Two weeks ago I spun 4 oz of pretty polwarth from Two if By Hands. The yarn came out in beautiful reds, browns, and pale blue. However, much to my dismay, the yardage was a lot lower than my expectation. With the finished yarn being sport weight, I got measly 265 yards before washing.
Determined to get better yardage and improve spinning skill, I made myself learn to spin woollen. Although woollen long draw was supposed to be done with batts, which I had none, I was not gonna let that stop me. I began spinning total disastrous, and perhaps comical if you're not me, yarn using the Pigeonroof Studio SW Merino fiber. After wasting about 1/4 oz I stopped. I freaked at the thought of wasting the not inexpensive goods on practicing new method into unusable yarn.
Then I remembered having a bit undyed Corriedale in my stash. And Finally I got to a point where the fiber wasn't breaking off every few seconds. I returned to the SW Merino, wasting more here and there due to breakage. In the end, 198 yards of DK yarn. No, not enough!
Immediately I got started with the next 4 oz of BFL from Two If By Hands. The colors were bright including some neon colors, a bit intimidating for someone who was not used to working with glowing colors. This time 4 oz yielded 270 yards. I was still disappointed. I thought spinning woollen was supposed to get me a lot more than that.
Still wanting more yardage and practicing woollen spinning, I started on the next BFL from Two If By Hands. I got better at spinning woollen. It broke only coupla times with each half of the fiber. Yardage also improved a bit to 305 yards of fingering weight. And I was happy to have made myself learn how to spin woollen. But I wanted more. More yardage!
Looking at my stash of spunned yarn from earlier in the year, I was actually not doing as bad, specifically the BFL/Silk I spunned into lace/light fingering weight. For 8 oz, I got 1144 yards. What happened between then and now? Hmmm... I distinctively remembered discovering short backward draw while spinning that yarn.
I jumped back on the wheel and set out to spin the finest yarn I'd ever spun, and praying for evenness and yardage. All the while listening to Moby Dick downloaded from Audible.
I'm very happy to report that I got pretty even 650 yards out of 4 oz of Polwarth/Silk again from Two If By Hands. And I'm 1/5 way through the book.
........ Summer break is good for obsessions.
So much spinning!! They're gorgeous. I tend to spin the same yarn every time by default. My comfort spin. But you're inspiring me to branch out and try new ways.
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