BFL Humbug: 4-ply, S-plied

This was my first time making a 4-ply yarn. I used Blue Faced Leicester since it is so easy to spin. The Humbug mix made me a bit worried, the singles looked so varied that I was afraid that the yarn would be far more variegated than I had envisioned.

Singles spun in Z

Rewound and prepared for plying

2 skeins: 4-ply - after washing and drying

Close up

A total of 195 grams.

Handspun Massam, 2-ply, Z-plied

My spinning continues. This yarn is spun from Massam ( a.k.a. Masham) wool. I have never tried this wool before, but it was a nice experience. It is easy to spin and has a nice shine when finished. Since I am a fan of natural colours, grey in particular, this is a wool I will have to spin again. I spun this in S om my Little Gem, and then rewound and plied in Z on the Louet S10.

It will be part of a twined knitting project in the future.

Handspun Red Merino, 3-ply, S-plied

After intense knitting during the Autumn I am now spinning again. This is a 3-ply red merino.  S plied, so it is not intended for twined knitting. I had read a lot about spinning merino (positive statements only) so I was curious about trying it out.

I had some problem in the beginning understanding the fiber. It is very fine and it felt as if I could spin it thinner than anything else that I have spun. But it also was a bit tricky, since it was a bit difficult to get an even flow.

I spun this from tops with many shades of red in them and I had from the beginning decided to make an S-plied yarn. It turned out that I spun this thinner than I intended, so to get a yarn that was not too thin I decided on a 3-ply.  This also meant that the distribution of colours got evened out, making the overall impression more harmonic.

I am quite happy with the result, and I will probably spin merino again in the future. The hardest thing will be to decide what to knit with it. It is very soft, so it will probably be knitted into a scarf or a hat.
All in all I ended up with 200 grams. I spun this on my Majacraft Little Gem, and rewound the yarn on my Louet S10 before I plied it on the Little Gem.

Socks for our guests

During Christmas I suddenly realized that most of our guest-socks had done duty for (too) many years and that it now was time to do something about that. So ... I have been knitting socks since Christmas.

4 pairs all in all. These are a type of socks that I learned to knit when I was very young. In Sweden they are called Raggsockor and are used in boots (or indoors) for warmth during winter. Knitting these as a child was how I learned to manage double-pins (my favourites today).

During last autumn I knitted mittens in twined knitting (6 pairs). I have to say that these socks were quick knits compared to twined knitting.