spun :: a round-up of 2013 so far, originally uploaded by earthchick.

So apparently all it took to push me over the edge from someone who enjoys spinning yarn occasionally to a crazed spinstress who wants to spin all the yarns all the time was the acquisition of a Woolee Winder. My Old Man gave me one for Christmas, and basically I’m in love with it, and with spinning. It’s cutting into my knitting time, which I’ll admit is a bit worrisome. On the other hand, I seem to be making a whole new stash of yarn with which to knit. So there’s that.

Pictured above: (all Hello Yarn) Superwash Merino (“Peat” – March 2009 club); Corriedale (“Dark Waves” – February 2012 club); BFL/Silk (“Slither” – December 2012 club); Portuguese Merino (“Silt” – August 2012 club); Wensleydale (“Smells of the Sea” – September 2011 club); BFL (VanChocStraw – my one and only shop fiber, purchased in December 2007!); Panda (SWM/Bamboo/Nylon – “Villain” – March 2012 club); Targhee (“Sprout” – March 2011 club)

At the start of the year, I joined a Rav group called “13 in 2013” – everyone has the goal of spinning (at least) 13 lbs. of yarn this year. That’s a pretty big goal for me. I think last year I spun 5 yarns of 4 oz. each, so yeah, that was 1.25 pounds for the whole year. I’ve already passed that in the first 7 weeks of this year (and I was out of town without my wheel for 2 of those weeks). I’m starting to think 13 lbs. of yarn might be doable.

Of the 8 yarns above, one of them is already knit up (pics soon), but the rest are likely to sit a bit while I tend to other projects (i.e., continue to spin like a madwoman). I’m thinking cowl for 5 of them and shawl for the other 2.

I’m starting to become a bit more adventurous with my spinning. Two of the yarns above – “Peat” (first one) and “VanChocStraw” (the bright pink one) are two of my oldest fibers and they are ones that I loved so much I was afraid of ruining them. It is super happy-making to have finally gotten them on the wheel. I’ve also at last faced my fear of chain-plying (also known as Navajo plying), which is what I did with yarns 7 and 8. And I’m exploring some “extreme plying” with the Hello Yarn/Spunky Eclectic/Southern Cross Fibre Spin-Along (main rule: yarn has to be at least 4 plies). That hot pink yarn is my first cabled yarn – I plied two 2-plies together (resulting in a 4-ply). The light green yarn is also a cabled yarn – I chain-plied 2-ply yarn (resulting in a 6-ply).

I prefer to devote entire blog posts to a single fiber-to-yarn pursuit, but I’ve been spinning much faster than I can blog lately, and I decided to just clear the deck. Maybe when I show you the knitted objects I use this yarn for, I’ll say a little more about the actual spinning.

In the meantime, my spinning madness is, of course, raveled