I Made Something Pretty.

Oh, Cormo. I love you so much.



I know, I know. Confessing my love for a sheep could mean serious legal consequences in some states, but really now. It's the wool I'm after.


Singles.

It started out as roving from Foxfire Farm in Massachusetts. It was absolutely addicting to spin, and it was a bit sad when the last bit of fluff flew from my fingers and twisted itself around the bobbin. Foxfire doesn't have a website, but she does show up at her booth in the main hall at Rhinebeck every year. You can tell when you are spinning it that the sheep it came from was loved and cared for.



It was just so crimpy and lovely. Whoever processed it did a good job of not over-processing. It still smelled vaguely and pleasantly of sheep, the crimp was still visable, and it was snowy-white and clean with no vegetation.



It was like spinning a cloud of cotton candy. Except not sticky. And not dyed a nauseating pink. I will retract that statement now.



I spun it woolen, from the fold. It made for a lofty and soft yarn- I spun lace singles and plied them into a fingering weight 2-ply. 368 yards.

Spinning Stuff

I'm looking forward to the weekend, if only because I have some dedicated spinning time worked in. I made the mistake of getting more than one spinning project going at the same time, which means very little will get done on either one of them and it ties up my bobbins for plying. This is the hazard of having two wheels...if something gets boring, the temptation to switch to another is too great.

I did finish with some Creatively Dyed roving.



It was 4 oz of a bamboo/wool blend. I didn't think too hard about it and just let it spin.





Because the bamboo wasn't blended into the roving all that well, I ended up with a handful of white bamboo while I spun, which didn't take the dye. I tried to keep it integrated with the wool, but in some places I failed. It also helped mute the colors a bit so I didn't end up with too obvious of the candy-cane stripe effect. It's chunky weight, 2ply and about 62 yards total. A cowl, perhaps?

I also plied up the BFL fleece that I've been spinning forever now. No pictures yet. So far, I have 3 huge skeins of heavy worsted/aran weight 2-ply, about 250 yards a skein. I need to fill two more bobbins with singes in order to get enough for a sweater. It's brown. I am bored.

I am also spinning up my Foxfire Farm Cormo on the Majacraft Gem. I love my Gem...it folds down tiny, weighs 10 lbs, travels easy, and it is incredibly versatile. It's my favorite for spinning lace- I feel like I have a ton of control over what I'm doing. I find that lace on my big Kromski Minstrel is a bit trickier- I get a lot more breaks and the wheel is a bit slower to respond than the Gem. I try to keep the lace projects to the Gem, and the bigger sweater projects to the Minstrel.

I'm spinning the Cormo woolen, from the fold, laceweight. It's only 4 oz, but you can really stretch out your spinning time when you are spinning lace. The fiber is minimally processed, so you can see and feel the crimp in the fiber. It really has a lot of spring and bounce to it. I'm pretty sure I'll be decimating this booth at Rhinebeck next year.