I made yarn

I’ve been away from my spinning wheel for too long. I declared that I wouldn’t buy any spinning fiber at MDSW this year – because I “didn’t deserve it.” Well, I bought one 4 oz braid after all. To assuage my guilt, I spun it right away. This is 85% Polwarth and 15% Tussah Silk prepared as combed top from Three Waters Farm. Here is how it looked when I bought it (the colorway is “Riverbank”): I wanted to jump right in and not think too hard, so I divided the braid into 3 equal sections (by weight) and spun in my standard style (worsted, pretty thin, 14:1 whorl). I forgot to take a picture of the singles on 3 bobbins, but here is what was left on two bobbins after I plied some 3-ply:

I got 277 yards of 3-ply and it weighs 79 grams. That’s pretty thin…

Then I made some 2-ply from what was left on the 2 bobbins – I got 129 yards and it weighs 25 g:And then I took what was left on the last bobbin and chain-plied it (which produces a 3-ply yarn) – I got 45 yards and this weighs 12 g: I’m not sure how I managed to get such drastically different lengths of singles on the 3 bobbins. I’m also not sure that I LOVE how I spun this. I was initially disappointed when I saw how much I’d muddied the colors when the barber pole plying happened. But I guess the yarn is still pretty in its own way.Any way you look at it, though, I’m back at the wheel and that is a good thing.

My next project is to work my way through Jacey Boggs’ article about turning a worsted spinner into a woolen spinner. I want to finally wrap my hands around the long draw. There are 9 steps that inch one into a new spinning style. Hopefully this weekend I can manage steps 1 and 2.