al dente crafting

Official start! I’m almost done with the first 50g of this batt. My initial plan was to do the entire 100g and chain ply but the plyback samply looked so good and bouncy and sproingy so two ply it is

Had to abandon my inital plan (to spin as much red southdown as possinble into a 3 ply sock yarn) pretty much immediately, because it turns out the espinner cannot actually handle running as fast as it needs to run to spin southdown that fine. Here's the bit I managed to do (chain plied) before sadly giving up on that plan.

So I pivoted to a much thicker yarn, which will probably be more like a 2 ply light worsted weight. Not sure what I'll do with the resulting yarn because I certainly don't have enough fiber to make what I planned initally. Idk, I'll figure it out later.

My goal this year is to spin for half an hour every morning. I probably won't post every day but I will be spinning every day, I hope ! Today I spun more like an hour but I wanted to get half an hour of this thicker yarn done.

Me:

ough so apparently it‘s tour de fleece and my perma-exhausted brain didn‘t even register it?? anyway I will (for obvious reasons) not gove myself any challenges, but instead try to finish some WIPs. Left is the alpaca/silk braid Imve been chipping away at for months now (thanks depression for the hiatus and general difficulty doing things), which I will let rest a bit and then chain ply.

A tiny spinning update: my ability to spin very fine singles is progressing quite well! I'm a long way from spinning a plied laceweight yarn (or sewing thread, as I've seen some people do!), but it's been so satisfying to get a fairly consistent laceweight single.

Bought at the very tail end of June, largely because my rainbow nonsense budget went unused this year - but also because I had my eye on this design for a while now, and so when this one got put up for less than half the usual price for quality control reasons, I couldn't resist. 19€. I mean, c'mon.

(Shop's Spindeleien on etsy, maker of the most stupidly precise supported spindle I own, so I correctly assumed that his "second choice" spindles would still hold up pretty dang well)

The funny thing is that I can get it to run almost perfectly evenly, it's just a tiny bit more finnicky than its brethren that actually passed QC. Doesn't make much of a difference while spinning, tbh.

It's a bit heavier than I usually prefer, weighing in at 39g*, but it works with the whorl shape, and it does less delicate fibers a little more readily, which is what I was hoping for**. I currently have a bit of Portuguese merino on it that my fiber arts friend found too short-stapled to be comfortable on the wheel.

Not the best fiber choice for supported spinning because the fibers are extremely grippy, but if you're not too into perfectly even yarn, it works.

So, yeah! Look out for that one during Tour de Fleece, I guess! I'm sure it'll make appearances here and there.

I forgot to post yesterday but I have just been trucking away at this gradient. I will finish it today, and then I will take a break and spin some more fun things before I start on the second set

I also got squishy mail!

[ID: a handknit jumper. the front features a seal sitting on a rock in the sea, with fish falling into its open mouth. On the back is a bucket, throwing the fish up and over the shoulders to the seal. end ID]

"Sealed with a Fish", from Wild Animal Knits by Melinda Coss. Knit with John Arbon Devonia and Devon Naturals DK yarn.