I am so pleased to be able to share my finished object photos with you today. I was desperate for my yarn to dry so I could post this on my usual update day, and thankfully we have had a few warmer days, so fortune has smiled on me today and I can present to you, a completed skein of yarn!
Plying this yarn was a bit more tricky than I thought it would be. I started by plying directly from the 3 plying balls, holding each ply between different fingers. The plies started twisting up on themselves as it was really difficult to maintain tension with such fine plies. I ended up with lots of little twists sticking out from the yarn. I tried to catch them all, and ease them straight, but one snuck through.
I'm pretty sure I can tuck it away when knitting. After trying to stop these little twists occurring, for a long time without much progress, I decided I needed to take the three plies and make a single plying ball. After doing that, the plying went much more quickly and smoothly.
The yarn feels quite bouncy, which I expected because the spinning was done long draw and there were three plies. It does feel a little crunchy, but I think that is because the yarn is tightly spun and tightly plied. However, I think when it's knit up and then soaked and blocked, it will soften a lot more, in the same way the Corriedale I spun did.
The tight spinning and plying has led to the meterage of this yarn not being great, despite it being a 3-ply/Light Fingering weight. It only measures 267 m/292 yds, which I hope will be enough to knit some mitts. I don't think it would be suitable for a cowl, because it is a little crunchy, but I think the tight yarn will make it pretty robust despite the very soft yak and merino, which will make it suitable for being on my hands rather than my neck.
I've had a look at some of the mitts patterns on Ravelry that would use my yarn and there are a couple I like, namely Isabel by Sarah Punderson, Garden of Eden Reversible Fingerless Gloves by Anastasia Blaes and Golden Rod Reversible Fingerless Gloves by the same designer. I really like the idea of having a nice stitch pattern on the mitts, but I also like the idea of the mitts being a little longer, as I will probably wear these while riding my mobility scooter. What I might do is take the idea of a nice interesting stitch pattern with the shape of the Isabel mitts and add a fold over section at my fingers, so I can extend the mitts for riding the scooter, or fold them back for normal wear. I've got a feeling this may be another design challenge for myself, I do love using my stitch dictionaries!
I am enjoying the SAL so much as everyone is chatting on the Ravelry boards and the finished objects are now starting to appear thick and fast. It's been so inspiring seeing what other people are working with and producing, and I'm getting lots of ideas for knitting with handspun. Even if you aren't joining in with the SAL, I highly recommend you check out some of the finished objects because they are lovely. Who knows, you might catch the spinning bug!
If you are joining in with the SAL, please add a link to any blog posts you have written in the comments section.
