Daily Archives: May 10, 2007

Muggle-freaking in the T-dot, and some Spinning

Yarh Harlot Announces Date for Toronto Book Launch!

Indigo at Bay & Bloor (That’s the Manulife Centre)
Friday May 25th
7:00pm

I am so there. Any other Torontonians (or friends from out of town, perhaps?) want to join me? I will definitely be keeping an eye on her blog (& others) for more knitfun to be had that day as well.

* * *

In other news, I’ve been doing some test-spinning.

First up we have the absolutely gorgeous, supersoft and slightly fuzzy mystery pencil roving (from KTE):

lacewight yarn- white

swatch -- laceweight white

I spun it fine on the wheel (only about 1′ of roving) and plied it with the new small spindle, then knit a swatch with 2.75mm bamboo straights. I love it so very much! I contemplated dying the roving before spinning, but am inclined to go with Dru’s suggestion to not touch it since I’d have no clue what I’m doing.

Next there is some troublesome grey/brown merino roving:

grey merino single

grey merino spun single

I do not like how it is spinning at all. There are loads of fuzzy-bits (nepps? noils?) throughout the 1/2lb of roving, which makes it very difficult to draft: it goes too thick with lumps or pulls apart into too-fine lengths. I’ve tried both strips of roving and drafting from the fold, as well. Bizzarely, using the new little spindle supported (i.e. not dropping, just spinning on the floor like a top) I can spin a superfine single, and the fuzz-pills just seem to “fall out” of the thread, but I don’t really want to spin all this stuff that finely.

I did knit a swatch from this above single, though, and it knits up much nicer than I’d thought. It defintily displays a slant (being a single), but is cozy and soft. Should I just spin an ugly yarn and knit it, or does anyone have any advice?

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Filed under drop-spindle, knitting, lace, rambling, spinning, spinning-wheel