I'm trying to spin my stash and I think I've made a good dent in it. This is the first batch of 5x 125g skeins. I have finished the second batch of five yesterday and photos will follow soon. I'm spinning thick, which equals fast. One 125g braid takes less than 2 hours to spin.
HF Blue Faced Leicester SW
These are all fulled singles, which means slightly felted. The single becomes a bit stronger and more stable. I wind the yarn into a skein, tie it in few places and it gets dumped into scalding hot soapy water. (I don't bother with fancy wool washes, dish soap or a bit of shampoo does the job) I swish it around a bit with my asbestos dyer's hands, then I take the yarn out, wring it out and dump it onto ice cold water and swish it around. I don't add any more shampoo, only in the first hot bath. I repeat twice or three times, more if I'm dealing with superwash fibres.
HF Shetland
Once I'm happy with the felting level (the strands stick together very slightly), I thwack. Grab both ends of the wet skein and smack the other end against the counter top a few times, then grab the middle and thwack the ends that were previously in your hand. I do this few times, realigning the skein as I go, so it get's thwacked evenly.
HF Blue Faced Leicester SW
Thwacking will even out the twist in the yarn, it will make the yarn bloom and become more fuzzy. In my experience it relaxes the yarn a bit too, it wont be as kinky and twisty, especially a single yarn.
HF Shetland - a club colour
The yarns vary in thickness, but I'm hoping maybe a crochet blanket once I have enough.
HF Corriedale
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10 comments:
These are so lovely :) I would love to know how long you've been spinning and what kind of wheel you spin on as I am thinking of taking it up myself. Cheers!
Gorgeous colours!
I have Majacraft Suzie http://www.majacraft.co.nz/wheels/suzie_pro.php and I've been spinning for about 4 years. The Majacraft wheel is quite expensive, I started on a second hand Ashford wheel from ebay. I still have it, but I upgraded as the Suzie is much faster.
Stunning! Thanks for explaining how you full singles. Must try this!
Wow, beautiful colors! Thanks for explaining your process.
Your thick singles are gorgeous, it's a very good idea to make a crochet blanket. I never tried to felt singles like that (I have done it for woolen spun yarns), next time I will try!
It would be great if you 'll dye more BFL fibers in the future, it's my favorite one ;-)
I love the yarn. i have never tryed your felting method, how does the yarn knit up?
Piękne kolory!
Your yarn is beautiful! Thank you for explaining your technique, too - I've never quite understood how people make singles yarn and have it stay stable.
thanks for such a good explanation of fulling singles! i've always wondered. (your spinning is gorgeous, and a crocheted blanket sounds amazing)
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