The spinning of deep stash continues this week with some Shetland from Southern Cross from July 2016. At the time I had not yet discovered my love of woolly wools, and this felt a bit scratchy to me, so it sat unspun. Now, though, I adore Shetland, so this was a treat to spin. This was the fiber, in a colorway called Organic Greens:
Someone comments on one of my Instagram posts, noting that they thought it was misnamed because there's so little green in the fiber. But it reminds me a lot of ornamental kale. I decided to go back to my roots with this spin and do a traditional three-ply fingering with no special handling of the colors -- I simply folded the fiber into thirds and broke it apart at the folds. I was pleased to see that, when plied, the finished skein had a good distribution of colors.
It might be a tad overplied; I typically put a fair amount of ply twist into my yarns (which, for sock yarn, which I first learned to spin in order to make, can be a good thing), but often I can snap them and distribute the extra twist in the finishing process. This skein, though, has some spots where it won't straighten out and is even curling back on itself. So I might wind it into a center-pull ball and run it back through the wheel quickly to remove a little of that twist.
I ended up with a solidly fingering weight yarn, but it's only 273 yards, a bit low for my taste. It's possible that's just because of the fiber; coarser fibers are typically heavier, so you get less yardage for the same weight than you would for something softer and finer. But spinning this skein reminded me that I really enjoy spinning this kind of yarn specifically, so I'm going to do the same with the next spin:
This is Flanders Field on Rambouillet, the September 2016 shipment from the Southern Cross Fibre club. The colors are a bit off here; the reddish tones are more of a rusty red than a dark orange, and the other spots are actually a bit more gray than blue. But I think you get the idea. I have a feeling that I will get more yardage from this fiber than I did with the Shetland, and certainly I love to spin Rambouillet, so this should be a fun one.
I so enjoy seeing how you make yarn! I'm struck by that first spin how the colors blend and mute each other - they all seemed to be screaming for attention when they were fiber, and now that they're yarn, well, they're playing nicer. So I'm really curious to see how that second lump (?) of fiber becomes yarn. I must admit, Flanders Field makes me think of war. and I can only hope those reddish tones aren't blood red!
ReplyDeletePretty colors for sure! The last looks very patriotic!
ReplyDeleteOoo! I love that Flanders Field fiber! (and I think your Greens are gorgeous!)
ReplyDeleteWell. It turns out that "ornamental kale" is my favorite color! ;-) I never knew what to call it, but that's it . . . greens and purples all swirled together. Lovely! XO
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI wondered about the name at first, but then also thought about ornamental kale. It's really lovely! I can definitely imagine the poppies in Flanders Field and will look forward to seeing how that fiber looks as yarn.
ReplyDeleteFlanders Field--what a perfect name for that fleece! Excited to see that one spun up.
ReplyDeleteIt is just gorgeous! Well done.
ReplyDeleteThe Spin Your Greens skein is gorgeous. It does look like ornamental kale. Now onto Flanders Field . . . "in Flanders field the poppies grow . . ."
ReplyDeleteI know I've said it before, but the colours in the fibre is so gorgeous (and one of the reasons I got interested in spinning). This last fibre batch is just WOW! Super cool, I'm reading "up" and am curious what it will look like!
ReplyDelete