Fibre club. Times three.

This is going to be a very fibre club filled post.

First, we have Euphorbia, fresh off the drying rack:

Wildcraft Fibre club, May 2012 on BFL. 645 metres and 243g. Destined to be the main colour of a Sothia shawl.

I really enjoyed spinning this. I love BFL. I spun this on my Kromski Symphony at a 16:1, and did this as a traditional 3ply yarn.

Second, we have Primrose, fresh off the wheel:

Wildcraft Fibre club, March 2012. BFL and silk blend. This is the coordinating yarn to go with the above Euphorbia.

Although I don’t like silk blends as much as like a straight up wool, this was still a pleasure to spin. I just wish the silk didn’t get all over me. (That’s probably my fault for wearing black cotton clothes, but at least it is an easy fix.)

I rearranged the colour sequence of this braid. The braid went yellow then yellow/green then orange in the middle, before going yellow/green and yellow again. When I spun this, I started with yellow, then progressed to the yellow/green and then finally the orange. Unfortunately, I started spinning the orange from the dark end rather than the light end. To rectify this, I pulled the orange off the bobbin and wrapped it around a tennis ball, and continued until I got to the start of the light orange transition section.

When I started plying, I started with the singles on the tennis ball, then progressed to the singles on the bobbin. The final yarn transitions properly from the yellow/green into a light orange and then finishing with the darker orange as I had originally planned.

I’ll post a photo of the finished yarn next week once it is washed and dried.

I had the urge to spin something else this afternoon, so I pulled out some Devon Longwool, which I received for the May 2011 Wildcraft fibre club.

This was on the list of fibres to try during my ‘year of longwool’. I’m spinning this up as a 3ply and hoping for a sportweight. I’d love to make socks out of this if everything works out. Longwools aren’t exactly good yardage givers, so I’ll see what this produces when all is said and done. The braids are quite generous on the weight, so I’m hoping it’ll all work out. I have big feet and I like a sock with a 7 inch leg. Yardage is always a consideration.

I really wanted to spin this up as I also have some Wensleydale I bought off the Wensleydale sheep shop a few years ago at my (then) local spinning guild’s gathering. I would love to make socks out of that fibre, but I thought the Devon longwool might be a bit more forgiving and thus a better first attempt.

And to think… I still have a several more fibre club parcels sitting in the stash.