Handspun Happenings

I've been doing a lot of spinning lately. I'm working on getting a batch of handspun ready for a large project. One more skein of yarn that will be part of this project is this skein of Dragonfiber handspun.

This was the roving before I spun it:


















And this is after:



This is one of my favorite colors of handspun yet! I just love the deep gorgeous colors. I spun this into a heavy worsted weight 2 ply and have about 125 yards.




I've also been practising a new technique. When I get to the end of my two bobbins when making 2-ply and I have some singles left on one bobbin, I have been practing Navajo Plying. I finally felt I was good enough at it to try an entire skein.

My first attempt was with this hank of Fat Cat Faukland Roving.

It went from this:



















To this:



This Navajo 3-ply is far from perfect, but I learned a lot from making it. One of the most important things I learned was that it's MUCH harder to do the Navajo ply when your singles have a lot of twist. The singles twist and kink and just make a general mess. I do tend to put a lot of twist in my singles when making two ply - because I like a tight twist. But I've learned that Navajo 3-ply does not need a lot of twist in the singles to still make nice and tightly twisted 3 ply.




So my second attempt at a Navajo 3-ply was much better. I used a lovely ball of Merino from Sunset Fibers:



The color repeats were nice and long and I didn't want to lose those, so I again spun this up with the intention of making a Navajo 3-ply. This time though - I paid attention to the amount of twist I was putting into my singles. The results were SO MUCH better!


















I am so in love with how it came out. The beautiful rainbow colors are still in full effect.



Remember how I said I was going to use my handspun more this year?

Well the completed handspun was immediately balled up and used!



I crocheted the Queen Anne's Lace scarf:


Stats:
Pattern: Queen Anne's Lace Scarf
Yarn: Sunset Fiber Handspun
Hook: Size J
Alterations: I added some additional loops on the first and last "flower" so that the scarf would look more finished on the ends.



This is the first time I've crocheted anything in LONG time! Thank God for online video tutorials! I had forgotten the difference between single, double and triple crochet!



I love how this scarf came out!! By keeping the long repeats of color by using Navajo ply - let the wonderful bright colors of this roving really stand out.