Sunday, September 7, 2008

Coopworth 3-ply

I've been spinning. I have a spinning lesson scheduled, and I wanted to have some new yarn completed before the lesson. This is a 3-ply spun from the Louet Coopworth roving I bought at The Mannings a couple of weeks ago.

I tried to get equal amounts of yarn on all 3 bobbins before plying (I used my scale - the replacement for the broken one came recently and I've been using it a lot). I still didn't have equal lengths, but I hope that will improve as my spinning becomes more consistent.

What you see here is a total of about 132 yards of yarn, weighing 114 grams.

I intentionally overspun this yarn a bit, hoping it would be good strong yarn suitable for socks. It's strong all right, but the finished 3-ply is more like a worsted weight, so I won't be using it for socks. It's feels pretty tough. I don't know if this is a characteristic of Coopworth in general (it's not super silky, like merino), or because it is overspun.

I was able to eliminate extra twist by using Thomas' method of dunking the finished yarn in boiling water for a minute, then shocking it in cold water.

It looks like real yarn! I might make some mittens or gloves out of this. I still have more roving left to spin, so I can get more yarn if this isn't enough to finish a project. I've been knitting socks so long that I really have no idea how much worsted weight yarn I need for anything. I'll have to look it up!

My birthday is about 6 weeks away. Time to get serious about wheel shopping, huh?

2 comments:

  1. Do you have a roving wish list started anywhere?

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  2. Six weeks ago? I'm really hoping you mean "six weeks from now!"

    Lovely yarn -- I love seeing yarn in its natural color. That must have been one cute sheep!

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