A good Yarn

As well as some ok yarns and a fo...

A while back I got dome delicious merino roving from sqhuoosh in the "funny" colorway.

I split it in half and spun one half on my little.8 oz golding tsunami. I then chain plied it on my big spindle. It wasn't perfectly even, and it was definitely better towards the end as I got more comfortable with drafting, and with consistency:




(if you click through, you can get the super huge size of this picture, that I'm using as my current desktop)

the other day while I was surfing Ravelry I found this neat pattern that I though would be perfect for this yarn...

beechwood

I reduced the stitch count, because I didn't want it to be all big and floppy, and then only knit 1 3/4 repeats instead of the 2 1/4 that the pattern calls for, beaus I ran out of yarn.

Over all I'm pretty happy with the results. This is the first time I've knit with my handspun, and I'm pretty happy with it. All the flaws that bothered me in the yarn are barely noticeable once knit up.



I saved the other half of the 'funny' to practice on my wheel spinning on Wednesdays.
I was mostly aiming for something similar to my spindle spun while practicing the supported long draw technique. Because this was only my second and third times spinning on a wheel, there is very little consistency, and it is obviously a 'practice' yarn. Although my chain plying on a wheel is definitely improving, I think I would have had a slightly easier time of it had the lazy Kate been in a different position, but that is easily remedied:





after I finished up the funny I still had a lot of time left, so I grabbed some merino top from Ashland bay in 'snapdragon' and worked on spinning from the fold. And then two plied it.

I definitely like the results from spinning from the fold, very soft and squishy, and by the end I was getting better at the consistency.

The resulting yarn is very obviously 'beginner' but I still like it, it is so soft and squishy and warm. Only have about 50 yards of it, so I'm unsure what to do with it.




(again, if you click through you can get an extra huge version of this for your desktop wallpaper.)


and then I saved the best for last:



remember the chocolate alpaca bon-bons?
this is what became of them.

10 grams, 42 yards of the most delicious soft and fine lace weight yarn.

I know it's not a lot, but the fiber had not been washed before hand so it was really dirty, and spinning it was not all that pleasant. But after a good soak in hot soapy water and a little abuse, this has bloomed into an amazingly soft yarn.

Spun on my golding .8 oz tsunami, Navaho 'ply on the fly'