Concordia

This is some fluffy (but a wee bit scratchy) yarn I've been spinning up with roving from Bartlett Yarns.  Their roving is 7.00$ for half a pound, and this stuff is like potato chips so there was stopping with one.  I have 1 pound of wool with equal quantities of Thistle and Mountain Laurel.  The roving smells wonderfully sheepy and has a very short staple.  I was caught by surprise by the latter feature and had little luck with my preferred short draw.   This wool wants to be spun long draw only with no need for rolags.  I strip the roving in half and we are ready to go.  I may have crossed the line to fiber "artist" because I feel like a sculptor who listens to the stone.  So far I have one skein with 170 yards, but have barely made a dent in the massive lumps of wool.

Pain in the Butt Yarn

I like to experiment with new skills, in spinning as in life.  This trait caused me to try spinning with a woolen/long draw from pseudo rolags.  I had seen several descriptions, on the cover of Spin Off magazine and at my friend Brandi's blog.  I took apart my niddy noddy and used the center dowel to roll up literally hundreds of rolags assembly line style with an efficiency that would have made old man Ford jealous. 

Then I started to spin.  I got the hang of the long draw after watching some youtube videos and lots of practice.  I am used to the short draw with small hand movements and this method made my arm hurt.  I am also used to changing to a different project after a week or so, but I had two massive bags of fiber to get through and fatigue set in.  When I realized I was no longer having fun, I declared it time to ply and move on.  This is 430 yards of a rather chunky 2 ply yarn (at least Aran, probably bigger) spun from wool/alpaca mill ends from Brown Sheep.  The woolen draw definitely lowered the grist and produced a softer, fluffier product, but I'm going back to worsted/short draw.