Mindful Spin-Along

Mandobug from Mandobug Crafts has been hosting a "mindful spin-along" in her ravelry group these past two months - and it's still running until the end of August. The whole point of this spin-along is to know what you want to do with your yarn before you start spinning.

The goal I set for myself was to spin enough chain plied worsted weight yarn to make a cushion cover. I did not have a specific pattern in mind - I decided I would make up my own pattern. The hardest part for me (as a new drop spindler - this is my first "big" spinning project) would be to spin consistently over more than one skein. I'm spinning on my 75g bottom whorl spindle.

So what have I got so far? I am trying to spin approximately 50 grams at a time, and the spinning went really smoothly when I spun the first single in June - it took me just over a week. I was really happy with the evenness of that single.

After plying I ended up with 52 grams and 97 m of DK weight (11 WPI) yarn. Not quite what I was aiming for, but hey - it looks surprisingly good, and since I'm designing my own pattern I'm flexible when it comes to yarn weight, right?

So I was quite enthusiastic when I started my second single. I was off to a good start, but then I seemed to be hitting some kind of a wall - the fibre suddenly seemed to be very hard to draft, I had trouble producing an even thread, etc. I'm still not sure what the real reason for those problems was, but they lasted for about two weeks, until about a week ago. At that point, I had spun up about half of my second chunk of fibre - which had taken me WEEKS. I spun up the second half in merely FOUR DAYS! Only difference I can see: the weather. It had changed from very hot (around 30° C) to what to me is comfortable temperatures (around 20° C)...

Anyway, all those problems aside, I was now curious to find out if I would match the DK weight of my first skein... The single did seem very thin...And...uhm... nope. When I took the plied yarn of the spindle and wound it on my niddy noddy I measured it in five or six different spots, and always got the same result: 18 WPI (give or take a wrap). Oops - looks like I've spun a light fingering weight...? The picture was taken before I gave it a hot bath - the yarn is almost dry now.

I will not be able to use this second yarn for my cushion - so what will I do with it? My meterage estimate for this skein is 167 m, which might just be enough for a pair of fingerless mittens.

So while I seem to be getting fairly good at spinning one single evenly, I need to work on matching yarn gauge when spinning more than one skein. My next step will be to try for DK weight again. I've still got plenty of Coburg Fox top, so I'll keep on spinning...