Random handspun experiments

I picked up some wonderful alpaca to spin up.  It came out sooooo soft, I think I don't want to take a chance on messing up the softness by dying, so I'm trying to decide what to knit in the natural shade.  Since I tried various plies and various sizes, I'll have to knit something that will incorporate the variety.

During open spinning time at the shop where I bought my wheel and took a class, a lady showed me her locally grown (Fort Collins) and locally processed (Laramie Wyoming at UW) wool that was "rough processed."   I was so interested in trying other fibers that I bought 5 ounces from her ($1 an ounce, what a deal!)  In spinning it up, I had my first encounter with what is colloquially known as "vegetable matter" -- translation:  We didn't take too much time picking the leaves and thorns out of the fleece before we carded it.  This explains why at $1 an ounce, she was clearing profit on it -- they didn't spend much time on it.  It spun up fairly easily, but there's not much of it, so I'll probably use it to experiment with dying processes. ...... which is a blog for another time.

And here's my recliner, full of handspun.  Lots of fun with small samples.  So now I've begun a larger spinning project.  (more later)

What 4 ounces of fiber makes

In attempting to improve my spinning skills, I bought roving (carded fleece ready to spin) at the only place in Cheyenne that sells roving.  It was a limited selection, but it gave me the opportunity to get some success under my drive belt.  These, as well as the green hat posted earlier, are each from 4 ounce balls of Targhee sheep roving.  All the colors are more vivid in real life.  I can tell I am going to have to take my work outside to photograph!  So far I love spinning Targhee wool  It gets really good reviews as a beginning spinner fiber, because it drafts (pulls the fiber out in preparation for spinning) so well


 Bulky weight, pretty consistent. This was my third roving to spin up.

Thick and thin - my second spinning try

This is probably my most consistent fiber to date.  It is a lace-weight.  The knitting done there is on size 0 needles.  The color is much brighter red than the pic.

What's new, section three -- SPINNING

For my birthday last year, John got me a Lendrum spinning wheel.  I've always wanted to learn to spin.  One of my dear friends out here looked at it and said, "You know, they sell that *#%* in stores!"  And I do know that (as you can tell from my stash room!) but for me the interesting part of any of my crafting is in the creation, and the way you can make something totally different by changing one little aspect of the design.

I am enjoying learning to spin, but I'm still not very good at it.  My control of the size of strand (ply) is improving.  I can now spin medium-weight (sport to worsted sizes) fairly consistently.  I'd like to try now to do a thick-and-thin yarn, which is all I could manage in the beginning!  It was accidental then, so I'd like to try to do it on purpose.

This hat was knitted with my first handspun yarn.  It was spun on a drop spindle, then wheel plied.