{"id":40,"date":"2009-02-25T16:23:42","date_gmt":"2009-02-25T23:23:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michelle.betor.org\/?p=40"},"modified":"2010-02-17T09:53:07","modified_gmt":"2010-02-17T16:53:07","slug":"coopworth-nightshade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/michelle.betor.org\/?p=40","title":{"rendered":"Coopworth – Nightshade"},"content":{"rendered":"

After I spun the Merino, I picked up another colorway from Spunky Eclectic — this time a sliver of Coopworth in the colorway Nightshade.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 While the fiber itself was perhaps a bit coarse and scratchy, I love the colorway and am sad she isn’t still producing it.<\/p>\n

\"Coopworth<\/a><\/a>\"Spinning<\/a><\/p>\n

For this I went back to my default spinning — short-forward draw\/inch-worm style, a relatively fine 2-ply.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Since there wasn’t a discernible pattern to the colors (it looked kettle-dyed rather than space-dyed), instead of splitting the entire roving lengthwise, I opted to fold it in half, and literally split across the middle of the length.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 My hope was that I would get reasonably close to the same lengths on the two bobbins (though that didn’t occur) but I wasn’t trying for a consistent color.\u00c2\u00a0 I packed both bobbins pretty full.<\/p>\n

\"Coopworth<\/a> \"Coopworth<\/a><\/p>\n

Since I was spinning finer, and often in short bursts, it was about 10-12 days from start to finish.\u00c2\u00a0 I overfilled the first plied bobbin, continuing to ply until it refused to wind-on.\u00c2\u00a0 The remainder was plied normally until one of the bobbins was finished, and than I opted to chain-single ply the last of it.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 I find plying from a center pull ball to be difficult with fine singles, as it likes to collapse and tangle.\u00c2\u00a0 Unfortunately, my skill with chain-singles isn’t that much better, plus it frankly is not as strong a yarn due to being a ‘fake 3ply’.\u00c2\u00a0 Still, it has the advantage of preserving the colors in the singles, so I enjoy doing it with the leftovers — I figure they can be used for an edging on whatever I end up making, as the resulting yarn is obviously related, yet not really the same color look as the 2ply<\/p>\n

<\/a>\"Coopworth<\/a><\/p>\n

The 2-ply is in the top in the above picture, and the left-hand picture below.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 I’m especially happy with the main skein — it softened up considerably in the wash, and it looks really good.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 The quasi-3ply isn’t especially even in my opinion, but I do like the appearance and am basically satisfied with it.<\/p>\n

\"Coopworth<\/a>\"Coopworth<\/a><\/p>\n

I enjoyed spinning this — even it did have more matted places than I’ve ever encountered in one of Amy’s fibers before.\u00c2\u00a0 It also bled like crazy — I always had bluish\/purple fingers while spinning and plying, and a good bit of blue dye went down the sink (I tried adding vinegar to the wash water, but I doubt it helped).\u00c2\u00a0 I am assuming that both were a side effect of the much-darker than usual colorway.\u00c2\u00a0 Regardless, I would definitely spin this again!<\/p>\n