Spinning yarn is always more fun than washing, skeining, counting, blocking the yarn. I’d managed to create quite a backlog of spun-but-not-processed yarns coming off the spinning wheel. 4 different yarns, 9 skeins, 1500 yards.

This is how it goes…

This is the wool after I dyed and washed it. It’s superwash merino wool, which means it won’t felt up on you if you absentmindedly toss your lovely handmade sweater into the wash machine. I use basic acid dyes in a pot with the wool and toss it in the oven for a couple hours on low.

This is the wool after pre-drafting. You draft the wool, pulling the fibers out and apart a bit so it can be spun evenly and quickly. The header you see at the top of this page comes from this first picture.

Then you sit at your spinning wheel and spin it up

Action shot with Chester

A comparison, wool, pre-drafted roving and singles on the bobbin

Spin up all your wool and then ply it together and do the boring stuff, skeining, counting washing and soaking, squeezing, snapping, and turning it into real yarn

I spun up 750 yards and I named it Polychaete.

And in a slightly different process…

I had 16 ounces of natural black shetland wool that my mom gave me as a gift (thanks mom!!). Since it was black there was no real need to dye it (though I do want to mess around with dyeing over black wool sometime). Instead I ran it through a carder which allows you to blend different fibers together. To the black wool I blended in some sparkly, multi-colored bamboo.

The batt begging to be spun

Pre-drafted

On the bobbin

Singles ready to be plyed

Plyed

Washed and skeined

This yielded me 500 yards and I called it ‘The Mayor’s Wife’

Should the final revelation occur and we find ourselves wanting, you’ll be able to find me, I’ll the the chica in the swanky sweater.