I started a tag for spinning related posts that I hope to use as having a wheel of my own (again) means that I’m spinning more.
I finished the last little bit of the BFL. Well almost. I still have about 80 grams of the stuff set aside with a drop spindle, but I don’t think I need to spin it up like the other to make anything. But I might.
I was going to do this Mohair/Alpaca/Finn thing, but I’ve since decided against it. Alpaca is nice, but I’m not sure that it’s the kind of thing that I particularly like to knit with. I’m very into wool, and I know myself well enough to realize that I don’t really know how to spin alpaca, and I don’t have enough desire to want to learn how to do that at the moment.
If I move north and need gear that warm, or lace goes into style for men, maybe I’ll reconsider.
In other news, though people on ravelry have been helpful with my double drive plying issue, I think this boils down to the fact that this yarn that I’ve been working with is very lofty, particularly when plied, and double drive though very even (and good for it) doesn’t provide as much tension for plying as the breakband method does.
Though if anyone has the Alden Amos book at hand and wants to share his imparted wisdom, I’d be ok with that, if I’m missing something.
So next up, seeing that the alpaca blend thing is a no go, is going to be the Grey Shetland that I just ordered. It should be here soon enough, but I think I’ll take the opportunity of the break to finish the sweater that I’ve been working on (just a hem), some writing responsibilities, starting the next sweater (woot!). There’s also some hand painted roving at the yarn store that might come home with me. If it’s still in the shop.
In the past several years, most of my spinning has focused on making various two ply yarns, and I think what to focus on spinning conventional three-ply for the next little bit.
I’ve also decided that, while I’m uninterested in spinning bulky novelty yarns; unlike a lot of spinners, I’m not particularly interested in spinning fingering and lace weight (sorry Ted! I’m not worthy!) mostly because while I knit with a lot of fingering weight (jumper weight shetland mostly), it seems to me that this is the kind of yarn that I would never want to spin for myself, whereas things in the Sport/DK/Worsted range is stuff where my allegiance to the machine spun fiber is much less strong. A place where the economy works out a bit better for me.
And three ply seems like it will be fun.
But until I get more fiber, we’ll have to wait and see, and move on to other topics of interest.
Onward and Upward!