There it is ... one ounce of hand-spun cotton yarn. I’m not sure how long it is - I’ll have to measure when I wind it off - but hopefully it will be long enough for this pattern from Blue Sky Alpacas. It’s a crochet pattern so I’ll be learning something new there too.

The long draw technique started to feel a bit more natural as I worked my way through the second half ounce and the roving didn’t split apart as frequently. I still found joining kind of difficult but didn’t have to do it as often. It’s pretty lumpy-bumpy yarn but I like it. There are a few places when it got so thin I thought it would break but didn’t and I discovered I was looking at short pieces of real cotton thread.

How amazing to think that this same stuff is what makes up my favourite clothes (and my entire Regency costume) and here I’ve just turned it from fluff into yarn with my own hands. People used to do this all the time; every piece of cotton cloth started out as fluff and became yarn or thread on a spindle not too different from this one before being woven on some sort of loom.

A close up for texture.

My mystery yarn arrived on Wednesday night but I haven’t had time to wind it into balls yet. It’s hand dyed yarn from Fleece Artist. Suri Blue in fingerling weight. The colours range from whites to pale browns and some light greys. It feels incredibly soft and squashy. I’ve got 3.00mm Addi Turbo Lace needles to knit it up with (you can just see them ticking out in the left side of the picture). I’m contemplating skipping the whole swatching business for this project as I don’t want to wait for new needles to arrive even if these ones are too big.

This also arrived last week - three skeins of allhemp3 and this pattern from Lanaknits in BC. The yarn feels kind of like twine at the moment but I could feel it softening up as I was swatching and it will go through the washer once it’s all knit up. I ordered the pattern on the long weekend when I realizedthat only two of my hot weather tops were of natural fibres and thus actually cool to wear on a hot day.

Since I’ve had to order needles to make the pattern this may not be finished until the weather is cold gain but it will be a wonderful little undershirt during the winter and all ready for next summer’s hot days.