Deadlines

I try hard to spin without a deadline. However, imagine this scenario...

I get a bag of fiber at a retreat and am supposed to bring it back the following year as a finished item. I intend to start spinning right away so I have plenty of time to plan a complicated and detailed project.

But then, I wait to start the spinning... like TEN months later. Suddenly there is a two month deadline looming ahead. I now have to focus on spinning quickly without too much forethought about what kind of yarn I want to create. Then I have to pick a project that I can knit in a month.

I am a slow knitter.

Why do I do this to myself? Well, of course, sometimes life happens and spinning gets sidelined for a time. Or I just don't feel like spinning that fiber yet. Or I'm somehow deluded into the idea that I'm going to think my way into the perfect yarn and project.

The fiber is from the 2015 Studio 49 Retreat. This 10 year anniversary themed fiber was prepared and dyed by Dreamy Goat Designs. Above is 2oz/56g of Bluefaced Leicester (BFL). Below is 2oz/56g of Merino/Bombyx Silk blend. Both dyed in the same tri-color way. Some folks chose the same fiber for their projects. I got one bag of each. It will be fun to see what we all come up with. The next retreat is Oct 14, 2016.

So... right now, I spin with a deadline looming.

Plying

I finished the Tour de Fleece single ply yarn the week after the race ended. I got around to plying it a week later into 386 yards of 3 ply yarn. What I didn't like was that the yarn was not plied with the same amount of twist as the first skein I finished in June. So I decided to add more twist by running it through the wheel again. I put the skein on the swift attached to a dining chair seat. It took a little longer than I thought, but Season 10 of Food Network Star kept me entertained. I just love the ability to binge watch shows on streaming television.

 

I ended up with 7 yards less but with the same twist as the first skein. With the two skeins I now have a total of 757yds/692m to play with. I wrapped the yarn with the original fiber label and wrote my yardage notes on it. The colors blended more than I had originally intended. I still like the finished yarn a lot. The fuchsia dominates the yarn. Which is nice, but I have lots of yarn in this colorway. Of course I do. It's in the red family and that's my favorite color!

I had some singles yarn left over on 2 bobbins. So I decided to ply that using Navajo chain ply method. It's a tiny skein but the colors came out more like what I had originally imagined this fiber to look like.

Since I was on a twist fixing mode, I dug out another skein of yarn that had been bugging me for a while.

This skein of 3 ply yarn was spun by a friend of mine. I love the subdued colors (it's not red!) but I always thought the ply twist was a little loosey goosey.

Since I had the swift set up already I put the skein on it and ran the yarn through the wheel again. I lost 4 yards in the new twist but now the skein looks great. Even the colors look a little more defined to me and I was dreaming of other yarns I could combined it with to knit up something fabulous.