Nom nom nom...

It be done.

And dry.

336yds of 2ply laceweight. 2.1oz.
50/50 yak & merino

Its looks much coarser than it feels. Despite the rustic coloration and overall appearance its very, very soft. Its much denser than I expected, though maybe some of that is from working with the polwarth recently. I would be interested to see how 100% yak spun since the merino seemed to hamper the fiber more than help it (I find this true with a lot of down blends, I know some people find them helpful but I'm of the opinion that they mess up the best properties of both fibers). I have not ruled out the possibility that I am simply spinning these blends in an unnecessarily complicated way however.

*sigh* all frustrations aside. She is beautiful, no?

Also - I keep forgetting to talk about the yellow BFL from last year.

This is what the finished yarn looked like:

This Ugly Roving <- Is what it came from.

The ugly roving in the picture was a disaster. It was muddy. it was partially felted. It was just... not a good thing. I persisted in spinning it mostly because I am a strange stubborn person, and also possibly as punishment for messing up some perfectly lovely wool. I spun all 8oz of it, persisted in hating it and then went and got 8oz more.

Because damnit. I was going to save that ugly fiber even if I had to trash another half a pound to do it! I dyed the second batch significantly lighter and more saturated than the first. It was not felted (thank god - by that point I was about ready to scream about how much suck spinning partially felted roving is. Also I think my drafting thumb was threatening to fall off.) but it was day-glo orange in a couple of places, which I decided was better than that unfortunately muddy/pooey greenish yellow that it was in places on the first roving.

A bit of praying and some thankfully solid color theory later and you have the above yarn. The unfortunate bits balanced each other out well and the overall effect is a bright yellowy gold. I had trouble letting go of the yarn in the end. It came very close the matching my car.

I didn't achieve the yardage I set out for, unfortunately. A lot of this is because of the density of the felted singles, some of it is because I was a bad spinner and did not sample, and some of it is because the universe is just like that sometimes. I think the final count of all 4 skeins was in the upper 600yds range, which still isn't bad, of a heavy worsted/Aran weight.

Enough spinning for now. I have 2 sweaters started and a pair of socks 1 heel away from done. Must get back to it.

Experimental swatching

I would really like to rant about the day I had, but seeing as its is still today and time heals all wounds (or at least takes the sting out of them) and attempts at self preservation in this 24hr period seem to be backfiring on me...

I will not rant. I won't even save it for another day.

That does mean that I cannot talk about knitting, but this is OK since I've been in a mad spinning frenzy this evening. Partly coping mechanism, partly wanna finish stuff that I've been working on forever.

First to be finished - my polwarth samples. I picked up 4 oz of polwarth dyed locks at Yarnorama at the last spin in and tried spinning them with different hand preps.

I started out with hand cards and spun about 2/3rds of the fiber with a woolen long draw from rolags. I plied half of it back on itself to see how it changed with plying. I like how lofty the finished yarn is, but the carded prep has a lot of nepps and is fairly uneven. This is typical of woolen yarns to a point but I have spun much more consistent woolen singles than this before.

Part of the problem may have been my cards. Polwarth is a fairly fine wool and I have coarse cloth cards. Part of the problem may also have been the amount of lanolin left on the locks - it was enough to make them somewhat sticky and in hindsight I might have been happier if I had washed the locks before carding & spinning.

I put aside the locks that had the best structure left to them while I was doing this and so for the last third of the fiber I simply flicked them open on both ends and spun them worsted like I would a commercial top. The result is very different from the woolen. Smooth and fairly consistent and it seems to have notably more drape. I enjoyed the spinning this way much more as well. The lanolin effect was vastly reduced when spinning from fibers that were lined up.

The results left to right:

Woolen 2-ply, 176yds & 1.2 oz
Woolen singles, 282yds & 1.1oz
Worsted singles, 420yds & 1.3oz

My missing ~half ounce seems to have gone to a combination of waste/short cuts, VM and lanolin which I did scour out mostly when I washed the finished yarn (I don't like knitting with greasy wool any more than I like spinning it) and this is something I'll take into account in the future when working with locks and fleece vs. roving or top.

One thing I didn't like about these particular locks is the perfume the dyer put on them. It took me a lot more washing than I would normally do to get it mostly out and even now there is a faint scent on them that as one of my knitting friends mentioned smells rather like "Old Lady Perfume". I can only assume this was done to cover up the sheepy smell but I would much have preferred Au de Sweaty Ewe.

I also finally(!) finished the last of my 2oz of 50/50 Yak/Merino.

The finished yarn is lovely and soft. It is still drying at the moment so better photos will follow. I am estimating it at 360yds, but I need to measure the dry hank to be sure of any shrinkage.

This was a complete nuisance to spin and the finished yarn feels like a real accomplishment. The blend was not very homogeneous so I pulled off bits by the "lock" fluffed them and rolled them into mini-faux rolags and then spun them semi-woolen. This mostly limited the tendency to spin out all the merino but there are still sections that are just yak or merino despite all my best efforts. The final yarn is more consistent than I expected considering. There are some thick & thin bits, especially where the first lengths of yarn I spun are, but its a pretty nice heavy lace/light fingering.

Although I really love the brown marl I am considering over dyeing it. I just tend to prefer color to neutrals.

Finally, I spun this much merino:

Its much heavier than all this lace weight I've been doing lately and a nice change of pace. I'm hoping for a 3-ply worsted. Maybe plied with something variegated.

I have a whole pound of the solid so it will be sweater yarn (Or vest yarn if it doesn't get a third alternate color ply).

Mmm... sweater yarn.