Sunday, July 6, 2008

Dog's Paw Shawl, Part 3

See: Part 1
See: Part 2

This is Part 3 in a series devoted to my first long-term spinning / knitting project.


Daniel and I returned from Bremerton yesterday evening, and I was itching to get some more spinning done for the Dog's Paw Shawl. I was able to finish spinning up the final batt I had stored in my shoebox, and completed plying the two individual plies. I was afraid that, since I don't have a tensioned lazy kate (and therefore use the bobbin holder on my Majacraft Susie as a makeshift lazy kate), that my very thin plies would break because of the somewhat erratic tension the bobbins experience spinning on the holder. I was glad to be proven mostly wrong (the yarn broke once, but I think that was my fault for pulling too roughly). I suspect that the addition of the silk into the batt helped strengthen the fibers, as well as did the tight twist on the single plies.

Last night, I thought I would be eager to start knitting, so I wound the yarn fresh from the bobbin into a cake using my ball-winder. Today, after returning home from various errands, I looked at the cake and knew I would never forgive myself if I didn't take the proper intermediary step and wind the yarn around a niddy-noddy, so I could at least have an idea of the yardage produced.

So I did. 164 yards (according to the niddy noddy - there were 84 rounds of yarn, and it's a 2 yd n.n.).... hmmmm.... I seriously thought there would be more. I bet it weighs...not a lot. Maybe 2 oz, if that? The interesting news is that the yarn is thinner than the yarn called for in the project ( I think I was getting over 20 wpi, and the project calls for around 18 wpi). The sad thing is that the project also calls for around 1050 yd of laceweight yarn....and this is roughly 15% of what I need. However, the ultimate good news is that I have PLENTY more fiber (dog-, worm-, or sheep-based), so I needn't worry on that end.

Check it out! I am very proud. It is very shiny and soft... it reminds me of this yarn that I am very tempted to buy from Yarnia PDX in Portland.


Onward!


1 comment:

Kimixuan said...

Beautiful yarn! So exciting. And 164 yds plied is 328 yards of singles, not bad. Do you wash your yarn before knitting with it? I hate taking the time to wash it, but I love getting to really whack it, so I usually do wash. P.S. I bought 3 books at the hurt books sale...very exciting. see you soon.