Trenchwork

The Stats

Fiber: Ashland Bay Merino-Tussah (70-30) roving from Mielke’s Farm, Sea Mist.
Finished Weight: 454 grams/15.9 ounces
Yardage: ca 962, 2-ply (657; 305)
WPI: ca 16
Spun on: Rose and the 1 ounce Woolly Designs Kokopelli.

The Lessons

I hadn’t intended on spinning this blend again quite so soon, but I started it while I was stateside and wanted something familiar. It was a blend I’d tried before and I knew I could handle on the spindle fairly easily, and I was drawn by the color.

I’ve learned, however, that I’m a rotten judge of fiber color; I simply am hopeless at guessing what the resulting yarn will look like on any given fiber. In this case, the fiber was a well-blended overall-blue with subtle strips of taupe and dark blue. It wasn’t something I could easily split into major color tones in the same way I’d split that green multi-color merino which became the Swallowtail shawl. To borrow a bit of Ashford Bay’s pic of their own product, it looks like this:

I know I’ll get better about knowing what to expect as I get more experience under my belt, but I really did expect the yarn to be a shade of blue.

It is . . . and it isn’t. There are more light shades than dark shades in the roving, and the blend is subtle enough that the resulting yarn is a tweed or heathered yarn. The base color soon becomes a kind of grey, with blue and taupe overtones. It is nearly impossible to get a good photo since the yarn seems to change color depending on the light, but here’s an overview:

(Remember, click for the biggie on Flickr.)

That photo shows the yarn in mildly overcast daylight, but let me show you what I mean, and forgive me for posting a much larger photo than usual:

(Again, click for big on Flickr, but don’t let this shot fool you; it’s only got that brown cast in certain lights.)

But do you see what I mean? There are wonderful little streaks and spots of blue and brown, and the color really has a lot of character when you look at it carefully. There is even the occasional teeny tiny “thrum” of Tussah or brown, yellow, or blue wool. The name—sea mist—makes perfect sense in the way it shifts in the lighting, but I find myself thinking that it reminds me more of river rocks, or the rocky beach you find at some shorelines. I have a feeling that while it’s not the color I was expecting, it’s something which will knit up into a lovely fabric. And no—I have no idea what that fabric should be.

Color aside, I’m VERY pleased with this yarn. It’s not perfect, but it’s actually pretty consistent, and there’s only one section in the ply where I went temporarily brain dead and lost focus (it’s a wee bit looser).

What really was a learning experience here, however, was the finish. I followed advice from some of the experienced spinners like Abby and gave it a rather abusive wet finish. I set the yarn in a very hot, soapy soak with a certain amount of agitation, gave it a cool rinse with a lot of squishing, followed by a very warm rinse and a last cold rinse. I didn’t handle it gently. While I didn’t rub it against itself and didn’t wring it, I DID pick it up and drop it back into the water often, and gave it some serious pressing. I even took it outside and popped it like a whip a few times, then span it around overhead until I’m certain the neighbors wondered which Goliath I was training for.

The end result is that the finished yarn is slightly fulled (a teeny bit felted). The process has actually tightened up the ply, and what was originally a firm ply is now even better; the singles have “swelled” to meet each other a bit and made the yarn even more solid and unified. Equally importantly, it still has a lot of elasticity. This is not a stiff yarn! If I compare this spin to the earlier spin of the same blend, I have to say that I like this one better. This yarn is actually soft, while the other has a crisp feel to it.

In short, while it’s not perfect, this is a yarn I would not be embarrassed to give to another spinner. If I’m honest, I have to say that I rather like it.