CVM Sampling
When the weather is dreary and a chillier than it should be, there's no better way to spend the day than spinning with a friend. On Tuesday, I got to test out my new Bag Lady wheel bag and I headed out to visit Julie for an afternoon of spinning and chatting.
In the interest of preventing my very large ball of CVM roving from becoming the largest dust bunny in my house, I decided that I would start doing a little sampling to find a yarn that I thought would be suitable for making the simple and pretty cardigan I have in my mind. I thought I would start by making a two-ply and a three-ply yarn. I wanted to start with the three-ply, but, since I only brought three bobbins out with me, I ended up starting with the two-ply instead.
My African violet is helping me out with the modeling tonight since there's really still no green outside. This little skein is 42 yards of what I would estimate to be somewhere between fingering and DK weight yarn. It surprised me with it's behavior. When I spun it and plied it, it didn't feel as elastic as the chocolate brown CVM I spun. I gave it a long soak and let it hang to dry -- after which it developed that springy character that I really like. I guess that nice warm bath helped the fibers get some of their natural springy happy goodness back. A good reminder that one should always make sure that newly spun yarn should always get a beauty bath.
It's not a dramatically colored yarn, but I like the soft heathery color of the yarn. It reminds me of oatmeal with a bit of brown sugar laced through it. However, it's a little finer than I want it to be for my cardigan. So trying out a three ply yarn will definitely be in order. I'm kind of excited about that since I've never tried to spin a three ply yarn before.
Since we're talking about yarn, I thought I'd finish up my report on the indigo dyed skeins. The large grey skein that we over-dyed at Toni's is finally washed and dried. Initially, I was just going to show you the big skein on its own, but I thought the nicest way to evaluate the color was to put it together with the other two skeins so that you could see the range of blues.
That overdyed grey skein looks suprisingly like the color of one of my most recent denim purchases.
Hopefully I'll have Pearl pictures tomorrow. I've been hoping for some nice weather so that I can get some nice outdoor shots. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day.
Oooo, that is good to know that the sproinginess returns with a bath! I have some CVM/Romeldale roving from an Ebay purchase on the wheel right now and I was a little disappointed. I guess today I should ply it up into a sample and give it a beauty bath!
Oh, very very pretty stuff.
If you're interested in doing a 3-ply yarn with only one bobbin, you could learn how to do navajo plying which is really fun!
Your yarns look great!
You might want to check out Mr. Plyer at
http://www.spinnerellasattic.typepad.com
Marcia is offering these plying boxes that her husband makes and they are really nice for 3 ply.
Yeah, still loving the indigo. I keep trying to pick a favorite of the three skeins, and I just can't.
I really need to take the time to rinse out my indigo dyed yarn. Maybe since it's warmer today I'll get my act together and do it. Yours really look like they retained their color well!
Look at that beautifully spun yarn...
That CVM yarn is great! It looks so soft and airy.
What is the trick to get your spun yarn so loose? I'm in the 'teaching myself' mode and all my home spun is looks like DK. Does this come with time and practice? Is there a trick I'm missing?
dreary, chilly weather today? are you sure? *scratches head* i thought it was quite lovely!
i think tomorrow is supposed to be icky. sure, when i have all afternoon to myself and could go outside. instead of the nice weather today when i had school then work. *sigh*
Beautiful yarn! Just remember for the 3-ply that you have to put even more twist in the singles, but it's pretty easy to sample. Pull out considerably more than you would to let back twist for 2-ply and fold over three times! You will love it. (A rather famous Navajo spinner claims that "Navajo Ply" is neither Navajo nor plied. Just saying.)