A spinning time

With the exception of one knitting project, my crafting time has been spent spinning lately. I seem to have accumulated yet more fluffy stuff, and the best way to make it more compact is to spin it. This is Cheviot cross Border Leicester carded fleece dyed in pastel shades.

So far, it looks like this - I'm just tearing strips off the batt and letting the colours do what they like. It'll probably end up a 2 ply with assorted combinations of colours. It isn't next to the skin soft so I'm trying to think what to make with it.

The laceweight I mentioned last time made from my BFL fleece is not very good. Actually, that's an understatement, it's the worst yarn I've spun on this wheel. It's very wrinkly and even though I ran it through the wheel again to put a bit more plying twist in, it still isn't right. So for now I'm going to try spinning that fibre a bit thicker, maybe spinning laceweight isn't for me with this particular fleece.


This is my Mystic Meadows finished, it's been a push for the finish for the last couple of weeks. I blocked it yesterday, and it looks pretty good. This is the first half, the picture of the other half was blurry, so I'll try again later. It took just a few yards under the 2 skeins of yarn, so I'll definitely be knitting some matching socks with the third skein, although I don't think I'll be wearing them at the same time! The pattern is by Anna Dalvi and I used a 4mm needle. It blocked to 21" x 67", but relaxed somewhat when I unpinned it, especially in the cabled sections.

Cleaning fleece

Since I last posted, I succumbed to the lure of the raw fleece, and bought a BFL fleece. I figure that every spinner should try the experience at least once. With it being shearing season there are quite a few on offer, so I thought why not? Well, I can think of a few reasons now which didn't occur to me at first. I didn't expect it to be so much work to get it clean, endless rinses, and the potential felting risk. Yes, I did matt a bit of it, but it will tease apart. Then there is the sheepy smell, which lingers even after washing. But the main thing is the time it's going to take to prepare it for spinning. I don't have a drum carder yet, (I'm working on it), and the fibres are too long for hand carding, so I'm having to tease out the locks with a small carder and spin from the lock.

Some of the fleece having a soak

A couple of teased out locks

So far, I've spun a miniscule amount of very fine singles just to try to see if I can produce laceweight. When I've got the same amount on another bobbin, I'll see what the 2 ply looks like.

No, this isn't it, this is the white alpaca I was spinning before. Sadly, it's a little bit too thin to go with the other colours I already spun, although I might get away with it. I'll have to swatch.

I have done a bit of knitting, mainly on Mystic Meadows which is now 3/4 done, and the Goddess Knits mystery is about 2/3 though the third clue. There are still only 288 stitches for a while yet, but I can tell that after the next increase round it's going to grow very slowly.

Just in time for the cool spell

My Sweet Tea top is done in time for the summery weather to take a break. Outside is grey and cool, and inside I can't get the camera to capture the green of this yarn. It persists in showing it as grey. Imagine it as a pale spring green (see here) scroll down a bit, shade 13. The top is a snug fit, but I like it. To recap, it is Debbie Bliss Cathay, a cotton, viscose microfibre and silk blend DK yarn worked with a 5mm hook and I used nearly all of 6 balls.