u/ahl389

Bought a 10-pack of Cascade Legacy undyed sock yarn (superwash, 75% merino, 25% nylon) and dyed up these six today. I used dharma acid dyes, some variations of hand painting with squirt bottles and partial immersion and making it up as I go along. I also bought a sous vide bath that I'll only use for fiber processing to cook 'em, which has proven simple and effective.

The bright orange is "blazing orange" and I got it so I could make some stuff for when my partner goes out into the woods, but it got a little too saturated and she said it's too red lol. Who knows what I'll do with it now!

Time to knit!

Behold my disappointment!!!! I spun this from a raw shetland fleece that I skirted, scoured, and dyed, and the color work is the only thing redeemable about this yarn. I've been working through making singles from the fleece and most have been okay, but this one was AWFUL. It was horrible to spin. It was a very long staple length but course as all get out. It feels like horse hair. Like wire, basically. It was a nightmare to spin, didn't even resemble wool. I gave up and chain plied it just to get it off the bobbin. Only 32 yards. What a waste! At least the colors are pretty.

I just finished dying two out of three planned batches of a shetland fleece that had a silver base and fawn/brown tips. This was my first time dying! I LOVE how the left batch came out. I kinda screwed up the right batch—as you can see there is some silver that has no color, but I’m hopeful that when I spin it, it will be a really cool addition.

When I do the third batch there will be enough wool for six skeins, I think I might mix and match between the batches for some interesting plies! Im thinking about adding some plum, or maybe lilac to the next go?

Soooo pleased by this first skein from my new wheel. I split up four individual Shetland 1oz samples and tried to do a 1:2 fractal, but unfortunately one of my singles ended up a lot longer than the other haha so it's not quite perfect.

Also...and this is an issue I kept having over and over... my yarn keeps barfing up on the bobbin. I have no clue why and can't tell if it's a tension issue or something else I'm doing wrong. But at one point it got so bad the bobbin wouldn't turn right and I had to cut the yarn and start fresh on a new bobbin which was a big headache to rejoin later. A Kromski Fantasia, if anyone has any advice. I put a photo of it from before it got really off the rails; dog butt in the background.

Anyways, I'm just super excited about how far I've come in the last month. I'm so happy I found this hobby.

😭 My Kromski Fantasia finally came today and I was so excited but after a fairly arduous set up process, I could barely get it going... I had a run of maybe 30 seconds to a minute, but it wound all wrong on the bobbin (pig tailing everywhere and all stuck in one spot) and it ended up being underspun and then the fiber broke and I couldn't get more to blend on without it breaking again. Giving up for the night as I'm a bit discouraged, but looking forward to practicing more tomorrow.

She sure is pretty, though...

This is my fourth ever skein (shetland combed top, drop spindle) and I wanted to make something nice and soft and squishy. I’d gotten pretty decent at evenly drafting a very fine single but I found it was really hard to stay even doing bulky!! By the end I was taking super short drafts, maybe 3/4 inch and it was getting more even. Luckily it balanced pretty well after wet finishing and I’m happy with the end result but I felt very unsure during the spinning process. Any tips or things I should consider when drafting for a bulky yarn. Also, does it look too rope like? And how do I avoid that too, ha?

I started handspinning on a drop spindle about three weeks ago at a workshop where we learned how to go from a raw fleece right off the sheep all the way to a finished single. I’ve since caught the bug baaaad! I started this project Friday and finished tonight and I just wanted to share it because I feel really proud! Probably took around 25 hours for 81 yards 🤣

Tomorrow I’ll start something new!