On the Spinning front

First, a question dear readers - would you rather I had a separate blog for the crafty stuff? Or do you not mind the occasional forays into fiber arts and cooking?





That 4 oz of Fiber Optics Sweet Georgia Brown pencil roving that I purchased at Sock Summit has finally been rendered into yarn. Very fine 2-ply yarn. It was spun on the drop spindle, and maybe a quarter of the singles plied on the drop spindle, before I realized that I'd be plying it until next summer, and finished the plying on the wheel.



I tried Priscilla Gibson-Roberts' method of using plying sticks and a center pull to ply, but it didn't work. I then rewound the cops onto toilet paper rolls (those are SO useful), by using a rubber band on my ball winder core and putting the tp roll on over it. Then I used the plying sticks (translation - old big 60's knitting needles), a shoe box, and the tp spools of singles and created a plying box to feed the singles in to ply.

I must have done something right, because the colors on the two strips of spun-up pencil roving aligned more often than not, and I only had 2 feet of leftover singles on one spool. I am pretty sure this will never happen again.



Then I needed to skein it all up - the construction of a sturdy niddy noddy is described here.

Then simmering to set the twist, snapping and popping it, and hanging it up to dry. I got kind of impatient, so I set the shelf in my dryer and ran it on air fluff for awhile. Ahh, technology.

So, I have this cool-looking yarn, but don't know how much. I mean, it weighs 110g, but I don't know long it is. Request for a McMorran Balance has been put in for the upcoming holiday.



So, what is it going to be? Assuming I have enough, and I probably do, I plan to knit up the Swallowtail Lace Shawl, making the next size up, as many members of Ravelry have provided instructions on how to do so (19 repeats of one chart, rather than 14).

Got some books from the library on spinning. Right now, the yarn is telling me what it wants to be, in terms of thickness. I'd rather it be the other way around, so I'm studying up on it.