To Pre-Draft or Not

This is my first attempt to spin without mega pre-drafting the roving. I must say it is not as difficult as I thought it would be, at least with this fiber. The roving is a 30% kidmohair, 70% merino, and I think that a 100% merino might be a little more difficult, as it seems to be much tougher, or stickier, I guess would be more the term.  I purchased this roving from my LYS and although she told me, I don't remember the vendor she bought it, as there is not a tag anywhere in my package. I already have one bobbin full.  After this second bobbin is filled, I'll be plying it and will post the resulting yarn.  Until then..

Happy knitting or spinning or whatever your passion!

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Multicolored Roving +

I spun this over this weekend. It is the same multicolored Kid mohair/merino (looks brown here) as in the last post plied with a red roving that I think is a plain merino, but I'm not sure. There was no label on the red.  Again, both were purchased at my LYS.  I got approximately 100 yards after plying 2 oz of the multi with 2 oz of the red merino. Excited!!

Until next time, happy spinning, knitting, or whatever your passion is!

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Spinning: My New Form of Relaxation

Since my last posting  I've been learning to spin. There is so much to learn, so many new terms and techniques!  But I'm thinking it's like anything else new: just jump in and figure it out as you go.  So I rented a Louet S10 DT spinning wheel from my LYS, took a spinning lesson from my LYS owner, Bridgett, watched a lot of YouTube videos, and spun, spun, spun... Most of the results were not very pretty, thus no pictures, but I could see improvement with each new bobbin full of singles.   I am encouraged to continue.

I wasn't sure I would, but I think I really like the process this involves.  Here is a picture of the first skein I was able to spin from some Dark Coopworth carded roving and a small sample that I knit from it.  I can't believe how soft it is.  I wish I had more (Oh, maybe I'll just make some!)

Next I spun two more bobbins, one with the about 3.6 oz of the Dark Coopworth carded roving and one with about 2 oz of a multicolored kid mohair/merino blend of top, intending to ply them together afterward.  I didn't know if this was a good combination of wools or not but I didn't pay much for either so I didn't have anything to lose and experience to gain. Here is a picture of the fibers:

After the spinning was done, I watched a lot of YouTube videos (names of which I can't remember right now) and just jumped in to give plying a try.  After plying the two singles together, I wrapped them around the back of one of my straight back chairs to skein it up. I measured across the back of my chair and calculated that I have about 55 yards of yarn. I then soaked the skein for 15 minutes in a lukewarm water, squeezed the water out, and rolled it up in a towel to dry it further; then I hung it up to dry.  The result is to the right.  The color in the picture isn't very good but I'm still pretty excited about the end product. Maybe next time, I'll have something really pretty to show off.
Until then...happy knitting or spinning or whatever your passion may be!
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Sage Gloves, Slightly Altered

Here is one of several projects that I've worked on since my last
post. Hope to catch up on the year's postings this weekend.
Until then ..
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