Eskimimi Knits knitting blog

The Spring Green yarn I was spinning the endless single plys for is now complete. It has actually been complete for a while now, but I wanted to keep the final yarn a secret as it was for a friend’s birthday, but now that the birthday has actually come around, and the yarn has been received, I can show it to the world:

My first actual skein of handspun yarn

I am inordinately proud of my first skein of yarn.  It is made from 100% merino fibre from SarasTextureCrafts on Etsy.  It is a 2-ply yarn weighing 104g and measuring about 205m (225 yards) in length, and it took a couple of weeks.  It is not perfect and there is obvious room for improvement, but I am so happy to have actually managed to spin so much fibre – enough for an actual project I hope, that the aching arms and trying to reach the deadline have all drifted into hazy memory.

Two single plys are individually spun and then spun together once more

I bundled the yarn up with a little card to which I sewed and attached a length of co-ordinating ribbon, some green glass beads and some emerald buttons, as well as three co-ordinating silver wire stars so the yarn could be used alone or with an embellishment.  It was all packaged in a brown paper lunch bag which I meant to label ‘Eat Your Greens’, but my printer decided that it had done enough and has gone into retirement.

The most important thing is that the birthday girl reports that she likes it, so that makes it all worthwhile.

Happy Birthday yarn

I am attempting my first ‘full size’ yarn, spun with my drop spindle. By ‘full size’ I mean more than 10g, and I am throwing caution to the wind and trying to create a full 100g of yarn.

A diet rich in greens and fibre

I am so new to this spinning lark that I don’t even know what that lump of fibre is called (is it roving, is it a ‘batt’, what are ‘wool tops’?), so excuse the lack of technical jargon in this post, but whatever it is, it is green.  And merino.  Beginners are apparently advised to avoid merino to start with as it is difficult to spin.  As I said, my caution has all gone wind-wards and I decided to give it a go anyway.

'Till I have spun some smooshy wool, Mimi's green and pleasant yarn

I think I have spun about 25-30g of roughly fingering weight yarn so far and I feel like I have been spinning it for absolutely ages, but that is perhaps because I am taking time to try and get it relatively even in weight and twist.  I am hoping to be able to fit about 50g of yarn on the spindle to make to 50g sections to ply into a roughly DK weight yarn of as yet indeterminate length, but of definite green-ness.  I hope to be finished some time next week!

An asparagus tip of yarn steadily grows

During Knitting and Crochet Blog Week I said that the skill I’d most like to learn would be to spin yarn using a drop spindle. It seems such a natural thing to me, to want to be involved in the process of making yarn in some way, or to at least have knowledge of the processes involved.  Only a short while after posting I had a message alerting me to a comment left by Saff of Saff’s Daily Dribble, saying she had a spare spindle I could have.

Just amazing, amazing kindness.  I swapped with her a copy of Ann Budd’s Book of Handy Knitting Patterns which I have always found to be a fantastic reseource, posted it off and looked forward to seeing my first ever drop spindle.

Now, let me remind you of the picture of the spindle that I pictured in the blog post in question – it is perfectly nice, plain unfinished wood.  Nothing fancy, just simple and plain.  let me show you what actually arrived in the mail a couple of days later:

Top whorl drop spindle

It is green.  It is covered in tiny, beautiful hand-painted sheep and goats.  It is wonderful and I love it.

Now, Saff was also kind enough to include a a few grams of fibre, and of course I had to have a go right away.  Here is my first ever handspun yarn:

My first ever handspun yarn

It weighs just 8g and is only about 20m long, but my-oh-my do I love it.  It isn’t even.  It isn’t refined, but I made it from fluff.  OK, beautiful green merino fluff, but fluff.  Obviously there are some inconsistencies in my technique which i hope to get ironed out in time, and I have been warned not to be a perfectionist about it (which is difficult because I am a terrible perfectionist when it comes to such things) as perfectionists tend to get frustrated that they are not masters at this new skill right from the outset, so I am going to make a real effort to relax and just enjoy spinning and its hypnotic and soothing effects.

My second attempt is perhaps a little more consistent on the whole, but I felt quite at ease when spinning this and just let the fibre do it’s thing whilst I watched a bit of TV.  This is only seven grams, and about 16m in length, but I am really pleased with it.

Second Handspun yarn

Now, I need to find miniature projects for such small amounts of (roughly) fingering weight yarn, or shall I keep my first attempts un-knit, for posterity?  I’m not sure.  At the moment, Giantmonk is using one as a wig, hoping to pass for Donald Trump:

"No, it's my real hair, really"