Hanspun : Picking up my drop spindle

Hi guys! I've been a naughty girl lately. I've been cheating on my knitting. My Westphalie and my Aidez are sitting in my knitting basket, waiting for me to work on them. But my mind is elsewhere.

I tried to spin yarn with my drop spindle before, but I wasn't thrilled with the results and got discouraged. At Rhinebeck, I encountered numerous spinners, and watching them spin was my "ah ha!" moment. In a second, I new how to spin, draft, twist.

In a matter of days I spun the rest of my Louet Corriedale fiber, which ended up being a thick and thin single, and ordered some fine Shetland top from Two Sisters Stringworks in two colorway: Hipster (green-yellow) and Light Rain (blue tones).

My first few tries were rewarding enough, and then I could just not stop. I spun the entire roving of Hipster.

Later, I decided to try plying. Althought it is still not perfect, I am quite happy with the way the yarn looks. I decided to ply the Corridale since I am not so fond of thick and thin single yarn. What I have now is a cute 2-ply worsted weight skein of 82 yards/43g.

I separated the Hipster roving in two equal parts. The first skein ended up slightly thick and thin, so it became a 2-ply aran weight skein of 82 yards/55g. The second skein was pretty regular (to my delight) and stayed like it was spun, a single, ligh fingering weight skein of 255 yards/55g.

Finally, don't miss Wednesday's blog post: it's my turn on the Coastal Knit blogroll!