Weekend work

I just wanted to do a quick post to show better pictures of the skeins I finished this weekend. The green is a 2-ply fingering weight spun from 4 ounces of handpainted wool. I bought it a couple of weeks ago at Bishop Hill for a present for a colleague that loves these greens. It was a little bit difficult to spin because there was some slight felting with the dying but I'm pleased with how it came out. I'm getting a little bit better at controlling the size of my singles. Spinning a consistent single is my biggest problem so I felt this was a bit of a victory. It's not perfect but it's definitely better than I've done before.

The silk skein is 2-ply spun from dyed hankies.

(Click on the pictures to see larger images.)

This is the beginning of some Blue-faced Leicester that I bought quite awhile ago in St Louis. I prepped it to spin for sock yarn but it got pushed to the back. I finally got it pulled out this weekend and started spinning it. OMG! I've never spun anything that spins as beautifully as this. There's 8 ounces of it that I've got stripped into 4 2-ounce strips for spinning a 4-ply sock yarn.

Spinning things

I've finished my first go at silk hankies spun on the wheel. It came out fairly well but I did make a few live and learn mistakes:

1. I didn't get enough twist into the singles. I think I assumed that because silk was such a long staple that it wouldn't need as much twist. I used the next to the largest ratio but I think I would use a smaller ratio because it really does need a lot more twist that I added.
2. I drafted it too thin. It works fine but I think I would prefer to have it a little heavier. I'm glad that I got 370 yards out of it (18 grams) but I think when I do the red hankies (23 grams) I'm going to for about 250 yards.

I also got a good start on the hand-painted wool I bought at Bishop Hill. I've got about a quarter of it left to spin for singles and then I think I'm going to 2-ply it. I've been debating about whether I want to Navajo ply to keep the color pattern or 2-ply. We'll see when we get there.