I first picked up a spindle in May 2014. A clunky wooden thing, nothing extraordinary, yet it opened up a whole world of possibility. Spinning soon became my way to unwind and relax - the ultimate stress-buster - and I got serious about it from August, when I moved to Barcelona. From August to December, I managed to spin 1,495m from 1.04kg of fibre. Nothing too amazing, all on spindles, but still - it would take about 18 minutes to walk from end to end, and I think that's pretty damn cool.


I finished spinning the Moonshine Falkland from Fondant Fibre in September: 215m chain plied from 90g of fibre, a heavy fingering weight. Very dense, underplied, but I love the colours. The chain plying helped to keep the colours distinct, when I tried a sample of a simple two-ply, the colours all merged into a not-so-sexy fifty shades of grey. I have another 100g of this in my fibre stash, excited to spin some more, the nests are a really lovely convenient way to spin.

Next came the Luckenbooth Oatmeal BFL, also from Fondant Fibre. It took forever to ply, only because I was lazy and distracted by other projects, but finally ended up with 213m from 180g of fibre, a light bulky weight.

Maiden Voyage organic Merino, bamboo and tussah silk followed - the first installment of the Jazz Club, from Fondant Fibre. I spun this up in a day: 100g became 95m of a chunky weight two-ply yarn, which quickly knitted up into a striped cowl for Mama.

I signed up for Wildcraft's spindle and fibre club: the September parcel contained a beautiful rose and lavender drop spindle, and 120g of Cheviot fibre in An English Country Garden. This became 228m of sport weight, very colourful, two-ply yarn.

Jazz Club #2 was Salt Peanuts, a blend of Shetland, baby alpaca, and tussah silk. This became 194m of sport weight two-ply, from 100g of fibre. In love with the colours: mocha, blue, coral...

Next up was a combo spin of Malabrigo Nube in Persia, plied with undyed merino. 200g became 172m of chunky yarn, 107m of which I (reluctantly) sent to Natasha in the Fondant Fibre secret santa swap. This is what encouraged me to mix fibres when plying, and not just stick to one fibre. Of course, that's not to say that I'll never stick to just one fibre again, but I do like the look of complementing colours plied together to make one colour stand out, or to mute the overall colours.

200g of Fondant Fibre's Paradise Norboo (Norwegian wool and bamboo) became 208m of a heavy worsted/light bulky two-ply yarn. I love how the teal and turquoise shines through the olive greens, lilacs and yellows.

November's Wildcraft club was a gorgeous 50g parcel of merino and tussah silk 50/50. Incredibly soft and squishy, the Coffee and Cream was spun up into singles (very tentatively, I might add), 170m of a light to dark gradient.

I really enjoyed all these spins in 2014 - 1,495m is kind of a crazy amount for a beginner spinner! I've already finished the Rebel Rebel, and I'm now working on Project #2, and it's only January! Start as you mean to go on :)




4 Comments

  1. Oh my heavens. I can't believe you hand spun these. They are absolutely gorgeous!

    :] // ▲ itsCarmen.com ▲

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! Still a newbie spinner so am working on yardage, thickness consistency, different colouring pairs... but I'm pleased with what I've got so far :)

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  2. how cool, they look awesome!

    xx danielle // shades of danielle // bloglovin

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