Samoyed dog fur - finished spinning

Longdraw is like magic when it works well. This was difficult to spin because there's absolutely no length to the fibres (some was fluffy and very short, some was a little longer and coarser, I assume this is soft undercoat and coarser outer coat)

But by the end, with lots of practice, the singles were flowing well. I found that tight punis worked best

This is just a part of the total, I now have seven skeins altogether, maybe 5-600 yards. I understand that this came from just one brushing!

[edited to add a picture of the total yarn, balled]

Spinning very fine for lace

With my most recent socks finished, it's time to start this amazing cardy. Ok, truth is I have plenty of projects on the go but I can't wait to start this one.

The pattern is Twinkle Twinkle by Ruth of Rock & Purl. It appeared in Knit Now number 16, and credit to Babylonglegs who brought the pattern to my attention. She dyed the yarn for the one in the picture and is selling the same yarn especially for this project.

So to the spinning (I've actually been spinning for a few days and only have half a bobbin-full). I'm aiming for thinner than I've ever made before and more yardage than I've made in one go before.

That's my new magnifier lamp. I've had one before but it died. Now that I've got around to replacing it, I realise how useful it is. Once over the shock of the state of your nails, it really does help - to spin very consistent, very thin and without having your nose close to the work. I heartily recommend one.

This is a commercial merino / silk mix in pure white. I'm planning to dye the spun yarn (possibly the first time I've done things that way round) because I want a nice flat colour like the one in the picture. (Going for a similar 'peacock' blue)

sampling for lace shawl

This is the first of some posts about my Ravelympics project (aka Ravellenics - come and get me IOC).

Briefly, inspired by josiekitten's Citron shawl, my project is a lace-edged shawl using dyed fibre spun as singles and set by slightly felting / fulling. Even though the event didn't start until the start of the opening ceremony, I thought that sampling would be ok beforehand!

Knitting with singles (a single ply) is ok if it's well set, and a recommendation was to full (slightly felt) the singles. I've not done this before, although I did mention the technique with a video in Hand Spinning news a month or two ago.

Prudent to practice beforehand I thought. Even better to make two skeins and set one as I would have done in the past and full the other.

After spinning the fibre from the fold, you use soap (I used Aussie Know How felting finish because it's what I'm using for all wool washing now), hot and cold water to shock the wool and then thwack the skein against a hard surface.

We usually handle fleece so carefully when scouring, this rough treatment doesn't come easily! But is fun when you get over that.

Result

It's obvious from the pictures, the fulled singles (right) feel - well - fuller. The process seems to have plumped out the thinner bits and evened it all up a bit. It feels softer against the skin, and when knitted and blocked, I'm sure you'll agree it looks better.