Dreamy Cotton

I'm so pleased with the little skein of 2 ply natural brown cotton!

It spun up beautifully! I have a whole pound of it to work with and it's so delightfully soft and squishy that I think I'll spin it into a 3 ply for knitting. But for now -- back to the white cotton I was working on.

Another Skein

Another fat skein plyed up. This one is 6 3/4 ounces/92 grams, 316 yards/289 metres of 2 ply pink superwash merino. I spun it from mill ends that I processed on my new drum carder.

I'm beginning to suspect that I am very inaccurate when I measure WPI. Using a WPI tool I estimated this to be between 15 and 17 WPI (it varies a little in thickness), which would make it a fingering weight. However according to my calculations using Spinderella's formula of weight multipled by yardage I get something more in the line of worsted to perhaps even bulky!

I've been knitting a good many years (over 30) and just eye-balling it, I'd say it is somewhere in the neighbourhood of sport to light worsted weight. I guess the true test would be knitting up a swatch......but I don't have time for that right now.

Oh a little additional tidbit of information; This skein was from 8 batts so the batts I made must have weighed less than an ounce each, about 11.5 grams a piece. I wonder if I'm supposed to be making them fatter? To me it seemed that the carder was "full" at that point. If you have an opinion on the matter, please comment. Keep in mind that this is a "fur drum" I'm using and the teeth are shorter and finer than standard drum carders.

If you missed the post about my lovely Christmas present, it's a Patrick Green drum carder, the "Deb's Delicate Deluxe".

Plying Purple

Yesterday I spent the afternoon freeing up my bobbins. With only 6 bobbins I have to be careful that I don't get carried away with multiple spinning projects going on at once or I'll find I don't have an empty bobbin to ply to.

This is one of two spinning projects I've been working on lately. It's a 2 ply, 23 WPI, laceweight, from merino/silk roving hand dyed by Fleece Artist and purchased from Shades of Narnia at the Ryder Lake Spin-In last fall.

I had two braids which were similar in colour, but not exactly the same so I spun each 50 gram braid to a seperate bobbin and then plyed them together to get this nice blending of the colours.

I have one huge 100g skein (love those big Majacraft bobbins!) with a length of about 379 metres. That's 414 yds and 3.5 ounces for those who would like the conversion. No specific plans for it yet. Perhaps a lace scarf for the guild's scarf themed art show?

Now THAT Is Full

One huge Majacraft bobbin full to the brim.

2 ply, superwash, merino/viscose blend spun from mill ends.

This n That Skein

I finally used up a mixture of small amounts of 3 different roving colourways given out at a "spinning for colour" seminar. Plyed with a black, commericially spun, weaver's wool to extend the yardage and help blend the colourways together.

392 yards of 22 WPI laceweight.

Count that as one more bobbin cleared in preparation for Saturday's Ryder Lake Spin-In.