Sunday, April 13, 2014

A New Adventure part 2


So back to the story...
I started to get busy making dolls and I didn't pick up my spindle for months.  Then in January I decieded to make a doll sweater for my daughter and I thought it would be fun to spin the yarn before I knit it.

I had her pick out the fiber. It was a lovely merino, alpaca, silk blend that was handpainted in a yellow/green/blue colourway.

I was so excited when it came I started spinning it right away. It spun so smoothly I was finely able to move away from the "park and draft" and have a nice fluid movement.  And that was the point I fell in love with spinning. It was just so clam and peaceful, it was like meditation but I was producing something at the same time. A definite win, win situation in my book!


I really loved the colour of the singles and I didn't want to mix them up so I decided to try theNavajo/ Chain Ply method.  It was easier than I thought it would be. The nice thing about plying on a drop spindle is between gravity and the built up twist(energy) in the yarn it basically plies itself.

Here it is after I plied it but before it was washed. You can see it has a little bit of that energy and I was afraid it would be unbalanced.


But after I washed it and hung it to dry it balanced nicely, yea! 





So it took me 2 months to spin, ply, wash and dry the yarn.  I had designed the pattern, and now I was finally ready to knit the doll sweater.
That's when my daughter told me she didn't really think she wanted a doll sweater, she wanted fingerless gloves.
Yes, 2 months in the life of a 12 year old is just too long to stay committed to an idea. At least the yarn was ready and I thought I remembered seeing a fingerless glove pattern somewhere...
Time to pull out the magazines and search Ravelry!