Corriedale

Spinning My Heart Out

by CZeitler

I am having such a good time playing with the merino I got from Paradise Fibers.  In addition to spinning just merino and plying with other merino singles, as is illustrated in the skeins on the left and the white ball, I really enjoy how the white merino singles cause other colors to pop out.  The three ply ball on the bottom right  in addition to the corriedale and merino skein on the top right really show off how the white makes the other colors pop.

I still do not really know what I am going to do with these yarns, though making a sampler with my ashford sample-it rigid heddle loom is looking better and better.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Crafting!

Spinning Along

by CZeitler

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I have been having a blast spinning on my Schacht Ladybug!  In the beginning I thought that 3 ply yarns were all that I would create, but since then I have discovered the joys of 2 ply yarn.  While I still have consistency issues, the journey has been a lot of fun and created some beautiful yarns.  From the bottom up, the purple is a corriedale roving plied with a merino strand, the next skein is the same corriedale plied with itself.

From left to right the first ball is a pretty blue roving I got from Paradise Fibers (it has rose silk in it) plied with a white merino.  The second ball is the same roving plied with itself and a bit of a lighter blue roving I had from paradise fibers.  The third ball is a random batt I had lying around (It was  bit coarse and almost cotton like) plied with a merino.  All five have been washed so this is their final appearance.  As of the time that I am writing this post, I have NO IDEA what I am going to do with them!  Cowls, fingerless gloves, or weaving samples the possibilities are endless!  Such lovely dilemmas.

Happy Crafting.

Corriedale in Summer Days

by CZeitler

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I purchased a 4oz roving of Corriedale Sliver in the Summer Days colorway by WoolverineFibers.  I had spun up tiny bits here and there playing with my tahkli and the rich colors found in the roving.  To pass my idle time, I work several part time jobs so idle time is made the most of before sleep, I pre-drafted the remainder of this roving into fine strips that would be easy to spin.  Boy were they easy to spin!  Before I knew it I had spun up half of the roving and the results were beautiful.

Since I had half of it spun and many of the articles I had read expounded upon the joys of 2 ply yarns I decided to create this yarn as a 2 ply.  It is not perfect, but to be honest it isn’t garbage either.  I had to deliberately twist this into a hank since once it was taken off of the niddy noddy it did not twist back on itself.  This is the pre-washed skein and it might shorten up and twist more when it is washed, but for now most of a 4 oz section of roving created 148 yards of 2 ply yarn.  I spun it in a worsted manner, occasionally trying a long draw but mostly succeeding with a short forward draw.

Washed and sampled materials will be posted later, I hope.

Happy Spinning!

Navajo Ply

by CZeitler

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With some of the single left over from my plying, I attempted  to Navajo Ply.

I really like how it turned out, it has an art yarn feel since my spinning isn’t very consistent right now.  Watching a couple more videos, I now know that I don’t have to create a nice short consistent chain, but big long loops to ply.  It will be fun to try again in the future.

Corriedale Ply

by CZeitler

First Plied Corriedale

I managed to Ply 2 of my Corriedale Singles into a very nice ply.

Plied Corriedale

Okay, since I overspun in a few places I did wind up with this huge snarl in my plying.  After fighting with it for a few minutes I just went around it and plied the rest of my singles.  There is enough left of one of the singles for me to try Navajo plying, when I get up the guts to do so.  Right now I am going to enjoy my 2 ply yarn on the lovely decorative spool mom bought me.  I will also not do any more plying until I have a tensioned Lazy Kate, quite a while in the future I’m thinking.  Oh well, I’m enjoying spinning and getting the right amount of twist and yarn size.

Two More Singles

by CZeitler

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Tonight I spun two more singles from my Corriedale fiber.  Each one weighs about an ounce, the single on the left was spun second and the fiber was weighed before I began spinning.  They will rest overnight and if all goes well I look forward to plying them sometime tomorrow.

As you may know I am planning on exploring my new interest in fiber arts, from spinning to weaving.  Right now I am not sure if I want to pick up an inkle loom and see if that kind of weaving interests me or if I should just hold out and get a rigid heddle loom after I get my spinning wheel.  Oh well, plenty of time to decide!

Happy Crafting.

Corriedale

by CZeitler

Corriedale 1 Ply First Corriedale fibers

These are the first fruits of my Corriedale Fiber.  Mom had a great suggestion and said that since this fiber is for experimenting I should leave my first fruits as a single, and consider plying my next two spindles full!  I think that sounds great.  I weighed my first fruits and it turns out that I spun 1 ounce of my pound of Corriedale.  I really look forward to seeing how much I can get out of my plied spindle, maybe I should look into experimenting with plying methods!

New Fiber

by CZeitler

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My fiber from Paradise Fibers arrived Today!  1 lb. of Ashland Bay Corriedale Cross Wool, and 4 oz. of 64 Count Undyed Merino Top.  I am so very excited, the Merino is just beautiful, I’m almost afraid of it right now.  I managed to hold out for a whole ten minutes before I got my hands in the Corriedale, while it seems a bit coarse I have been working with silk for a couple of weeks so anything that doesn’t catch on my hands is probably going to seem a bit rough.  It spins beautifully.  I could barely put it down to post this and if I didn’t have to get to bed so I can go to work in the morning I probably would not have put it down at all!  I am still working with a drop spindle so it isn’t really ‘production’ speed, but that also means that this fiber might last me a good long while!