Spinning with Intent

      Spinning with intent isn't something I've ever done.  I just spin and get what I get.  Since I have so much fleece to play with, I going to use this one as a learning experience.  It's a small Romney and has been washed as described in this post.  The locks are long but not brittle or sun burnt.  I wish you could feel just how soft this fleece feels.  The locks are about 7" long.  I noticed that washing my normal way did not remove all the grease.  It wasn't noticeable until I started flicking it.  I'm going to finish flicking the locks, then put them on a screen and pour boiling water over them slowly.  Once I started spinning it got worse, especially when a hot flash hit.  When I washed and spun the Jacob I didn't have this problem.

 

 

      This fleece has several colors in it.  I'm going to divide it into the 3 main colors and spin each separately and then ply.  I bought a Spinner's Control Card at MDSW and am hoping it will help me get more consistent singles.

I tried using the picker to pick the locks, but since the locks are so long, it really only tore them.  I don't have hand combs, but I do have dog thingy and I use it to flick the locks open.  What a difference.

I'm also sampling this time.  I took 2 of each lock, spun it my normal semi-worsted spin.  I spun "S" and plied "Z".  I got a wpi of 13.  I knit a swatch: 
      
                                                Needle       Stitches/inch            
                                                    6                   7
                                                    7                   6
                                                    8                 4.5

 

 

 

 

 

 At this point I like all three of them.  I haven't decided on a final use for the yarn.  My scale needs a new battery so I can't weight it yet.

    I'm going to spin the next sample worsted to see the differences.

TTYL,

Melodye