Handspun

I don't spin as often as I'd like or as often as I should to improve. I think I may be at the point where I need lessons from a professional to continue. I have never had a knitting, crochet, or cross stitch lesson, but those are more technical art forms and spinning seems to be a more artful art form. For the first three, you follow a pattern, practice your techniques, and make sure you don't pull too tight. Everything is fairly organized, you can learn what different stitches look like easily from diagrams and YouTube, and while tension can be a problem at first, after you practice and get the rhythm of the motion down, it becomes easy as well.

Copper Moose Natural Corriedale

228 grams/140 yards (total)

2-ply, ~9 wpi

Roving was tossed in my dyeing crock pot with three packets of Lemon-Lime Kool-Aid and one packet of Blue Raspberry Kool-Aid, then spun on my Kromski

Spinning, not so much. I have drafting down, I understand the basics of twist, and I can make a reasonably consistent single. My plying has been pretty balanced as well. Now, however it seems like I can make yarn - not yarns, but one type of yarn. Maybe a thick version and a thin version. I don't know what different drafting methods are really supposed to look and feel like, I'm not too sure about wheel ratios and all that, and I really want to get my spinning to be technical enough to spin for the project I want to make rather than spinning the yarn I know how to make and finding something, anything that matches the general size and yardage. Which I have yet to do, or at least, yet to implement.

Copper Moose Mahogany Crush

121 grams, 94 yards

3 ply, ~7 wpi

Paired with the above, this will make a nice shawl. It will either be the border or a transition color to a solid blue border, since I still have a bunch of that lovely blue roving left.

Copper Moose 1 oz. Mountain Meadow, 1 oz. Mahogany Crush

56 grams/71 yards

2 ply, ~11 wpi

I'm not displeased with my handspun thus far, but I want to get better and more technical. I'm an engineer, I like technical - I want to create specifications and meet them!  Alas, more practice is needed, and lots more guidance. Not more fiber though, I still have pounds and pounds of that!

Copper Moose Natural Corriedale

374 g/268 yards of marl

 3-ply, ~8 wpi

11g/6 yards of brown

Navajo plied, ~7 wpi

32 g/32 yards of white

Navajo plied, ~8 wpi

I spun all the singles, then dyed 2/3 brown, and dyed 2/3 brown some more. I plied the undyed and two brown plies together, then chain-plied the leftover dark brown and undyed. I love how the white turned out, but the rest of it is mostly under-plied and loose. I may re-ply some of it before actually using it.