In Which the Pirate Spins a Commission.

An IRC friend and I struck up a deal that she would buy some fibre from Mulberry Fibers’ etsy shop and I would spin it. Several days later, a package came in the mail for me with three braids of a superwash merino and nylon sock blend. She requested that I spin this bluesy-greensy one first.

I got started without much delay, eagerly unbraided the fibre, and spread it out on the bed. It seemed to want to split right down the middle, and I wondered if that was intentional – it would be easy to stripe that way! So I split it and then weighed the halves, and they were pretty even – 42g and 57g. That will be easy enough to adjust and make exact. Except… the colour isn’t right for striping. One end of the braid has a dark blue section and the other doesn’t. An easy solution: I’m going to spin one half this way, and the other half that way, and then the blue will appear twice instead of striping with itself.

I was pleased to find that the fibre drafts well. There are no big chunks of nylon; it’s blended perfectly. After the challenge of the blue merino-tencel (more on that another time) this feels like super-easy spinning! Of course, I’m aiming for a sock weight. Here’s my plyback test; the tan strand on the bottom is a standard commercial 4-ply sock yarn, probably Lana Grossa Meilenweit. Lookin’ good!