Spinning FOs

Regardless of spiritual, political or social affiliation, I doubt that there is anyone who will forget the year 2020. In addition to worldwide social and political change, COVID changed our lives in ways that we never imagined and I hope once it’s been contained that we will never have to experience anything like it again.

In addition to dealing with all the pandemic brought, I moved, transitioned the group I work for currently to fully remote operations and I had to deal with (initially mysterious) life threatening health issues (thank God I’m okay now but still being monitored). So 2020 is definitely NOT a year I’ll ever forget.

I did not knit or crochet a stitch. The only thing I had energy for was spinning and even that was not on a consistent basis. I love knit socks but haven’t even finished my first pair, so I thought, while the chaos of 2020 was going on, that maybe the thing to get me knitting socks was if I spun sock yarn. I think maybe the day I thought to do this I might have been loopy from meds because your girl here thought spinning 3-ply sock yarn WAS the thing she should do. Silly, silly me! LOL!

Clearly I didn’t think of fiber properties, the blend I used has bamboo in it and while that would actually make for some cool socks on hot summer days, the fiber combo — Targhee, silk and bamboo — has more drape and less elasticity that socks need. At the time, I wasn’t sure if I would even hit the mark, I just picked a braid I liked from my stash and went at it.

The evolution of this spin in pictures:

Project Details:

Fiber weight: braid was 5.7 ozs.
Dyer: Inglenook Fibers
Colorway: Lion’s Mane from the 2020 Narnia series
Fiber Composition: Targhee, silk, bamboo
Fiber Attributes: top with use of commercial dyes
Spun and plied on Lendrum DT
Single Spun: with Z twist
Plied: with S twist
First Pass:1683 yds of singles
Skein Finish: 3- plied
Skein weight: light fingering
Wraps per inch (WPI): 18
Final Skein Total: 561 yds of 3 ply yarn
Finished Object: for Tour De Fleece 2021

The singles for this project were spun at thread size so plying took longer than i expected it to. It felt like no matter how much I plied, the bobbins looked the same size. LOL! Altogether, plying took about 9 hours before I got to the end of the first bobbin. Once that happened, I joined the remaining yarn from the other two bobbins and chain plied them together to make a three ply mini. I haven’t calculated grist and all that yet, not even sure I will. The only thing I’ve thought of now is that I should find a shawl pattern to show off this spin brilliantly instead of using it for socks.

To say that I am immensely proud of this spin is an understatement. Spinning, and even plying it forced me to slow down. It helped me focus on making my joins as neat as possible, I had a number of breaks during plying, I aced that too, you can’t tell from looking at the skein where any of them are. The project itself has made me aware that I *can* be a more intentional spinner. I set a goal and even though I was winging it on this first pass, I met my goal and am now equipped to do this again.

This skein also represents being able to do hard things during really tough circumstances and I can’t think of a better takeaway from the year that was 2020.

First of all, thank you so very much for all the spin and spindle love from the last post. The comments and private emails encouraged me to plan some “Meet The Maker” posts featuring the spindle makers so stay tuned for that.

Today’s post has multiple working titles — “In Support of an Instagram Fast”, “Nourish”, “Fast Finish”, “Spin, Spin, Spin” — titles which all make sense when I think of this week’s crafty finish. I can ramble on and on and on about Instagram, how much I love it, how many relationships I formed there, how much it upsets me at what the platform has become and how much I despise being at the mercy of an algorithm. What really got my attention was how much time I spent on the platform, how weary it was making me, how much the insta posting was not meeting my need to document my makes, reads or express my thoughts fully and how much I was not engaging in the creative pursuits I enjoy.

The push I needed came when I looked at the time record in my profile. I averaged 3 hours daily on the platform. To say I was shocked was an understatement — it never seemed that long in my mind, especially since I didn’t stay on in one long interval. I thought of all the mindless scrolling, all the comparison, the time wasted and I wasn’t happy. The weekend following my “revelation” I looked at the Netflix documentary “The Social Dilemma”. That was it! I wouldn’t say more about the documentary but if you have a Netflix account, take a look then let me know — I’d love to hear what you think about it.

So I quit … cold turkey.

I’m still on the platform, my account is still active but I worked my way down from a 3 hours, 15 mins daily average to 15 mins in 10 days.

In the time I’ve quit mindless scrolling, I finished the spin featured in this post, taught myself to use a double drive spinning wheel, finished 2 books, started a crochet project, done some meal planning and cooked more. In other words — I nourished myself, had a fast spin finish, spun, spun then spun some more and am fully in favor of Instagram fasts — no matter how little a person uses the platform.

I’ll show you the crochet throw next week, it should be finished by then but in the mean time: here’s Comfort and Joy — spindle spun and plied (2 ply). The resulting yarn is definitely light fingering and all that’s left to finish the skeins is to wash them. From the almost 2.5 ozs, I got 422 yds in singles and 211 in 2 ply. Next task is to look for a worthy project.