We’ve got yarn

I finally finished spinning and plying that lovely 8 oz bag of BFL I’ve been working on for a while. I’m not completely thrilled with it and I’m trying to figure out why and how I could change it in future.

I spun this worsted style, which means the singles are very smooth and the yarn should be smooth and drapey. It is. I tried not to spin the singles toooooo tight, because I didn’t want the yarn to be wiry and heavy.  I think maybe I’m so used to using tightly twisted sock yarn that anything more loosely plied looks wrong to me.I read somewhere that when you spin worsted, you should ply on a whorl one size larger than the one on which the singles were spun.  I spun singles on my 10.5:1 whorl and plied at 9:1.  The plying seems loose.  But the yarn was quite well balanced after setting the twist, so I’m inclined to believe that I plied correctly, given how the singles were spun.I certainly have a lot of it – my two skeins (I ran out of bobbin space and had to ply in two batches) contain about 782 yards.  Together they weigh 7.35 ounces.  I guess that’s why some people invest in the “bulky/plying” bobbin and flyer.

So… I’m not sure.  I think I’m going to return to my Spinner’s Sampler bag, which contains 1 oz samples of different breeds.  Those mini-skeins take less time to make than my big 8 oz bag, and I could probably stand to evaluate more frequently.  I guess I could also just have used an ounce or so of this fiber to make sample skein.  That’s what the pros do.  Yes, that is what I should have done.  It’s not like I had a clear plan for what to knit with this and I needed every precious gram of finished yarn.

So what breed should be next?  I still have Lincoln, Coopworth, and Romney.  I need to remember to look them up before deciding how to spin.  Must. Remember. Reference. Books!

I’m kinda tempted to do the Knitmore Girls SPAKAL project (sounds like “spackle,” the stuff with which you fill holes in your wall).  Have you heard about this?  It’s a SPin-Along-Knit-A-Long.  The idea is to spin the yarn you’ll need for a sweater and then knit the sweater.  Crazy?  I don’t have enough of any one fiber to do this.  Still, it would be a learning curve.  MDSW is so soon and it’s soooooo easy to get adequate amounts of fiber or even a fleece. 

Now I await your response.  Will you egg me on?  Or pull me back from the brink?