Sunday, March 1, 2015

Spinning "Horse with No Name"

It has been a while since I've gotten some spinning done.  I decided to get back into the saddle of my wheel by spinning some Bluefaced Leicester (BFL) from my Into the Whirled subscription.  I'm determined to get back on track with the fiber of the month club by the end of the winter or else I'm afraid I'll have to cancel.

This fiber is called "Horse with No Name" and is the April 2014 fiber.  Wowza am I behind!


BFL is one of my favorite fibers to spin.  I love the rustic, almost "natural" colorway that we have here.  I divided the yarn into two approximately equal sections.  The color repeats aren't the same in both sections, which I think will give me some fun variation when I get the 2 ply yarn.  The two sections weighed 54 and 56 grams, respectively.  I could try to make it closer but I'm not likely to be able to spin them 100% equal lengths anyway.  


I'm not sure how think I'll go, I'll see what the fiber wants me to do.  I could have gone thinner (I've gone thinner in the past) but by my rough estimation I'll get a DK/worsted yarn out of the 2 ply.  


I had been using the same leader yarns on the wheel for a long time, it was getting shorter and shorter (if I had to cut a knot off) and it was time to replace it on one of the bobbins.  I started out with a much longer leader so I had plenty to work with.  

This fiber is spinning like a DREAM.  Into the Whirled does a great job dyeing the fibers and I have never had any felted or matted fiber in what I've spun.  


Look how fluffy my 2 ply yarn is!  This is something that would be really exciting to knit.  I read somewhere once upon a time that you want the same number of twists per inch in the ply as you did in the singles.  Maybe this is why it is coming out so fluffy.  So far (a few yards in) it feels sturdy, but the test will be as I keep plying.  Fingers crossed!


I almost always spin with the wheel turning clockwise and then ply counterclockwise.  I don't think I'd ever done it differently, but I do know that when I used my drop spindle back in the day I sometimes forgot which way I was spinning and ended up with many breaks in the yarn.  It is much easier for me to keep track of the direction now!  

Booooo... one break happened as I was nearing the end of the singles.  I slipped the ends over each other and have a 3" section of 3 ply.  After the plying, 5 g remain of one of the singles.  This isn't bad at all!  I got a few more 2 ply yards out of the remaining yarn.  (I plied it from the center pull ball in the top photo.)  


I could wind this onto the niddy noddy tonight to set the twist, but it is 10 PM and I'm exhausted.  It is nice to have (mostly) finished a spinning project in just over 24 hours.  


WPI - 8 wraps per inch (16 wraps over 2") - Heavy Worsted
big skein - 89 wraps = 356 ft = 118 yards, 103 g
small skein - 8 wraps, 16 ft, 4 g




I love being a part of this fiber of the month club.  I haven't been keeping up with it well enough (more on that later, I've been baaaaaad), but it is having me spin colorways I never would have otherwise picked.  If I was buying fiber, everything would be a deep purple, blue and green!  This colorway will turn into something wonderful for someone I love very much.  

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Started 12/16/2014
Singles finished 12/17/2014
Plying completed 12/17/2014
Winding onto niddy noddy 1/7/2015