Handspun: Seven skeins languishing in the cupboard

So, here we are! It's already July, Tour de Fleece is starting tomorrow, and I've got a pile of handspun skeins that are yet to be photographed and written about. As it happens, June has just been insane. The school year finished so the girls were driving me crazy occupying more of my time; I've been job hunting and filling in applications and doing online tests and attending interviews left right and centre; and although weekends are my prime spinning time, it's also the only time I have to spend with my boyfriend lately. So! As a result, these lovely handspun skeins have been languishing in the cupboard, waiting for some attention.



I spun the Strut fuzzlings from Fondant Fibre as a single, to really show off the colours blended throughout. Coloured Merino in yellow, blue, green and violet, and natural oatmeal biffle, with a little gold sparkle for good measure. Somehow, I finished with exactly 400m. Not 397m, not 405m, exactly 400m. Bizarre.



My last club parcel from Wildcraft was the superwash Falkland in Falling Blossom - I can't even begin to describe how soft it is. Superwash? More like super fluffy amazingness, amirite? I picked it up the same day as the parcel arrived, and spun it thick and thin in one evening. 60m of soft fluffy clouds.



I also recently experimented with corespinning - I used the May club parcel from the Hilltop Cloud Time Travellers Club: Willow Ware, a mix of Polwarth, Merino and bamboo. I spun it around a cottom thread core, and added some natural merino cloud coils. It was definitely interesting to spin this way... I need a lighter touch because this corespun is super tight and coily, and not airy and soft. But that comes with practice! I'm happy with the yarn so far, which I've decided to name Stormy Skies.



I spun Dogwood from Nunoco two ways: the first, a tightly spun single, coiled around a core - 23m of pretty but impractical yarn. It's too thick and ropey, not to mention that it takes forever to spin basically nothing. The second way was just a nice thick single - 115m of lovely pink and green and purple yarn.






June has been all about experiments: I learnt how to spin backwards long draw with the gorgeous Toffee Pudding rolags from Fondant Fibre. I actually really enjoyed it, and the yarn is really lofty and light, 201m of a nice airy two-ply.


Last but not least, I finally plied Hen. It's been on the spindles for months and months, and I'd planned to ply it with Rooster but there was a significant difference in density so I decided to keep them separate. I ended with 196m (it's really dense!) of cream-to-brown gradient. So glad I finally got this one finished!