Fiber Considered

Last week I told you that hubbo had radiation treatment. Well, by way of an update I can say that he's doing much better this week. How well? As well as any guy on a 4 day golf outing in Myrtle Beach would be. Yeah, I'm sure that he's feeling just fine.

Spinning Alert! (this is for my sister who's eyes tend to glaze over when I talk about spinning)

I recently finished 2 skeins of yarn and, while they look quite different, they have 2 things in common. They are both knittable - I can, and will, produce a respectable looking fabric with them. They are also both fibers that I don't care for all that much. Spinning for me is as much about learning as it is about relaxing and creating so I took a little time to think about these fibers and why I don't care for them.

You've seen this Romney before. I already shared the version that I plied with silk. I had a significant amount left over and I decided to leave it as a single. I have to say that it remonds me of the steadfast fibers yarn I bought in January - only a little finer. The spinning looks pretty even which makes me happy. What doesn't thrill me is the hairyness (is that even a word?). This stuff shed hair all over the place. This is not a good thing. It's also not as soft as many other fibers. It's ok but it's nothingI want to dive into.

On the other hand, it spun reasonably smoothly and easily. I think that the long fibers had a lot to do with the ease of spinning. I felt pretty competent with it while spinning. It just wasn't any fun.

Finn is sticky. That's the best word I can come up with to describe exactly what displeases me about it. It's not goopy sticky. It's sticky like velcro, with clingy fibers that just don't seem to want to left go of each other and, when they do, they do so very unevenly. I'm sure that there are positives to this but, for me, it just means that it's hard to get in a groove when spinning this stuff. I'd find myself spinning along happily and then the fiber would get ornery and clingy again. Consequently, most of this skein is nice and looks like yarn ought to but there are way too many unpleasant spots.

I bought this fiber because I'd read somewhere that it was fun or pleasant to spin. It's not. In all fairness to this yarn I should mention that it's very soft. Before I spun it I really liked it a lot because it was so pleasant to touch. I'm also very pleased with the results of my dye job.

I'm sure that better spinners than I have said it better before but, one of the purposes of this blog is to keep a record of stuff. Hopefully I'll look back and remember these experiences before I'm tempted to buy more Romney or Finn.