Spindlitis

So I took 50 grams off a 21 gram spindle yesterday. I probably could have put more on it, but that’s all the fiber from this sample.

I’m spinning some fleece samples. I bought these after reading In the Footsteps of Sheep. I thought it would be great fun to spin up some of those breeds and knit the socks from the book. I did get these samples washed and combed, but the book has been packed. And the samples did get scrambled, so I think I will just ply up some three ply and knit socks of some sort.

When I picked up this Butternut Skinny Midi, I really didn’t know much about the spindle. I had no idea exactly what the difference was between a standard Midi and the skinny version. I was just aiming for a spindle at about 20 grams and I wanted butternut. This spindle really has been a great choice! It has a great spin and I can just keep packing fiber onto it. I am assembling a team to spin up sweater yarn. Yes, I could use the spindles I already have. This is my Bosworth team. I am never going to be the person with just two spindles. And even though I’ve tried to see the financial benefits to going with the standard spindles, I still want what I want. So….new order going in soon. My plan is two Midis, two Maxis and one Mini (just because.)

I have two bumps of carded roving, processed way back in 1998. These are from a sheep shearing, where I learned to skirt fleeces. I’m planning a sweater for me out of one of these (likely the brown one.)

I just grabbed some of the roving and spun it as is for the lower sample. On the top sample, I combed it with my Viking combs. I prefer the feel of the bottom one, but I’m doing cables. These are just two ply. I’m going to do a few more samples to be sure.

This is the Shetland/CVM roving that I used for my shawl. I love this stuff, but won’t be using it for this project.

This is the grey. I think these were Border Leicester crosses, if I’m remembering correctly. I did this as a thin three ply. I’ll try sampling this a bit thicker and see how it feels. This is a bit too coarse as spun.

And I started the baby sweater. I like this pattern and the yarn is really nice. I’m not a merino fan, but this is a nice squishy superwash yarn. The blue leans a bit more turquoise than this picture shows. I’ve never done a top down raglan baby sweater, but it’s fun. It will have a shawl collar and I ordered some maple wooden buttons for it.