May Spinning

All spinning, little blogging, that sweet tart of a distraction called Ravelry, all lead me to this summary post of projects completed in the month of May.

Last Wednesday, I completed a wheel workshop at Downtown Yarns. It was a tremendous help in learning about different drafting methods, draws and gaining confidence in what I'd previously caught on my own. Most valuable of all was the practice. Previously, my wheels sat in a lot of dust in the two years that I've owned them. It was good motivation to spin so that I'd have intelligent questions before starting classes. Now my goal is to spin almost all of my current fiber stash before the next NY Sheep & Wool Festival.

Now, on to the yarns. They are all cozied up together in the Senegalese basket that I bought from the Dance Africa Bazaar on my birthday. If it's purple, it is mine :P

You may recognize the tweedy purple and green skeins from a previous post. From the pound of mystery wool, came 312 yards of aran weight yarn. I'm going to have to incorporate it into a design for a jacket or sweater.

My next two biggest skeins come from the English wool noted earlier in the olive colorway and at the top right of the pile, Tamerak & Spruce targhee roving.

The targhee from Spinning Bunny is exactly one year old. Not bad for fiber hoarders, eh? That hank is 160 yards of everything from sport to heavy worsted weight sections of spongy soft gold and green fiber.

Three small skeinettes. Resting above the Old E, is 25 yards of Mountain Colors targhee. That is my attempt at navajo ply. In truth is mostly faux boucle. In the middle is 49 yards of a 2oz red wool from a batt prepared by Suzanne Higgs. Top of that is less than 2oz of merino/tussah blend from Three Waters Farm. Poor 'lil skein is waaayy over-plied.

At the left is a 98 yard hank of brown BFL. Easy to draft, easy to spin. From 4 oz, I expected to get a lot more out of that fiber. To be honest, I only bought it for practice since I'd not touched the stuff since last year at least. There was a distinct halo that was pronounced during plying. Yuck! What is your experience with BFL? Does it want to only be spun worsted to prevent the 'fro zone?

While targhee has my heart, falkland is it's newest rival for my affections. The blues/purples/browns at top comes from Bullen's Wullens that sold this wonderful wool at this year's MDSW. 3.5 oz for only $10. I thought sure that all my fine spinning of it would yield a sport weight that I could use for socks (like I'm actually going to knit socks, lol) It is 106 yards of DK. Hmmm. Can I get a hat from it?

What do you all do with a skein of this, and a hank of that?