Still Spinning!

I'm quite pleased I've managed to keep up my spinning after the end of Tour de France. I started spinning some Sweet Georgia BFL/silk just before the Tour finished and I finished spinning the two bobbins earlier this week. I'm leaving them to rest for a few days. With this project I wanted to have a go at fractal spinning. I slit the braid lenghtwise in half. One half I spun length to length (the bobbin on the left) and the other one I split seveal times. Some strips were quite thin and some where thicker. I'm thinking I should have split them all quite thinly.

As soon as the BFL/silk was off the wheel, I rummaged through my spinning stash to find something else to spin. I went through several options but settled on some luxurious camel/silk from Hilltop Fibres. I bought 200gr of un-dyed camel/silk at Wonderwool 2 years ago and tried spinning it but found it too challenging and decided to leave it till after my spinning class with Judith McCuin McKenzie at KnitNation 2 years ago.

 I'm still finding it challenging to spin this fibre. Camel has very short staple and silk is very slippery and this fibre slides apart very easily. I'm spinning it worsted style but trying to let a bit of twist entering the drafting zone to make it a bit easier. I do find that the singles do sometimes break as it winds on to the bobbin. But I'm getting better. I can't say i find this relaxing though. I need to concentrate. I'm aiming for a laceweight 2ply yarn. Perhaps i should have spun it a bit thicker.

Here's my progress so far:

I've put aside two other braids of Polwarth in similar colours for my next project. I'm planning to do a graduated yarn. But more on that later.

I've done lots of knitting and a bit of crochet this week too. We're officially on holiday and have spent several days at CreationFest, although Simon was ill at the beginning of the week. I've been trying to avoid doing too much work but I am working on a new sweater design. The yarn is Sublime Cashmere Merino Silk and I'd forgotten how lovely this yarn is. The colour is one of my favourites too. This week, I've nearly finished the body. It's knite in the round so it's getting a bit big for portable knitting now. Over this weekend I've got a shawl, crochet scarf, sweater and a skirt to do finishing on (blocking, sewing up etc). Should keep me busy.