Friday, October 30, 2015

Spinning "Moriary"

January is my Into the Whirled Luxury fiber month.  This month I got Polwarth/Tussah Silk (60/40)!  The colorway is called Moriarty and is a really deep tone.  I love deep saturated colors, so this is a great one to have in the upgraded fiber.  (I'm still considering swapping to the luxury club, maybe after I move.)


I split the braid in half in the middle, rather than separating it lengthwise.  The two sections are pretty different from one another, which will hopefully lead to some variety in the fiber.  57 g and 58 g.  Boom!  I schooled this one!  Of course, it is much easier to fold the fiber in half and separate at the center point then it is to try to split the fiber lengthwise.


I have a goal for this fiber.  I want to get more than 400 yards of a 2-ply yarn.  I think I can manage this, with the help of my new faster whorls.  I'm going to spin this with my 1:14 ratio.  I actually like how my "over twisted" 2 ply came out from the cabled yarn I made.  I don't think that I actually overtwisted it enough, but maybe I've been underspinning my plies in the past.  I get wonderful fluffy yarns, but maybe lacking in twist.  It is time to get twisty, people!


I'm spinning Z singles and will ply S.  Yes, I am going to start using the twist terminology more in these spinning posts.  A Z single is spun from spinning the wheel clockwise.  S spinning is done from rotating the wheel counterclockwise.  The slants of the letters "S" and "Z" are supposed to help represent the direction of the twist.  I don't have a handy way to keep them apart, other than to write it down a lot!


So far so good, I'm spinning a nice thin yarn easily.  I think the amount of twist is also pretty good this time, although I hesitate to state this when I'm only partially done with the spinning project.


There is some debris that I have to pick out (fiber debris, short pieces that clump and don't draft) that I have to pull out every once and a while.  They're no all silk, but maybe hey are?


I'm not going to finish 2 yarns in March, but I"m giving myself some leeway because I've been VERY sick and we're visiting different cities trying to figure out where to live next year.  Not to mention that this is a project where my goal is to get a lot of yardage out of the fiber.  More yardage = more time spinning.  Yes, I know that is an obvious statement, but this spinning is taking me much longer than normal.



Due to house hunting and our move, it was a while before I could pick up spinning again.  In the middle of May, I started spinning while watching 10 Things I Hate about You.  I may or may not have been a little inebriated, but I was determined to continue my thin spinning to get to my yardage goals. It took me long enough to spin the singles that I think I have a shot here.


Comparing to the first bobbin it looks like I'm pretty close in wpi.  We'll have to measure after the fact to see for sure.

My spinning isn't very even as I move through the second bobbin.  Thick, thin, lots of twist less twist... at least it hasn't broken (so far).  I keep checking to see how it doubles over and I like the way the yarn looks, but I'm not sure how it is going to turn out.  EEE the suspense is huge over here!

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By the middle of September I was ready to set Sandry back up and start spinning again.  I had some distraction with my pregnancy and with the purchase of my first sewing machine, but I am determined to finish what I had started in my old home.  I'm so glad I keep close notes but since I've taken such a long hiatus I hope that i"ll be able to pick this project back up where I left off.  


The second bobbin finished so fast! I know why I didn't have the chance to finish before the move, so it is cathartic to be finishing it now.


Plying time!  Cross your fingers for me that I added enough twist to the project throughout these singles.  I didn't take the time to check the WPI of my singles, but I know that there is some variation through the project.


I feel like I've been plying forever and I've barely made a dent in the bobbins.  I just might have reached my yardage goal for this project.

Bummer, I had a break around half way through the project.  I just overlapped and had a mini 3-ply section and carried on.  Fingers crossed that this is the only one.   Drat!  A second break happened as I started to approach the end.  These are few and far between so at least I know that my yarn has some good strength to it.

When I (finally) finished plying, there wasn't much left on the second bobbin.  BUT this gives me the opportunity to check the WPI of one of my singles.  Guys, I did it!  I got some lace weight singles!  And they only broke on me twice!!


SINGLES - 29 WPI (lace!)
2-PLY - 20 WPI (fingering)


Silly enough, I don't yet have a spot in my knitting studio where I can set up my ball winder.  The Expedit shelf is too thick, as is my writing desk.  Once I have a sewing table I should have a spot that can double as a yarn winding station.


Large skein - 294 wraps = 1176 feet = 392 yards.  Weighs 116.5 g.

I am so freaking close to my 400 yard goal!  Let's see how many 2 ply yards I get out of my mini skein.  I only need 8 yards.  Come on 8 yards!

Does this look like 8+ yards to you?

Mini Skein  - 21 wraps = 42 Feet = 14 yards.  Weighs 5.1 g.  

YES!  I did it!  I successfully got >400 yards out of 100 g of fiber!  I am so proud of myself.  Both the large skein and the mini skein are wrapped on the niddy noddy at the same time.  The large skein is a 4 ft skein and the mini skein is a 2 ft skein.  I set the twist with warm water and then let the skeins dry on the niddy noddy.


I am so proud of this project.  Now that I have faster whorls and can spin at higher ratios, I can finally achieve the types of yarns that I purchase in the store.  This 5 g miniskein is on target for the yardage that I would need to make a hexipuff.  Maybe I need to pick up that project out of hibernation, too.


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spinning started 3/6/2015
First half of singles completed 3/23/15
5/16 picked up the wheel again
5/21 Put on hold while we moved cross country!
9/17/2015 picked back up
9/17/2015 finished second half of singles.  
9/17 - plying begun
9/18 finished plying and adding onto niddy noddy