Real life has been so blasted busy lately that I've only been able to work on my spinning on the weekends but I have finally finished the plying of the Purple roving.

As you can see from the picture, there are 3 hanks, one center pull ball and 6 bobbins there. Each one of the hanks are around 350 yards so I'm expecting the remaining 6 bobbins to come out to that, too. Lots of yarn to work with!

The swatch that I knitted on US 4's came out to 26 stitches X 32 rows per 4 inches or 6.5 stitches X 8 rows per inch. The one on US 5's is 5.7 stithes X 7.5 rows per inch. Does that mean the yarn is SportWeight? heheeh My confused brain is trying to figure that one out.

Will I start knitting it into something now? Probably not since I have some Red roving that I want to spin so I can try knitting the CandleFlame Shawl...

ARRGGGGHHHHH So many ideas and projects; so little free time. heheeh Isn't that the knitter's/spinner's lament?

Now, of only work would start behaving... well, it's not really work that's misbehaving but the Dr's that I have to work with..... They just can't seem to understand that I don't want to work from 6:30am till 8:30pm each and every day! I wanna go home and have some real life! Okay... whine mode off again. eheheh

At least I get to knit and/or spin on the weekends! Stay inside and stay comfortable! Happy knitting and spinning, everyone!

My first swatch of my second 2-ply yarn all washed and drying. The first is the multi-colored one that I haven't figured out what it will be. This came out to be 23 stitches by 30 rows knitted on US 5 needles.

The fabric is loose enough that I think I'll swatch on US 4's next, just to see how the fabric feels when finished.

I like the way the yarn knits up and I'm still leaning toward thinking that it's sportweight yarn. It's definitely very soft to touch, too.

There are 3 full bobbins of singles and 4 partial bobbins of singles left of my purple roving. So far, 3 of the skeins are around 360 yards each and the one that I washed and dried and am knitting the swatches from is only 266 yards. I definitely think that I'll have enough yardage for the top that I want to make and then I should have enough left over to either gift to someone or.... who knows. ;)

I hope that everyone is keeping cool yet still knitting away. Thank heavens for air conditioning!!

I'm still learning, that's for sure. I decided to set the twist of one hank of the purple yarn to see if it fluffs up.

I'm still not very good at the wpi but it looks like I'm getting between 10 and 12 with the little ruler that I am using. I think the difference between the two recent pictures is that the first one was with the yarn still stretched on the Niddy Noddy while the last one was taken with the yarn relaxed after its bath.

The final result probably won't be known until I try knitting up a bit of the yarn on different sized needles to see what gauge I actually can come up with.

I have had it suggested to me that I spin my singles tighter so I can ply my yarn tighter. I'll probably try that with some of the red roving that I have but I won't start working on that till I finish plying all of the purple.

Right now, my quandary is whether to continue 2-ply with the purple or whether to try a 3-ply with it. Currently, I have 4 hanks of the purple in 2-ply about 350 yards each. I'm thinking that will be enough for a v-necked, short sleeved pullover so I just might try an experiment and see what a 3 ply in this yarn will look like.

I guess the key word here is experiment and see what you come up with. It's all a self learning process when you don't have master spinner watching you as you work.

What do you all think?

No, I'm not thinner than I thought.... I wish that would be true... but the yarn I've been spinning is thinner than I thought. Take a look below...

Those aren't singles, that yarn you see is 2 ply from the singles that I have made. It's still on the Niddy Noddy so it might still have a bit of winding tension on it but it's pretty close to what it looks like when taken off.

I was trying for DK or sportweight yarn and it looks like I got sock weight. No problem as the top I want to make with it will work out just fine if I use a finer gauge yarn than I expected... well, I hope it will, that is. I still haven't soaked the yarn to set the twist so it might fluff up a bit still.

Heck, I still have more to ply. Right now, I have 4 hanks plyed and each is about 360 yards and none seem to be over twisted as I can hold them up and they hang nice and straight.

When I started spinning the first part of this year, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to spin my roving fine enough to make anything but bulky weight yarn. heeheh Guess I now need to learn to back off a bit on my drafting so I don't make yarn quite so fine.

My next project for spinning I do want a sportweight/DK weight yarn as it will be a shawl. I'll just have to see how well it works out. I definitely have found that 2 pounds of roving makes a huge amount of yarn when you 2 ply it.

Here's a question for anyone reading my blog: At a later date, if I wanted a thicker yarn, could I ply two strands of my 2 ply to make a 4 ply? If so, which way would I spin it? For the singles, my wheel went clockwise, for plying it goes counter-clockwise... which way would I go to ply two strands of 2 ply if it's possible?

I've been busy...honest! Work is crazy as usual. Yes, there really is a shortage of nurses who actually want to work in the nursing field. We have 4 positions open on my unit alone and it's a small unit!

Any way.. I've also been spinning! It's amazing how many singles you get from 2 pounds of roving.

This is the first of the singles 2-plyed. I guess I did better than I thought I would since there is absolutely no twist to the hank that is hanging on the doornob. I was worried that I would over-twist or under-twist the yarn but I wound up with a nice balance.

Of the first two hanks that I have plyed, I have one that is 266 yards and the other is 267 yards... both weigh close to 3 ounces. They look to be about DK / Sportweight. I have lots more to ply since I've actually spun 7 bobbins of singles. heheeh

I have no idea what I'll actually use this yarn for. Maybe just something nice and basic like a v-necked, short sleeved top. The color of the roving is called Wildberry and is from CopperMoose. I also have some Red roving called Mojave that I plan on spinning up next. Depending on how the purplish yarn knits up, I probably will spin the red roving to the same weight and use it for a shawl pattern called CandleFlame. Time will tell!

Here's a closer picture of the yarn. The twist on homespun yarn definitely looks looser than that you find on machine made yarn so it definitely will be interesting to see how it knits up.

Hope everyone is having fun spinning and knitting as we keep everyone in Florida and London in our thoughts.