Sheep to Shawl: Part III

Part I covered washing the fleece, Part II covered prepping it.

Today I am going to talk about spinning it.

While I am nowhere near done spinning the thousands of yards that I will need for this shawl, I am nearly finished with my first bobbin-full.

The current state of my bobbin. Notice the very fine white thread coming off the side: that is the single for the yarn.

I am spinning the finest singles I have ever spun on my Ashford Traditional wheel. This is one of the most popular wheels out there. Probably because it is simple to use and looks great.

My Ashford Traditional

A lot of the new style wheels are, in my humble opinion, really ugly. If they aren't ugly, they are above my price range. While I have no problem with functional wheels, I need to be able to not care that the thing is sitting in my living room all the time, and not need to hide it when guests are visiting.

This particular wheel was bought off of Craigslist, and the woman who sold it to me also threw in the fleece that I am working on (as well as a bunch of other fiber). It was a fairly large investment for my budget, but I have been spinning on it nearly every day, so I consider it money well spent.

One nice thing about having a fleece (or possibly three years of fleece: there is an awful lot of wool in those bags) is that you don't need to worry particularly about running out. So I did a half bobbin sample that allowed me to decide what I was looking for and to hone my skills at working with the flicked locks to make fine singles. I plyed my singles in two different ways.

Standard two-ply:

Two-ply practice skein

Close-up, as best as I could manage, with coin for size comparison

And chain ply:

Chain ply closeup, as best as I could manage.

The two ply yarn was had singles that were more variable than I would like, and I may or may not use them in the final shawl. The chain ply, because it was my first time doing it, was full of unevenness, and possibly unusable for large sections. I gave it to a dyer friend for experimenting with.

Books I have read recommend using two ply for lace, since it leaves the holes more open, so that is what I will be doing for the final project. But it was good to get a chance to practice chain plying: I have gradient top, and the technique will preserve the color progression.

Gradient top, and a nice change from all this white.

That is all for now. It may be a while before I talk about this project again: I have a long way to go before I get to the next step!

Part IV can be found here.