#feyspins

finished my halloween spin! I love love love the colors! It was outside of my comfort zone, but it turned out sooooooo cool! Very autumnal and gently spooky. This was my first time spinning targhee and WOW is it smooshy and bouncy. I'm so excited to spin more targhee! It's not quite as smooth/buttery as rambouillet, but it has the same bouncy quality that I really like.

I split the braid into three, then split one of the three in half again. I wanted to keep the colors mostly intact without having big stripes of one color.

I finished it by dunking it in hot water, then running it under a cold faucet, then back into the hot water to soak. Then i thwacked it a bunch and snapped it once or twice. I wanted to full it a little, add more loft and bounce, without really felting it up.

Before washing it was 14 WPI and 459 yards under tension. After washing it's more like 12 WPI and somewhere between 380 and 400 yards depending on how much tension was released.

Fiber: Coffee & Contemplation by Into the Whirled in targhee

See the braid and single here

I'm planning on spinning up some BFL (which is grey with blobs of green, orange, and wine-purple overdyed onto it) and knitting the Velvet Moss Vest (by Isabella Clark) with them, eventually.

plied that spin for a friend (: It's so super pretty! I love the way it turned out and I really hope they like the gift.

This ended up being 274 and 257 yards before washing. Each skein is exactly on target for 11 WPI, just like I was aiming for. I'm feeling really pleased with myself for that.

As for how I plied it- I took each braid and split in 3. I kept 1/3 as is, mirrored the other 1/3, and swapped the last 1/3 with the other braid. I think that blended up the colors and homogenized the braids very nicely. (They are the same color, the lighting is just different).

Fiber: Never Gonna Give You Up in polwarth/silk from Hipstrings

MY SWEATER omg omg omg this is my FAVORITE thing that I have ever knit (so far)!!! I was really nervous going into this because of all the struggles I had with the yarn, but it turned out so well.

I made the yarn 3-ply on purpose so I could do cables, so I had to include them somewhere. Not really sure what my line of thinking was for the side seam detailing, but I guess the flowers are nice. After seeing how cool the stockinette stitch is, I wish I hadn't bothered. But I usually hate knitting miles of stockinette.

but the TEXTURE!!! of the texture of this is beautiful. I knit this by alternating opposing ply S-plied and Z-plied yarns (row by row). The amount of texture in stockinette is really cool. But this is also the stretchiest fabric. It would be so nice for a negative ease garment. I don't think I can accurately describe in writing how bouncy and stretchy and smooshy this fabric is while being a thick and thin barely-semi-woolen spun (worsted prep, beginner something short draw) 3 ply. The yarn is thin and drapey in some spots, ropey even, and it's still so bouncy. It feels amazing and I highly encourage others to experiment with similar constructions.

I have a lot of yarn left over actually and I thought I was going to be short. I don't know what I'm going to make with what's left because it's so... unique.

Base Fiber: BFL from Feederbrook Farms

Accent Fiber: Targhee from Kim Dyes Yarn

Starting off the summer with some ✨watermelon yarn✨! I bought this fiber on a yarn crawl for my area. It is locally sheared, locally processed, and locally dyed. It's a "tunis barnyard blend" which has tunis and possibly also dorset and babydoll. It's not silky-soft, but it's also not scratchy or rough either. Firmly medium. It might soften even more after washing. It's also nicely bouncy and elastic.

however, this fiber was FILLED with bits of hay etc. My floor is a massacre of red and green. I don't mind a rustic fiber, I don't mind picking out a little VM here and there. It's wool from a sheep. They're animals. But this was excessive. I had to stop and pick out like 7-20 pieces of VM along a stretch of ~4 inches, spin it, then stop and pick more out before I could keep going. It was hard to get into a flow state.

THAT SAID, I am obsessed with the yarn! The watermelon red color is SPOT ON very realistic and accurate to the color of an actual watermelon. The neon green is a very fun complement. I'm excited to turn this into a watermelon slice crescent shawl/scarf. And look how CUTE the watermelon sheeps are!!! I love this bobbin- it's so fun to see the sheeps fill up with color as I spin 🐑

decadent spin! This one really spoke to me at the local fiber fest. Something about the natural colors with just a whisper of purple. and it's SO SOFT omg it's one of the softest braids.

I was trying to spin it woolen style, but the silk (or something else?) keeps getting stuck and not drafting out evenly like everything else. I haven't spun camel before, but I know it tends to have very short staple lengths. So I was hoping it would be nice for a woolen spun, make it lofty and soft and cozy. The single so far is kind of bumpy and even, and it's a little disappointing.

New spindle new spindle!!! You ever meet a new tool and get the feeling that it was meant to be? like it was made for you? Something about this spindle ✨clicked✨ for me and it feels so nice to spin with. It's like it's teaching me how to supported spin. It feels so wonderful in the hand and it's so pretty too. Made from reclaimed wood and other materials (:

I've been really struggling with supported spinning, but with the new spindle I think I'm really starting to get the hang of it. Look how finely I can spin! it's relatively even too! The process feels so smooth and delightful!

Many supported spindles are wildly expensive and I was planning on waiting until MD Sheep/Wool to try to find one at a discount or something. And then I found this one for a perfectly reasonable price. I didn't think I was going to go for it, but I could not stop thinking about it. I'm so glad I took a chance on it~

The spindle is from Rag Bag Rebel Alliance on Etsy (HIGHLY recommend!)

Finished and plied this! Wow the colors pop/blend. I'm worried I overplied it though, considering how scrunchie it is off the niddy-noddy. Guess I'll see after washing /: I'm hoping a bath softens it up too because it's kind of rough? I thought BFL was supposed to be skin soft? I don't know if this is, and so I have no idea what to make with it. But at least it's pretty? (Currently thinking a pair of socks perhaps. It's 100% BFL so it should be fairly study.) (update! it is quite a bit softer after washing yay)

Fiber: unnamed colorway in BFL from Angel Locks Fiberworks

The finished yarn is ~330 yards, 14 WPI and 1623 ypp, which makes it solidly a fingering weight yarn.

My first time spinning cormo! It was delightfully smooshy and bouncy. I'm adding it to my favorite fibers list (:

This is a really simple 1:2 fractal and I like how it turned out! The colors are really neat all swirled together. The blues and purple kind of reminded me of the color of a bruise. It ended up being just under fingering weight, and ~520 yards. No idea what I'm making with it yet.