A scarf, a skein

I finished S1’s handspun scarf. It’s not as long as I would like- only 56”. Overall, I’m so pleased to have used this 409-yard skein of handspun from 2011. This is the way she likes to wear scarves right now, and even though it doesn’t have long tails hanging down, it will provide snug warmth around the neck under a coat (and not as much chance getting the ends stuck in a zipper!):

And remember how I told you she lost the first scarf made using this pattern? On the very same day I finished the replacement, she found the original. Go figure.

In other news, I finished this lovely skein of yarn – this is Rambouillet from the Sheepspot Fiber Club:

I’m always fascinated by how the colors change from fiber to yarn. This is what the top looked like when it arrived:

I looked at the color chapter of my new(ish) copy of Yarnitecture (which is so great, by the way) and decided to try the “do a flip” technique on this braid of fiber. You split the fiber vertically, then spin the first half as it comes and the other half from the opposite direction. But when I flipped my halves, the dye pattern was the same! So I broke one half into two pieces, choosing a place to tear it that would make the colors NOT line up in plying. Then I spun this very soft top worsted-style, but more loosely than I normally would. I did this in an attempt to make the finished yarn softer than the yarn I usually get. Here is what my bobbins looked like before plying:

When I plied, I overplied a little bit. I knew I needed to get more twist into the yarn to make it strong and stable, but I put more into the ply twist than the singles twist. Did it work? I think it did! The resulting yarn is quite soft (ask the knitters who snuggled with it last night). I don’t know if it will wear well once knit, but it’s still pretty soft now:

My finished skein is 346 yards and weighs 96 grams. I had a little waste at the end, but not much… I tried something new to minimize waste. My bobbins are never equal but I don’t like to “waste” singles that are left over on one bobbin. Instead of winding off singles onto another bobbin and trying to equal everything out, I wound the remaining singles onto my hand using the “Miss America” technique (a variation of Andean plying). Since only a small amount was left, I was able to spin a 2-ply off my hand using the singles left on one bobbin. I got a little tangled at the very end and had to throw out some singles, but I think I know how to fix that next time. If I work this out well, I’ll try to document it in the future.

In other spinning news, I’ve been working with my new English combs. More on that in an upcoming post.