In Which the Pirate Winds Another Skein.
At last, the Purple Pansies yarn is finished – though it no longer looks very purple-y; the orange really dominates the final yarn to my eyes. I plied while watching Mr. Robot, I plied while watching Doctor Who, I plied while watching the Olympics… and last night, I skeined up 348 yards of fingering-weight yarn.
The fibre, a blend of 60% merino, 30% bamboo, and 10% nylon, came from Sheepish Creations on Etsy. I bought two braids of fibre from them a few years ago (the other was 100% BFL, which I spun into Something Cheerful in late 2014) and I was happy with both. The blended fibre did take more concentration to spin than the BFL; I’m not sure if it’s because of the shorter staple length or the slipperyness of the bamboo and nylon strands. Either way, I did enjoy spinning it, and I would definitely buy more fibre from Sheepish Creations in the future.
I’m quite pleased to have gotten the sock weight yarn I was aiming for. The white strand laid across the top of the skein in the close-up shot below is a commercial sock yarn (Opal, one of the ones I think of as “standard” sock yarn) – and while the Opal is four-ply and my handspun is two-ply, it’s about the same thickness overall. 348 yards should be almost enough for a pair of socks, but I think I might use a different yarn for the toes, heels, and cuffs to make sure that I won’t come up short. Yet another drawback of having surprisingly long feet…
Of course, that might mean I have to buy some more sock-blend fibre in a coordinating colour. *innocent face* I’ll keep my eyes open for that if I go to Rhinebeck this year!
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I concur: the orange dominates but it’s still lovely. I’ve not purchased fiber from Sheepish Creations but I have purchased yarn from them (and it’s lovely).
I’m definitely curious to see if the orange dominates the finished project as much as it does the yarn! I think it will; even the parts where the orange and purple plied together look kind of brown-ish, which is just muddy orange.
Fantastic. I can get sock yarn weight some of the time – but have yet to spin a whole skein of it. Can’t wait to see what you knit with it.
If you can do it some of the time, you can do it all of the time! Just go slowly & carefully to get an even singles. I stop frequently to work out slubs and further attenuate bits that have come out a little too thick.