Recently in Cream Coopworth Category

Fiber: Coopworth, 8oz
Vendor: Village Spin and Weave, Solvang, CA
Yield: 641 yards
Weight: Sport to DK

All done. This was such a pleasure to spin with! You can see from the picture above my technical progress. From left to right, my first skein to my last. And my sample plied skein. The first skein has a bit of a crunchy hand; this was where I experimented with tensions, ratios, and spinning techniques. So, it's a little more "uptight" than the others. I'm most proud of my last skein, which has enough halo and loft to make it quite soft. The singles of the last skein were spun almost perfectly balanced and I was tempted to leave it at that. My plying, though, was just as good: 2 twists in the skein!

It needs a little color, so I'm going to look into Kool-Aid for dyeing. And *only* Kool-Aid. Oh no, don't try to convince me. I don't have enough time to do dyeing, and besides, other more talented knitbloggers are already doing it exceptionally well. Anyway, I'm thinking blues, greens and teals. I'm thinking about the color of the waves as they break on the sandbars. Or perhaps a little deeper? Or less saturated? Or more saturated? So many possibilities. It reminded me of one of Stephanie's little stories in At Knit's End about tring to find the perfect yarn that was the color of a specific blue that she remembered, and discovering that she could just do it with dyeing. Kool-Aid, here I come!

Two words: Work. Bizzy. Good thing I prepared this entry last weekend.

Creamy Coopworth. The sliver was prepared so well that I didn't have to attenuate this so much before going to the wheel. There were the occasional plant bits, but all you need is good sunlight to pick them all out. With no scale around, I figured the best way to measure the fiber is to unroll the 8 ounce ball, rip it in half, and again, and again, and perhaps even again, until you have enough fiber to manage through one spinning session. My limit per session is 1/2 ounce, sometimes even 1/4 ounce. I’ve been trying to spin a laceweight single for plying. The first bobbin didn't yield as much yarn as the second, but that's okay. It’s where I practiced the short draw, the long draw, woollen and worsted draws, fiddled with the tension, experimented with ratios (let me say I did all those fairly crappily, spinning blindly without a teacher, and having a ton of fun), and basically figured out the wheel. I think.

The overtwist above is ever so completely wrong, but I find it quite pretty. The fat and skinny next to each other has some appealing quality, as well as the fuzzy and smooth parts of the yarn where I tried woollen and worsted draws. I thought of dyeing the fiber earlier on, but decided to try it as it came from the back of the sheep. There are plenty of opportunities for dyeing in the future. According to this chart, 8 ounces of fiber spun at (an average) fingering weight (16 wpi) should yield between 880 and 1152 yards. I wonder how much I'll have at the end!

Some sports photography links for anyone interested. These guys make me want to quit my job and just go climb shoot pictures.
◊ Jimmy Chin; click for the Karakorams
◊ Rich Wheater; click for bouldering
◊ Michael Clark; click for portfolio

Thanks everyone for the responses on Mirabella. I'm actually still kind of nervous about it (beginning designer's nerves, y'know), and curious to see how it'll look when someone knits from my directions... Aerobic isn't found everywhere; I believe it may be discontinued, but I hope that doesn't discourage anyone from using another sock yarn that knits to the gauge specified. One thing that I recommend is using a yarn that is solid or subtly variegated, or with a low-contrast variegation. Wendy talked about variegated yarn and lace here, and I echo the opinion.

I put the pattern in the sidebar, and Liesel asked for the pattern to the Drooping Elm Leaves Scarf so I'll be adding that shortly.

So, I bought a Lendrum. Yup, I *finally* did! I won't bother to mention how many spinning blogs and reviews I read, how many people I pestered, how many books I pored through at the library, how many Spin-Offs I read this year to try to make my decision. BF and I rode to The Village Spinning and Weaving Shop in Solvang last weekend to try out a few wheels. Proprietors John and Marsha were so kind and patient with me. BF and Marsha actually talked about motorcycles, of all things to find in common, while John showed me the intricacies of the Ashford Joy and the Lendrum. In the end, the Lendrum Double Treadle (Regular package) won out on versatility (more ratios) and price, even though I had my heart set on the more aesthetic Joy. But there was no big loss. I am *in love* with this wheel!

As you can see, I dove headfirst into spinning some fluffy, creamily white Coopworth. I bought 8 ounces, enough to practice spinning on. I have consistency problems (too thin, too thick, not enough twist, way too twisty), but this is only the first half ounce, so I expect to do better!