Dandylions

Several weeks ago (as you konw from my somewhat teasing swatch post earlier!) I got my spin on with some Spunky Eclectic Fibre Club I'd kept hoarded away for some months now - the Dandylions colourway- gorgeous!

Inspired by the spinning antics of Faith the Knitting Cook, I decided to get a little more interactive with the fibre rather than just spinning straight from the pre-prepared cooshy ball of loveliness.

I had wanted to make a Baby Surprise Jacket (ha! what was I thinking! It would have had to be TINY forthe amount of fibre I had!) so I separated the fibre into colour sections to be able to control the striping a bit better.

From there I spun up the singles following a gradual but not too scientific colour repeat.

I went over the one bobbin, but that gave me the chance to wind off one skein (on that handy ps3 niddy noddy!) while the other rested. I love how theskein goes all curly wurly when you release it from the niddy noddy - sproing!

But after a soak and a good hang in the bathroom to set the twist the skein was a lot better behaved :) You can see the other bobbin still on the wheel.

A nice little skein of Dandylion singles!

As you can see the singles weren't very even, I was feeling pretty relaxed and unstudied as I spun the danydions up I must admit! All the same I found myself quite determined to record all the details after completeing the spinning!

I recorded the yardage when I was widing the skein, I wound the yarn around a ruler to check the WPI (wraps per inch - a way to determine the 'weight' or thickness of the yarn) and even whipped out the tiny accurate scales to measure final weight!

Of course, now that I'm actually documenting the process I can't find where I wrote the yardage.. and thought I weighed that first skein I haven't gotten around the weighing the second one... I CAN tell youthough, although again, somewhat vaguely.. that it ended up being around a fingering weight - but very changeable as it is SO thick and thin!

I quickly realised that a BSJacket would not be an option so amended my plans and have been knitting up a little something that still using the striping of the yarn to its advantage. In fact.. only a few ends to weave in and little tails to do up and I can tell all about the project too!