Back With the Yak

The yak I mentioned spinning on my charkha the other day is now a tiny 3 ply skein.

I should have thought to include some sort of size reference in the photo. In the photo the yarn looks like it is thick, but that's just a matter of perspective. The skein itself is very small. Only 0.72 of an ounce, and still 32 yards of 3 ply. It's very soft and squishy but I won't be looking to spin more yak in the future. It's not that it was terribly difficult, it just didn’t want to draft as easily as the cotton and turned out rather uneven with tufty bits as well. I'll happily return to the cotton.

Yakety Yak

Way back in May of 2007 I purchased some yak down and tried to spin it, unsuccessfully, on my Little Gem wheel.

Well now that I have a charkha I figured I'd give it another whirl (pun intended). Hmmm, still not too good, lots of thick and thin, but better than it was when spun on a wheel. I also have 12 more years of experience spinning! I'll ply the yak tomorrow and call that little experiment done, and happily return to spinning cotton on the charkha.

Fibrefest Haul

Look what followed me home from Fibrefest International. I went with a plan. I was going to buy a longer niddy noddy, another bobbin or two for the Little Gem II, sock blockers, and as much luxury fibre as I could manage.

There were no sock blockers, no Majacraft bobbins, and the niddy noddy I saw did not suit my needs. Somehow I still managed to spend all the money I went with.



Want a closeup look?



50 grams of white bamboo top. 25 grams of cream yak top.



25 grams of white silk/cashmere (85%/15%). 20 grams of ramie.



250 grams of "Black Rainbow Glitter" a N.Z. Halfbred wool with a bit of sparkle added. I hope I'll be able to spin it thin enough to make a lace shawl for the holiday season.



A packet of silk hankies. This will be a totally different spinning experience for me.



A huge 225 grams of camel/silk. Ooooo, I'm looking forward to this one. I was gifted a small sample of camel silk a few years ago and that tiny bit was easy to spin into a 3 ply laceweight and it went far enough to make a pair of baby socks. This big bag should be enough to make something substantial.

And last, but not least I got these:



Two lovely alpaca batts. Once I get my existing project off the wheel the alpaca batts are likely to be the first thing spun up. They are the bulkiest to store and I am rapidly running out of space in my "playroom".

There was one other fun item, bought for me as a Mother's Day gift. I'll show a picture of that tomorrow.