State of the Union: Spinning

A couple of weeks ago, I ordered some hand-dyed polwarth from an artist in New Zealand--5 ounces each of a blue-to-black dip dye and a red-to-black dip dye. I waited anxiously for it to arrive, and yesterday it finally did! I wanted to play with it immediately, but of course I was at work, and then I bleached my hair, and then boyfriend and I went to the local Makerspace to take a tour and become members, and then he wanted me to help him stain the bed frame... So it was almost bedtime before I had time to play with my spinning wheel.

This is my first time spinning polwarth so it took me a few minutes to adjust to the texture of it. I've done BFL and corriedale before--I liked the corriedale better than the BFL, but I struggle with moving my hand too slowly and then the yarn gets overspun. The polwarth takes a little more effort to draft, but that might just be the preparation. I'm not sure, since like I said I haven't used it before and I'm still pretty new to spinning in general. Regardless, it seems like no matter how bogged down I get trying to draft it faster, it can take enough twist that it isn't getting overspun. I do like how the uneven dye application is giving it little barber pole sections.

I'm thinking about trying out one of the local knitting groups tonight. I had to undo a huge chunk of my mom's cardigan (you can get the pattern here on Ravelry) because I missed some decreases, so I'll probably take that with me. There's also a group that meets at the Makerspace that I want to start going to, but they meet on a different night. I've been having a hard time meeting people since I moved, especially working from home. Hopefully this will be a good way to fix that.

Working on my mom's cardigan in the car last weekend

I finished spinning the 8 ounces of corriedale I got from the local fiber/weaving shop. The dark blue is ready to soak and hang out to dry, and the lighter blue needs a little while to rest. They're both a tiny bit overspun, but I'll figure out a use for them.

Here are some bonus photos of my plants and my dog: