Sunday, October 2, 2016

Fall showers bring May flowers?

After a long period of very dry conditions here in Pennsylvania, we have had some much-needed rain during the past week. Some of it has been slow and drizzly, some heavy. It has kept me inside finishing up some projects – including the May 2016 Sheepspot Breed School shipment of Targhee in colorway “May Flowers.” You may remember that I started spinning this lovely top on a spindle:IMG_3845

Well, that didn’t really stick. First off, I had abdominal surgery, which meant I could not hold my arm up to spin on a spindle. But it also just didn’t feel right. I wonder if the weight of the spindle was wrong. Maybe too light? It didn’t seem to keep spinning for long. So I looked at the pile of lovely fiber that was left…IMG_4002

…and ripped it into pieces. Boy 2 and I sorted it by color and arranged it in sort of a gradient:IMG_4004

I started spinning with the blues and here are some shots of the singles bobbin along the way. You can see that I tried to spin quite fine, knowing I was going to make a 3-ply yarn.20160916_141621singles crop

Then I chain-plied it to preserve the color progression. I had a little trouble in the beginning with the single breaking (AGAIN) so I stopped to regroup. I looked at some photos and videos online, and made a slight adjustment in my technique. Then things went better.plied crop

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And finally, I have this skein. It weighs only 90 grams (some of it is still on the spindle) and is 352 yards – OF THREE-PLY YARN. This is perhaps the finest yarn I have ever spun and it pleases me.skein crop

Now I am all caught up on my Sheepspot Fiber Club fiber. I know we’re getting another shipment very soon. Sasha sent some sneak peeks of the colorways and they are GORGEOUS…but I have no idea what the breed is. Some things must remain a mystery before the mail arrives.

Dyeing a very rare breed for the fiber club! #ilovemyjob

A photo posted by Breed-specific yarns + fibers (@sheepspot) on

2 comments:

  1. I'm glad for your rain for two reasons - to help alleviate the drought and the fact that it kept you and Boy 2 inside to work on that stunning yarn. I'm no judge of spinning, but it certainly looks finely spun to me and the colors are gorgeous. Hooray for May flowers in October!

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  2. It really is quite beautiful. Spinning dazzles me -- I'm quite impressed!

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