Wednesday 28 June 2017

A quick Spin - Olds Fibre Week 2017 Spin in Social Yarn

This month I attended my second ever Olds Fibre Week, and of course it was a blast. Doubly so because it was my first weekend away from the boys since they were born. (By away I mean I left them with Kevin all day Fri-Sun, but came home every evening to snuggle and put them to bed, I mean you can't expect this momma to leave them over night can you?)

I of course took classes, and shopped for goodies, but one of the things I was most looking forward to was the Spin In Social, because when else do you get that many spinning wheels out in public.


Plus, as an added perk, all of the vendors in the Market donate fibre for everyone to sample and spin.

I didn't just have sampling in mind tho. I wanted to spin a complete yarn that would commemorate the event.


So I grabbed a handful off of each of the lovely braids that were laid out. It's mostly merino, but there's tonnes of silk, bambo, nylon and other in there too.


And I spun up a bobbin of what I like to think of as potluck yarn. I just randomly alternated from each handful of fibre, spinning short segments of each., and proving there's a lot of fun you can have blending fibres even without fancy tools.


I also grabbed a length of Rambouilett roving from a 1lb bag donated by Custom Woolen Mills. As you can see, the roving is full of little neps, either from second cuts, or as I suspect, places where this fine wool is broken up during a milling process better suited to medium-corse wool.

But it was still soft and lovely, and if you don't mind a 'rustic' looking yarn, it spun up into a bobbin chuck full of woolen spun singles.


So I plied them together. I chose to ply the multi yarn with a solid white for a few reasons. First, it would stretch the length my multi would go by double, preferable to plying it with itself and having half as much finished yarn. Next it would provide a stable and constant back bone for a yarn that has sections of different fibre blends. Furthermore, it brings the different colours of the single together, providing a harmonious look to the finished yarn. Finally, these singles were white, just because I didn't feel like dyeing the fibre and having to wait for it to dry before I could start spinning it.


Plying it up, the 2-ply came out as about a worsted weight.


And the finished skein. 252 yards in 120g. and isn't it beautiful! Finished skeins of yarn like this one remind me just how much I love spinning.

And yes, if you look closely it is a little kinky... I still need to set the twist.

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