Kitty: Holiday Spinning

Memorial Day Spinning and Dyeing Roving: White Lincoln Roving - Merlin's Super Special Dye : A ton of Kool Aid (10 Orange, 4 Mystery Red, 2 Lime, 4 Grape, 3 lemonade) Gauge and Yardage : Not sure about the yardage, It was a total of 1lb and it is Definitely a Bulky yarn - Yardage Photo

I have been working really hard on learning different techniques for spinning. Though I realized last night while talking on AIM and on the phone to MG, my terminology for what I am actually doing is severely lacking. It seems like from the books I have been reading people's terms seem to vary greatly. Does anyone have a good suggestion for a good spinning terminology book? The books that currently I am the most excited about is Spinning Designer yarns and Handspun Revolution. Spinning Designer yarns goes into a lot of detail about spinning different types of yarns. One of the ones I thought was really fascinating was spinning cored yarns. Essentially taking a piece of already spun yarn and then drafting your roving around it. Creating a super marshmallow effect in your yarn. And also an economical way to spin since the base yarn could be much cheaper than your expensive outer fiber. One of the other suggestions they talked about was taking three pieces of fairly well drafted roving and short drawl or long drawl to drafting them at the same time to form one thread. So you are essentially holding the roving between 4 fingers. So the roving is held between the pinkie and ring finger, ring finger and middle finger, and pointer and middle finger. Than in your left hand you have it woven between the fingers zigzagged between them to try to stop the spin going back to the other hand. So then I am always pulling against the left hand and pulling away 3-6 inches at a time. The method I am using from what MG could figure out is a worsted technique so I really cut down on the fuzziness of the yarn. So the yarn on the right below would be essentially be a 6ply that is 2 3ply done at the same time and then plyed together. The one on the left is a 4 ply that is 2 2ply done at the same time then plyed together

The technique really creates pure marshmallows. I absolutely love the yarn. By far it is the nicest yarn I have spun to this date. Though to be honest I am not sure what I will ever do with the 6ply yarn. Since it took 4 days to dry and the concept of how heavy a garment would be seems horrifying. Though currently it is being called the "MG is coming to visit yarn", since she always freezes in my house in the summer or any time of year for that matter.

Top Ball of Yarn - Pumpkin Roving: White Lincoln Roving - Merlin's Super Special Dye: A ton of Kool Aid (6 Orange, 2 Lime, 2 Grape, 3 lemonade) Gauge and Yardage : Yardage is around 300 yards. The gauge is about 13 st to 4"

The pumpkin yarn has been spun and dyed for awhile, but I just finally got around to actually plying the yarn. I have decided it is really time to buy more bobbins. I keep running out of space and wishing I could ply the yarn I am working on immediately. I will try to get some good pictures of the core yarn that I was working on. It is currently still on the bobbin waiting to be plyed. It is using the other half of the pumpkin roving.