Evolution

A progression of handspun...

All the Spinning That's Happened So Far

These little skeins of yarn show how my spinning skills have progressed since the beginning of May. The first two skeins are from rovings I bought from Handspun by Stefania. The third skein is a tussah/cormo blend, the fourth, fifth and sixth skeins are from my dying projects with Julie and the seventh skein is the Bombyx/cormo blend that I've slowly been working through on one of my Bosworth spindles. I weighed it to find out how much I'd actually spun up and I think I have about 1/2 an ounce. At least that's what my Ikea scale tells me. It seems right given that that I started with a four ounce bag and there's still a whole lot of fiber left to work with.

To get it to this photoshoot, after plying it from a center pull ball (which worked better than the Andean plying bracelet), I soaked it and allowed it to hang dry to set the twist. And it seems pretty balanced. And very soft.

Bombyx Silk and Cormo Wool Blend Close Up

The Bombyx silk lends this yarn a little bit of extra texture. I found it hard to keep the singles even when I came across the silk. It seemed to prefer to become these little slubs. The yarn is a little more rusty than the luminous red that shows up in the picture and should be a nice color for a fall garment.

I've been pretty unmotivated to knit so far this summer, but running my fingers over my own handspun is getting me a little more inspired to get back to it. Based on a wraps per inch measurement (about 16 wpi) this yarn looks like it's sport weight. This seems like an idea weight for something lacy -- I'm hoping that it might be a good candidate for a a flower basket shawl, but I am figuring that I better spin up a little bit more of it before I start on a project with it, just to be sure that I get enough to actually complete the project I start.