Plying those 12 bobbins of singles was quick (ish) work. In one industrious evening, staying up late to cross the finish line, I plied everything up into two large hanks of yarn. I was too excited about how it was going to stop at one full bobbin!
From this:
To this:
Dad’s skein winder came in handy yet again. These were really big, full jumbo bobbins! And they made really big hanks of yarn.
The next day I put them into a hot soapy bath to set the twist and wash away the lanolin and grime from the fiber milling machines. My fingertips were coated with stuff after each spinning session, so I knew the yarn would be a little grimy. Lets just say the bathwater was not pleasant after each soak. But the finished yarn was! So soft and springy! The sun cooperated for a bit, so I hung the yarn out to dry in the (relatively) warm breeze.
Here’s the finished yarn. Isn’t it a lovely neutral? (I can hear Mom groaning from 1000 miles away.) No, I don’t wear neutrals exclusively. But if I’m going to spend all of this time to spin and knit a sweater, I want it to hang around for more than a couple of years. Right? Right. So, no trendy colors in this particular project. The final yardage count comes in at 738 yards of DK weight yarn.
Ready to get knitting then? Not quite yet. The yarn turned out exactly like I planned… except in one of the critical areas. The yardage is not as much as I hoped and needed for the particular sweater pattern I had picked out. Apparently I need some practice with estimating fiber quantities for spinning projects. File that in the Lessons Learned folder.
What to do, since I’ve got about half of the amount of yarn needed for my sweater? My goal was ~1500 yards. 1) I could supplement with another yarn, making the sweater multi-toned or multi-colored. 2) I could pick a different sweater pattern, based on the yardage I have. 3) I could spin more yarn. In this case, I picked the third option. The mill where this fiber was processed is local, and I knew they would be at the local fiber festival this past weekend. So I popped into their booth, did a quick spot check for color, and acquired an additional 12 ounces of fiber. Crossing my fingers that I can replicate my work to produce two more hanks that will match closely enough to the first two that they can be used in the same project.
Whew! Ready to do it all over again? Not yet. I think I need a palette cleanser first. Next up, more fiber festival adventures and an exploration of color.