Trenchwork

Obviously, I’m not numbering spinning sessions, but rather spinning results. Here’s what I’ve been working on when I needed to get away from the machine:

(Ignore the tacky blue crochet thread marking the ends.)

The Stats.
Fiber: 3.6 ounces Cormo roving from Kendig Cottage.
Spun on: Cascabeles 1.8 and Bosworth .7 ounce spindles. Mostly plied on the new 2.1 Woolly Designs spindle.
Yardage: ca 377 yards
WPI: 17-19/inch (depending on where you measure). For gauge, a US dime and a Norwegian 1-kroner piece.

The Lessons.

I suppose I should first confess that I had actually intended this bit of roving to be the same weight as Spin 1, but clearly that hasn’t happened. I found myself accidentally spinning much thinner than I intended, then just gave in and decided to go with it. After all, it would still be a learning experience.

This is the second real spin, and I’ve learned a few things along the way. First, my memory totally sucks. Ok, that’s not a new lesson, but it came home in a totally new way when I looked at the end of those 377-ish yards and realized that it wasn’t precisely the same as the start of those 377 yards. So, the new rule is that if I’m going to spin more than a few yards, I shall hereby cut off a bit of single to help gut-check the rest of the spinning. That also applies to plying, because . . .

Second, I need more ply in a fine yarn, and I need that ply to be consistent. That would be a lot easier if I could remember how much ply I had settled on in the first place, and I’m obviously having trouble with that in a long spin without a sample.

Third. Cormo is a lovely fiber. The staple on this roving was a bit shorter than the merino I picked up after this skein was hung to dry last night, but it’s nice and soft without being slippery or hard to handle.

Final Thoughts.

Overall, I don’t think this is a bad effort. I have two very ugly spots in the yarn, though. The first is a blow-out—a place where either I didn’t get enough twist in the single or I didn’t do a good enough job of joining the fiber. The second is a stretch of about 18-24 inches where the ply isn’t plied at all. I’m betting that after spinning all those yards, I zoned at this point in the ply and span in the wrong direction. I’m still struggling with consistency, and that’s a major issue for me since I’m not keen on thick-thin yarns. Nevertheless, I find myself feeling as if it was easier to maintain a more consistent thin single than thick single.

I also noticed that with the merino just started on the spindle. I decided I wanted that to become a worsted weight yarn, but it took me a while to come up with a balance. Where the cormo started very thin and ended a bit thicker, the merino has started thicker (and thinner), and may end a bit thinner. It’s definitely going to be a thick-thin, despite my best intentions.

This cormo two-ply wants to stick to itself a bit, and I’m not sure if that’s because the ply isn’t as tight as I want it to be—thus creating some bumpiness I don’t normally like—or because of something else. I know it’s not the fiber since Spin 1 didn’t have that problem. I’m tempted to ply it back on itself one more time and make a four ply out of it, just to see if it would round the yarn out. I think it would at least balance out the uneven spots, and I’d still have about 150 yards. I did try Navajo plying it in order to get a three-ply, but I found that I’m not coordinated enough to do that on a drop spindle. I also realized I should probably grab twenty or so yards of cheap commercial yarn to practice that technique instead of trying to figure it out on a very thin single that wants to catch on itself.

Finally, I do see a difference in this yarn and the first, and interestingly enough, the problems—aside from consistency in thickness—are a bit different this time. Specifically, the twist in the ply is the biggest problem this time, and I’d have been happier had it been more consistent. I’d thought this yarn might turn into a gift project for someone, but while it’s totally usable, it’s not good enough to give away. This is actually one of the times when I really don’t mind going back to the drawing board.