MG: hone

i'm still at the mercy of my spinning in thickness and consistency. i don't quite spin what i mean to spin. instead, there are particular yarns i drift towards--they escape from my fingers--the thickness of which ebbs and flows depending on the session. it's always a thin yarn; singles thicker than sportweight are difficult for me to maintain, but even the thin yarns i spin as my rhythm bids are not consistent.

after an eye-opening post on spinning for consistency over at Twosheep (why have i been guessing and remembering, relying on amorphous memory?), i began spinning the above (blueface leicester. larger photo here.) with my physical eyes towards consistency. i didn't make a sample card, but i stop often and twist a length over itself to compare with landmarks on my fingers.


i've also been practicing thicker singles (larger photo here). the white one is blueface leicester (again), and the yellow/green is Blue Moon Spinnery's 80/20 merino and silk in the Guardians of Water colorway. no, still not consuming conventional (versus peace-silk) silk; this was a gift and will be going to homes elsewhere. both the blueface and thicker merino/silk range from 6 to 17 wraps per inch but average about 9-11wpi--bulky. the thinner merino/silk is light worsted to fine fingering, 13-17wpi or so.

all three are relatively low-twist; hanging skeins wind about a quarter turn. they are soft and fluffy, and i can't stop smooshing them. oh, note to self: do NOT wind low-twist yarns (before setting the twist) on tension (duh, you say. i know... i wasn't thinking). too little twist to ply probably means too little twist to stand up to tensioned lazy kate? i paid for my foolishness with many knots. an invorgorating warm bath fixed everything. twist set. strong and bouncy and elastic now.


these yarns were instant gratification. they took me hours rather than days. extremely satisfying. and even though i don't love bright greens and yellows, am rarely taken by wild color variegation, i still somehow find these little skeins appealing. they make me think of parrots. i covet more handpainted roving.