30 days of spinning - week one

 So after the first week of the challenge, how's it been going? Quite well actually.

I finished the spinning on my Ashford Sliver, and learned a valuable lesson in splitting and spinning one's fibre evenly.  I imagine what happened here was that I was still getting used to the wheel, and ended up with uneven tension on each bobbin.

The finished 2-ply skein is approximately 180m of soft yumminess - I'm planning on making a cowl for myself with this so I can show it off.

The remained didn't go to waste though. Following a suggestion from Constanza, I tried chain plying the leftover single. There was much cursing and stomping of feet, but I finally yielded up about 35m of chain plyed yarn.. which I of course forgot to take a picture of.





The next project I had ready to go. I had a couple of colours of Bronte Glen Merino, and I wanted to try my hand at blending the colours to make a graduated yarn. My increments were 100% steel blue, 75% blue 25% white, 50% blue and white, 25% blue 75% white and 100% white, which I weighted out and combed to blend. I span each colour segment completely before moving on to the next, hoping this would keep the colour distribution even, and I think I got a little closer to being spot on in my plying.

This came out as a lovely springy worsted weight yarn, approx. 142 meters, though I haven't decided what I'm going to do with it yet.












And there may also have been a bun cake interlude. Because all this spinning is hungry work...

November's 30 day challenge

November is always a busy month for me because of the day job, and this year it started early, so I haven't managed to get back to finishing off my Hedeby dress yet. I can anticipate late nights and increased stress levels as the month goes on, so I'm going to need something to keep my going in the craft department.

So that's where this month's 30 day challenge comes in. Inspired by the crafting of some of my friends over the past month, I'm going to try to do a little spinning, either spindle or wheel based, every day in November.

I have a fairly modest stash (though I've just realised I'm missing my Drachenwald A&S exchange fibre from the above picture), which Suzie has duly inspected for me to ensure quality.

In this picture, the front row has 7 silk tops from Oliver Twists, picked up from over the years at the Knitting and Stitching show. The second row has four 100g portions of Bronte Glen Merino, picked up at last years K&S show. On the far left of the middle row is an Ashford merino-silk sliver, which has already been half spun into the bobbin above, and one of my main goals with the spinning, is to complete the other half and to ply it up. The back row has on the left, another Oliver Twists silk top, which I've started spindle spinning, a Malabrigo Yarn fibre in Nube, and some scoured Gotland fibre gifted to me by Constanza last Raglan, which Suzie is very fond of. I've technically already completed today's quota, having spun up some fresh Gotland yarn, but a little more spinning won't hurt.