A Spin to Savor

Normally by almost 8:30 on a Sunday evening, I'd be tucked up in bed with my knitting, waiting for my PBS program to start. Tonight, however, I am just sitting down to type up a quick blog post. It's been a heck of a weekend, and I'm thankful that I am off tomorrow because it means I'll finally have a day that will feel like a weekend. I had such a busy end to my work week, culminating in a four-hour Zoom session Friday morning that prevented me from doing actual work and resulted in me having to catch up on that work this afternoon. So needless to say, I do not have a finished skein of handspun to share this Sunday, though I started a new spin earlier in the week and for a while thought I might have it finished up in a matter of days.

While the stress of work is something I could do without, the fact that it's forced me to take things slowly with this spin is not entirely a bad thing. I'm spinning this gorgeous Polwarth from Southern Cross Fibre:

I briefly entertained the idea of doing a fractal spin with this, but in the end I could not bear to mix up these gloriously saturated colors, so I am spinning the fiber from end to end and will chain-ply the singles.

Polwarth is probably my favorite wool breed to spin. It's the result of crossing Merino and Lincoln sheep; while you're likely very familiar with Merino, let me tell you that if you've ever encountered Lincoln wool, it's likely been in something like a carpet. I have spun it and it gave me the willies because it felt like spinning human hair, and it's generally not used for anything worn next to the skin. But cross-breeding resulted in a soft wool with a slightly longer staple length than Merino, and it's an absolute delight to spin. I am consciously spinning my singles very fine because there's this thing called the Polwarth poof: When you wash Polwarth yarn, it has a tendency to poof up dramatically. So you might put a skein in to soak thinking you have fingering and wind up with DK or worsted weight. I am hoping to get fingering with this spin, but I've been fooled before. Regardless, I'm about 2/3 of the way done with the singles, and I'm hoping I can spin up the last of the fiber in the next day or two. If I can remember, I will take before and after photos of the yarn so you can see the poof!