Sunday, December 8, 2013

Newly Spun

I freely admit that I am obsessed with yarn, generally, and specifically with this newly spun yarn:
I found the roving at the Fiber Festival of New England earlier this fall.  It was produced at Heron Crossing Farm in Whitefield, Maine.  The roving was packaged in a bag filled with an assortment of fiber from different sheep, some of which was paired together to form a composite roving.  The breed is Finnish Landrace.
I had my doubts about the resulting yarn once I began spinning.  Each color was different in staple length and the degree to which it held on to what appeared to be pieces of hay. Some of the roving moved smoothly, while some was very difficult to draft.  I randomly spun each color until I had 2 roughly equal bobbins of singles.
I used those to make a 2-ply yarn, not really knowing how the different colors would line up.
From the 8 ounces of roving I spun 7 ounces of yarn.  It's somewhere between worsted and woolen and I'll use a size 8 needle, I think.  Given how variable it felt while spinning, it has become a surprisingly soft  yarn.  It's going to be a hat and fingerless mitts, someday.  It's not part of the xmas effort, so I am suppressing the impulse to play with it sooner.  Wish me luck!