Bloo Bamboo

Referencing my 2nd blog post Spinning in Madrid, I have finished spinning the indigo-dyed merino bamboo fiber I’ve been working on for more than a year. A UFO (UnFinished Object) no longer!

 The stats:

• 60/40 Merino Bamboo blend - 4 oz.
• 573 yards of 3-ply yarn
• 18 wpi (wraps per inch) - lace weight
• singles spun on Ashford Traditional single drive/treadle standard bobbins
• plied using jumbo bobbin accessory
• the fiber was very easy to spin fine

The yarn is squishy and super soft to touch.

I had always planned on plying from 3 bobbins to see how the colors blended. This is my shoebox Lazy Kate set up at a 45 degree angle. The yarn comes off the bobbins smoothly as long as I keep my guide hand straight up from the kate. No tension line required on the bobbins (although I do have 2 pushpins and an elastic cord ready for tension if I so desire).

Two bobbins had yarn left over so I chain plied the singles for a variation of the straight 3-ply yarn. The colors in the chain plied yarn are more delineated while the straight 3-ply color blended to a lighter blue throughout the skein.

31 yards of chain ply.

I find the color gradation more interesting in the chain plied yarn. But I would still be plying. As it is, it took a week to ply 500+ yards of straight 3-ply.

A 2 year long project is finally finished. Whew!