Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Slubs and Neps and Thrums, oh my







The wheel has been calling me lately, so after I finished writing up yesterday's sock pattern , and then got the latest sock done, the ends woven in, and washed, I decided to give my brain a break for the evening.

I pawed through my wool stash, which is nearly as large as my yarn stash (which is embarrassing), and came up with some true Mystery Roving. It's a Mystery not only because I have no idea what wool it is (it's white, soft, springy, and fine, with neps and pink/purple/blue/teal slubs, threads, and thrums throughout), but I have no clue as to its origin or how it ended up in my wool room. I don't know if I bought it, or if I traded for it, or if it was a gift. But it jumped up and begged to be spun last night.

The nice thing about spinning yarn that you know will be lumpy and bumpy is that you don't have to worry so much about inconsistencies in your spinning- no matter what you do, the yarn is going to be lumpy and bumpy. Even so, I managed a pretty even 2-ply yarn that was nicely balanced (not a hint of a twist when I took the plied yarn off the Niddy Noddy). It bloomed well after washing, and has a fair amount of spring to it. The colors are gorgeous- the whole yarn looks pale purple with bright spots, and it'll be great fun to knit.

This hank is 3.1 ozs, 86 yds, 11wpi. I have a little over 4ozs of roving left. I'll have enough for a pair of mittens, which is what the yarn says it wants to be. I don't know if I'll spin the rest tonight or not- that depends on how the book work goes today, and how American Idol goes tonight. But it was nice to spin again- I've missed making my own yarn.

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