You know the fiddlehead mittens I mentioned in this earlier post? I really want to make a pair. Adrian (of Hello Yarn) made quite a splash by selling mitten kits – a pattern and a set of beautifully colored hand dyed yarns in a luscious 70% merino 30% mohair blend. The first day she sold them in her shop, all of the shoppers trying to load the page crashed her website. Needless to say, I don’t have the time to stalk the site to score a set, so I gave up hope pretty quickly. Then I became really frustrated that I couldn’t find a suitable colorful sport weight mohair/wool substitute. I decided I could dye my own yarn, but didn’t even really commit to finding a appropriate white base yarn to dye. I jumped ahead and bought some Welsh wool roving to dye and spin.
I am kinda on a scratchy wool kick right now. Is this something that typically happens in your evolution as a spinner? I mean I know there is that early stage where you spin big fat thick and thin, wishing you spin a fine yarn. Then you can spin a VERY fine yarn and yearn for the thick and thin days, and then you have to actually teach yourself what you are doing…. And stuggle back to thick yarn. Seems like with the fibers for a long time I was on a quest for something ever softer and finer, and more challenging to spin. The yak and silk and camel satiated that desire, and now I just want to try all manner of scratchy crazy wools.
The Welsh roving has big fat hairs that pop up every once in a while (not unlike the California red). It is kind of a challenge to not let it all fall out when I am spinning it. It is pretty suited to worsted spinning (shoving the fiber at the wheel), but I am a long draw addict and was determined to make it work. So we are getting along. While I am spinning test yarns to decide if I can get away with a single ply yarn for the mitten project, I started on the dyeing.
I did between 2 and 3 ounces of each color (the brown is natural), and I hope it is enough…. Now I am really excited.
