Some notes right off the bat: 100% silk is MUCH easier to spin than wool. Wool splits a lot more easily. For the first time, I am really learning how to draft the fiber. I think the silk helped give me confidence going for a really thin spun fiber, and now I am learning how to draft, pinch and slowly let the twist go into the fiber.
This makes me really want a spinning wheel. I don't have the most coordination, but I think that being able to keep both of my hands focused on twist and drafting while using my feet to keep the wheel spinning will be easier than using 2 hands where I want three. (By the time I prepared this post for publishing, I have had the opportunity to try out a spinning wheel. I love it, and I really want one!)
Clockwise Clockwise Clockwise. In some of my previous spinning I got confused about the direction to spin my spindle. Spin clockwise, ply counterclockwise.
The most striking thing I realized while winding this skein onto my handmade niddy noddy is how much I have improved over the course of this 100g of fiber. My spinning is getting much more even, and I think that with plying it would be a very regular yarn. (I don't have bobbins or a second spindle to use for plying, so that is another beast that I will save to learn at another time.)
When winding up my yarn I broke the strand twice, producing two knots. OH well, still not bad for my biggest spinning project yet! 198 Wraps around 4 ft niddy noddy (handmade woot woot) - 264 yards of yarn. I am waiting for a WPI tool to know what size the yarn actually.
This is by far the prettiest skein of yarn I have ever made (which isn't saying that much since my spinning projects are limited.) I love the muted colors and how there are so many twists of color. I am so proud of this yarn that it is going to be hard to find a project where I want to knit it!
