Mad Spinning

Been a little spinning obsessed lately...


It doesn't help that I'm so head-over-heels in love with this blend of lush amber and deep blue (Wensleydale from Hello Yarn in Mmm...Rich and rich the colors certainly are...) that I can hardly wait to make something wearable out of it.


So, step one in the fiber to scarf transition: spinning it into yarn.


Spinning Wensleydale was quite an interesting experience. The long-stapled fiber is very lustrous but quite tough and sticky and really doesn't like to hold twist. The resulting yarn has a bit of a halo, similar to mohair, and is probably akin to Lopi or Noro Kureyon on the scratchiness level (which doesn't much bother me but may be a concern for others thinking of spinning up Wensleydale).
Because of the long fiber length and sticky texture of the fiber, I didn't split the roving. Instead, I spun directly from it, drafting as I went. I opted to Navajo-ply the singles so that I can preserve distinct colors in the roving (even though doing so with a non-squishy single means that the little knots from the chain-plying will show a bit...you can see one such knot in the closeup). For the non-spinner, this way of plying makes for a 3-ply yarn. As you can probably tell from the number of photos peppering this post, I'm quite enamored with the resulting yarn. The only downside of doing a 3-ply when I only have 4oz of the fiber is, of course, the not so great yardage. Now that all four ounces are spun up, I have four little skeins that total up to around 140 yards of worsted weight (9-11 WPI) of the yarn. So, something on large needles with a lot of dropped stitches, perhaps?