Way back in March Maisie noticed the spinning wheel in my sewing room. She asked me what it was for and explored a bit with the various moving parts. She’s seen it plenty of times before of course but she hasn’t seen me use it much. On previous occasions I’ve gotten out a small amount of boring white wool to show her what it does and she usually lost interest pretty quickly. This time as I talked to her about how the wheel worked and what it’s for I was reminded how much I liked spinning and when I reached into my drawer of supplies I pulled out a colourful braid of hand dyed merino instead of a scrap of waste fibre. I showed Maisie how to pre-draft the fibre, got some attached to the leader and started spinning.

Over the next couple of months I did some spinning with Maisie on my lap and quite a bit with her standing or sitting next to the wheel. She got to pinch and draft the fibre and feel the twist turn the fluffy wool into yarn. Most of the spinning happened in little chunks of time. Just fifteen minutes here and there. Having the wheel set up and the fibre in a basket right next to it made it easy to do a little whenever I happened to think of it. And of course it all adds up.

Since I had no plan at all when I started I decided to continue spinning a single bobbin and to chain ply it later. This was my second attempt at chain plying and I did it all in one go. Once I found the rhythm I didn’t want to stop and have to find it again but a single bobbin of yarn doesn’t take long to ply. Maisie found it very interesting and I paused a few times to let her see what was happening. Winding onto the niddy-noddy was another entertaining thing to watch and then we gave our new yarn a little bath and hung it up to dry. I did get a couple of queries when I thwacked it against the tub wall but “this will make it fluffier” appears to have been a satisfying answer.

The finished yarn is really nice. It’s soft and very fluffy and a bit think-and-thin, varying between roughly an aran and a bulky weight. I’ve got about 75 m to play with. I’m not sure what it will become yet but I think Maisie might need a new scarf this winter. It felt really good to do some spinning and end up with finished yarn. It’s something I should do a little more often.

I spent some time trying to make sense of the piles of things in my studio today (and hoping I'd come across the sundress pattern I know is here somewhere). I was making good progress (the books are now on a shelf) but just as I was walking out to take a short break a bag of roving caught my eye. I grabed it and my ladybug and sat in the family room to spin for a bit.

Total yardage (pre-bath) is a little under 80 m and lets guess a bulky weight (110 g). Very squashy. Not sure what it will become yet but the nobbliness seams to lend itself to garter stitch. Maybe with a big wooden button.

I didn't bother to weigh the roving when I separated it. I just broke it in half and then tore each strip into quarters. I'm always hopeful that they will match up perfectly when I ply but I was surprised this time when this is all I had leftover from the longer singles - pretty close!


Fibre is "Wild and Wooly" #3, Superwash merino from Sunnyside Ellen. Very yummy.

 

Look what arrived today!







Thank you to all my family and friends for helping me get my Ladybug.  She's so cute!