I know a bunch of readers are waiting for me to get Harriet, the jacket, out there as a written pattern, and I want you to know it's happening. There's a sleeve with part of the body attached sitting on my living room sofa right now. This morning, however, I got caught up in the excitement of finishing up a little spinning project. A while back I bought a fleece braid of BFL from Turtlepurl in a turquoise/lime green combo. Now, I don't have a wheel; I spin exclusively with drop spindles. And I don't give much priority to spinning (sorry, Natalie!). I use it as a kind of "filler" activity for times when I don't feel like knitting (yes, that happens), or for when I've finished one project and haven't decided what to start next. (Big confession: I'm pretty much a monogamous knitter--usually only one project on the go at a time.) The bottom line is that I produce spun yarn rather slowly. Eventually, when I get close to two full
toilet paper tubes bobbins, I start to feel the momentum building and end up taking part of a day, or perhaps a full day (on and off) to ply. I use a big spindle to do that because I like to spin worsted weight yarn and it takes a large spindle to hold a decent amount. Once that's done I make it into a skein. I have a niddy noddy, but usually here's how I skein my yarn. I apologize for the dark photos. It's a grey day with rain in the offing.
The tall jar acts as a "kate". I use my right hand to turn the swift, using the little handle at the top. It's the reverse of how the swift is normally used. Next up is a close-up of the newly plyed wool.
The way I spin it "off the fold" causes even my singles to barberpole. By the time the yarn is made into two plies, the colours blend quite nicely. I like this effect and don't bother to make yarn with graduated stripes.
After the winding, the skein has a bath and gets hung to dry. A re-purposed music stand helps out.
Notice how the washing makes the wool "fluff out"?
Well, now that that's out of my system, it's back to Harriet.
P.S. No idea what I'll do with this yet, but I'm sure this skein will speak to me sometime soon.
