Dill Heather

I spun this up earlier this week and finally got around to plying it. This is the first plied yarn I'm really happy with. I can actually see myself knitting something with this. The other yarns are nice, but I think this is the first yarn I have produced that is very similar to a commercial yarn. It has all of the sturdiness of a commercially-made yarn, with the character of handspun. There are a few places where my single was spun too thin and broke, but I fixed it as best I could. With more experience, I'm sure my singles will get more consistent.

This is Knitpicks Wool of the Andes roving in Dill Heather. It is an even sport weight, and measured 172 yards. It's a pretty big skein. Next time I might spin 200 yards and divide it into two skeins. Much easier to manage.

Adventures in Plying

After a lot of practice on my wheel, I got a single thin enough that I felt comfortable plying it. Yesterday I turned this

and this

into this!

Spinning

I got my gorgeous Fantasia wheel a few days ago, and after 30 minutes of hasty assembly, I started spinning.

This is Knitpicks Wool of the Andes roving, in Amethyst Heather. This was the first yarn spun on my wheel, and I'm pretty pleased with it. It's about 172 yards, and I can see a definite improvement from the first and second skeins.

This is Wool of the Andes Bare roving by Knitpicks. I tried to spin this up as thin as I could, but it still turned out thicker than I wanted, but I just need more practice. It's just over 200 yards, and was dyed on my stove with Blue Ice Raspberry Koolaid, producing a gorgeous Tiffany Blue. I'm thinking about plying it with a white, or lightly dyed blue.