Spinning "Tickled Pink"

 

I haven't done any spinning for a few months.  I'm super excited to be spinning the May 2014 coloway from my Into the Whirled subscription, Tickled Pink.  Just setting up Sandry (my wheel) again to start spinning has me tickled pink.  (I knew this was a good choice for my first project after a few months!)

I've never spun polwarth before but I"m excited to try.  The fiber seems "sticky", in a good way that it sticks to itself, not in a bad way in that it makes my hands feel bad.  It might be hard to draft, but I think that it will spin up in to a great strong yarn.

I decided that I would N-ply the yarn, unless I love the way the singles come out.  This is a great way of plying without having to plan out how to split the yarn in advance.  2 ply is more fun, but I just have to do a bit more planning.

Turns out polwarth drafts like a dream.  The fibers are so sticky that it almost wants to draft and spin itself!  Cross your fingers that Lucky doesn't get into my spinning now that he's awake.  I store the fiber ton top of the wheel and then hope that I can keep him distracted from unraveling my work.  

I finished the singles in one afternoon.  How on earth was this possible?  I'm a very lucky mama because Keith was playing with Lucas all day so I could have some time with my wheel.  (Spoiler alert - I finished the ENTIRE SKEIN in one day!)

This fiber was so sticky (again, the good kind of sticky) that I swear it would ply itself.  I had NO issues with breaking the entire time and have a spindle full of fluffy 3 ply yarn.  (Since I'm a novice, self taught spinner I'm not sure if you would technically call this 3 ply or just N-ply... hopefully I'm not butchering the terminology.) I really like N-plying.  I see it like a huge crochet chain that is then twisted together.  It always feels very strong to me.

16 wraps over 3"  (5-6 WPI, a bulky yarn.)  How often have I tried to get a true bulky yarn?  I finally have little enough twist for a very fluffy, bulky yarn.  Wahoo!

50 wraps * 4 ft/wrap = 200 feet = 66 yards.   I have made 26 projects (according to Ravelry) using between 30 and 65 yards of yarn.  Most of these are baby hats and amigurumi, and are frequently out of much thinner yarn.  I wonder what I'll make out of this.

I finished the yarn by winding it onto my homemade niddy noddy and set the twist with hot water and let the yarn dry on the niddy noddy.

When I went to the fiber fair this summer I saw someone spinning and her singles were SO thin and perfect.  I really want to practice spinning up thin yarn again to see what I can do.  I've had much more success in not overtwisting my intended-to-be-bulky yarns, maybe I can have the same success with thinner yarns?  Wish me luck!  

Spinning started 8/20/14
Singles completed 8/20/14
Plying completed 8/20/14