Knitting Softly Spun Singles
The challenge was to produce a softly spun singles yarn to use for knitting.
Wool: I chose some of my grey wool from Mary Hal Cochran Davis' flock that had been processed by Zeilinger's in Frankenmuth, MI into a roving. The sheep are all a Border Leicester cross of Mary Hal's breeding, the purpose of which is to produce a fleece that is delectable to spinners. I love her fleece and think she's been VERY successful.
Spindle: A Celtic spindle from Susan McFarland, one of the specially made long ones she makes for me to use in teaching my Master Spindling classes.
Wraps / Inch: 8 wpi
Twists per Inch: 6 twists per 4 inches (1 1/2 tpi)
Needle: #8 nylon circular (because that's what I could find
The swatch is 16 stitches wide and 8 stitches long (as shown). I used a knitted on cast on and didn't pay a lot of attention to knitting in the fronts and backs of stitches, so they look sort of funky. I'm happy with the softness and the funky look and may even do another in my series of star sweaters in this because it reminded me so much of the first in that series which was the first yarn I spun on my Roberta Electronic Spinner when it was new. That's sort of fitting because I just sold it! the sweater is buried somewhere and if I can find it, I'll take it's photo and post it here.
Yes, I know. Horibly underexposed. This shows the spindle full of yarn, the yarn when allowed to ply back on itself and some of the fibers to show the length.
This is a close-up of the yarn. Yes, BAD photo! BAD!
This is the full spindle shown on a piece of regular ruled notebook paper. The shafts of these spindles are extra long, to my specifications because that fits my spinning style. The whorls are 2.25" and the shafts are 12" long. What looks proportionate doesn't work as well as I thought it should, so I had these made.
Here is the over-exposed photo of the swatch. You can see the stitches better than in the underexposed one and in 4 tries, I couldn't get a PROPERLY exposed one! Maybe I'll try tomorrow in daylight!