still hanging to dry when I took the picture.  A cameo appearance of the Enchanted Knoll Batts yarn.

Alpaca 100 % koolade dyed by my daughter.  47 yards, 6 WPI 2 ply.

Weslendale fiber dyed by Painted Tiger color way Fairy Ring. 165 yards 2 ply 11 WPI.

Angora/ dyed silk batt by Fluffington Farms, color way Dreamsicle.  Two skeins spun on the Ashford traditional with the lace flyer.  WPI ?  80 and 36 yards 2 ply.

Fifth batch The Big Wash up


These skeins only have one thing in common, their fiber.  I once purchased a Rambouilette fleece and had it processed at Wooly Knob Fiber Mill.  Then later I planned a big two day dye day.  One dye study was to try and dye the tertiary colors of the color wheel.  That should be in a blog post somewhere on this blog.  After I was done with the dye pot, I would take 1 to 1.5 oz of this fiber and use it to exhaust the pots. Over the last two years I have been spinning these fibers on my Haldane, and making 2 ply yarn averaging 12-14 WPI.  These are the colors I got:

Red 95 yards 
Teal 73 yards
Lime Green 100 yards
Light purple 120 yards
Pink 144 yards
Orange 90 yards 
Light Lime Green 93 yards


Purple 100 yards
Maroon Purple 120 yards
Medium Purple 70 yards
Dark Purple 120 yards
Deep Purple 95 yards

Sixth batch The big wash up







This is the last batch, and the yarns were put together because they are all natural colored fibers.  From left to right on the top photo:

Three color batts of CVM from Wild Haire Studio. There are two skeins. First 162 yards and the second 55 yards. Both are 12 WPI and 2 ply.

Cashmere/silk blend I made on my hand cards and spun on a drop spindle.  60 yards 2 ply 17 WPI.

Suri combed top I made medium fawn color. 90 yards 14 WPI 2 ply.

Alpaca color apricot blush carded by me. This is a single of 50 yards.  WPI?

Manx Loaghtan two sample skeins. First was combed and is 25 yards 13 WPI 2 ply.  The second was a test of carding the fiber 48 yards 2 ply 11WPI spun semi woolen.

Cashmere 100% top.  110 yards,14 WPI 2 ply.


From left to right:

Three skeins of Corriedale.  I bought the fleece skirted it and sent it to Wooly Knob Fiber Mill for processing.  These were spun from some of the roving, there is more to spin. First skein was a sample skein, 39 yards 10 WPI 2 ply.  Next two have 300 and 330 yards and are 10 WPI 2 ply.  All were spun woolen.

The last skein is alpaca 100%. I have called it my white/red skein because the fleece I carded into batts had both fawn and white in it.  The skein is a nice consistent color though.  There is 300 yards of a 2 ply WPI?

There is more yarn to wash, but certainly not the amount already done!