SPUNKY CLUB

Hi everybody, my name is Monika and I’m a new Fiber Club member. I’ve got the “Nightshade” so far, but not the June color, which I’ve seen now.

I’m fairly new to spinning, started this May. I’m experimenting a lot. This fiber was a bit hard to work with. It was so compacted and hard to get into managable stripes. I LOVE the color though. In the end I got a full bobbin with an overtwisted single. I wanted to try Navajo plying for the first time. I’ve never seen anybody spinning or plying in real life, I’ve learned only from books and what you can find on the internet. Boy, I sure missed a third hand in doing this. I’m not even sure I did it right, but as the bobbin was full and I still had some single left, I was releaved that it was over. I had some of the fiber left to spin and decided to 2-ply the rest. I wanted to preserve the colors, which the Navajo ply does, but with this twist crazy single, I’d rather not anymore. The small skein is the 2 ply, which was a pia to ply as well. All the plying did take some of the overtwist out of the yarn. It’s washed and dried and is now waiting in my handspun stash to get knit into something. But I don’t think I’ll get to it any time soon. I’ve got lots to learn and lots more practice to do, but I’m enjoying spinning immensly. My fiber stash is almost as big as my yarn stash, and I’ll keep getting new stuff.

I don’t know how many yards I’ve got from this. I’ve got still some single left. I don’t know the WPI either. Usually I’ll eagerly measure my yarn, but this time it was just for learning. Anyway, now that I’ve seen what’s coming to me this month, I’m really looking forward to it.

If you’d like to visit you can come to my blog.
Happy to be here,
Monika

That is what I was going to name the yarn spun from this month’s fiber, but once spun and plied, it more reminded me of the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, WI (if it is still there? we went when I was a kid!) but this morning I looked at the yarn again and am still unsure as what to call it . . .anyways, here are some pictures!

This is blogged here and more pics will be here once I get home to take some more shots in better lighting. The one above was taken at about 10pm last night!

And, I’d just like to share that I’ve been very lucky in selling the yarns made from these fibers! I’ve sold Strawberry Fields Forever two-ply, one skein of the Forecast two-ply and both single ply skeins of Nightshade!

Oh! I also wanted to say that if this is typical of Blue Faced Leicester, I might have to get me some more to spin! It was much softer than I thought it would be and just love the luster of it!

I look forward to seeing what everyone else does!

Inspiration started with Tulips in my garden. They looked much like this

I have a little girl that picks all the flowers in the garden and before I knew it, all this type was gone without me having gotten a photo. Not that I was paying that close attention either. While I was searching for the above photo so I could pretend I had taken a photo, I found this:

Both were printed out and became my inspiration.

It’s navajo plied to come out to over 200 yards.

As for next month’s hint….
July is a big month of celebrations here. I love the 4th of July and Fireworks. The following weekend is The Moxie festival here in town. Then Husbeast and Boogie Girl both have birthdays. I’ve pulled ideas from all of these events and created a colorway.

Happy Fibering
Amy

250 yards/ 4 oz.
sport/DK weight
singles yarn

I love the colors of this one, Amy! The lavender, in particular, made me happy each time I came across it.

Oddly, this is the first time I’d ever spun Coopworth. I liked the prep a lot. I’m all about the roving (as opposed to top) lately, and the fact that it was quite narrow was handy. I just pre-drafted/attenuated it a bit and spun from the end. I got a fairly even single that’s as balanced as a single can be. Not even 1/4 twist of the skein when hung up.

I’m thinking I could use this in the yoke of a sweater, but I always think that.

ETA:  Here’s some great info on spinning singles yarns.

Hi everyone!

I have been loving seeing all of the gorgeous yarns being posted. I finally had a chance to spin up my first two installments from the club (April & May). Here is my Strawberry Fields, I decided to split the roving lengthways and parallel spin it to get contrasty candy stripes for some bulky singles. I ended up with 60 yards of slightly thick n’ thin bulky weight.

And a closeup:

I also spun up the Nightshade Coopworth roving into a singles yarn. I loved the color variation and wanted to keep it that way, so singles it is. This one I spun about a worsted weight, it’s about 103 yards.

Another closeup:

Can’t wait to see what next month brings! I still have to post pics on my blog, but I was excited to finally get to post here.

-Erica
weetsie woolens

All in all, I’m pleased with how evenly twisted this yarn turned out! It’s 2-ply worsted weight, about 180 yards, destined to become a sack hat. I’ll probably line the bottom of the hat, since the cormo isn’t the softest yarn. But how warm for winter!

The colors of this fiber became more and more complex as I pre-drafted and spun and plied. My wheel is back in good working order, and I’m ready to spin up some of the fiber I’ve gotten from festivals this past month! Check out my blog for more on my (mostly knitting lately, not so much with the spinning) pursuits.