In one of the Ravelry groups, Spindlemania, there is a challenge going on: the Chocolate and Strawberries Valentine challenge. The idea is to find fiber in chocolate and strawberry colours, set a target (1-4 oz.) and spin and ply that amount into a Chocolate and Strawberry yarn. Of course I wanted to participate, since I had the perfect fiber in my stash:
I decided to use the EA Midi to spin it, and I would go for the full 4 oz. That’s 115 grams! On a spindle! Well, plying may be done on a wheel, but still…
I got the hang of it pretty quickly. First I spun colour by colour straight from the roving, but then I carded it colour by colour with my hand cards, to make the spinning a bit smoother (which worked). The singles looked quite pretty, and I finished the spinning after 2,5 weeks!
Then up to the next task: plying! I decided to go for n-ply, with the danger that the colour repeats would become very short… I don’t really like the barberpole effect, so n-ply sounded good. I plied on my Joy, and it went quick and smooth until the last bit, which didn’t fit on the bobbin anymore. I handplied that bit on my spindle… Then I skeined the yarn with my niddy-noddy, gave it a bath and hung it to dry. The result:
It’s about a DK weight, a little over 300 meters. Not bad!
The last part of the challenge is optional: knit something with your handspun. So, I started knitting a cowl – sort of. I call it the Cocoberry Cowl, and it’s my own design. I’ve already started knitting it three times, because I make mistakes, but that’s fine, the yarn is fun to knit with. The colour repeats are quite nice!
