Only a quick update from me today as it’s been a quite week in terms of actually producing anything. I’ve finished the fourth skein in my five skeins gradient spin. This is a 3-ply sweater spin using a Hilltop Cloud Fade pack. I still need to skein and soak it.
I’ve also made progress with my homework for my spinning course. I’ve been experimenting with pre-soaking fibre before spinning. I’ve been very surprised at the impact pre-soaking fibre has, and it definitely makes for a smoother draft and loftier yarn. I’ve only tried it with BFL so far, but I have some other fibres to try. I’m also experimenting with some different ways of spinning sock yarns so hopefully there will be some updates on that shortly.
In other news I’m slowly putting the garden to bed for the winter. I plan to grow some more shallots over the winter as these were one of last year’s big successes. I’ve also got the last few courgettes to harvest. I don’t think I will go near tomatoes ever again as they just seem to be a disappointment. I do have my first, very tiny, aubergine coming on, but I’m not sure if it will grow big enough in the last few weeks of warmer weather. The flower beds were a huge disappointment so I’m giving one of those over to potatoes next year.
Hopefully there will be a bit more to report in the coming weeks. We’re heading in to my favourite season so plenty of time for knitting by the fireside as the nights start to draw in.
Ceulan Fibres 
The color of your spinning is very pretty.
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Thank you, there’s one more darker purple braid to go.
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Your yarn is so beautiful. What a wonderful sweater it will make. Totally agree, I love the winter since there is no gardening/lawn care to get in the way of my knitting!!
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It will be great to have some months with no weeding to do!
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I love their color packs – they have some great ones (and I have several in stash I need to spin up!) Interesting about the presoaking, but at least inside my head, that makes perfect sense. It’s my favorite time of year too – bring it on!
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Your yarn looks squishy, bet it’s going to be a lovely warm jumper. I haven’t heard anyone at the Guild mention pre-soaking fibre…except pre-soaking before washing raw fleece, but this sounds like you are soaking already prepared fibre? Is it dry when spinning?
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The guidance suggests soaking commercially prepared top in warm water, drying it, and then spinning it. The fibres open up a bit more and it puts a bit of crimp back. I did find it made for a loftier finished yarn in the samples I spun. I’ll try and get something posted in the next couple of days.
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That’s very interesting! I’ve never heard of that, but I definitely would like to try that now! I have a braid in mind that I think would work well for that. I assume I’d have to unbraid it before soaking for best results, is that correct?
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Yes you unbraid it, tie it if you wish as you would if you were finishing a skein (I didn’t bother but I only soaked some samples not the whole braid. I soaked mine for about ten/fifteen minutes. My fibre was quite old so might have benefitted more from this. I’ll try and post my YOP update about it tonight.
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Your yarn is so pretty! I am hoping to spin someday but I need a wheel and I need lessons! LOL! So sorry about your garden. Mine did better this year but my water bill was too high to warrant it.
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Oh no! It’s quite a chore to water my garden because I don’t have an outside tap so I have to run the hose from the bathroom and through the house! The layout of my house is such that I can’t set up a water butt anywhere to collect rainwater.
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You spun that gradient so fast!!
I hope the shallots do well over winter!
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I am so impressed at your spinning enough for a sweater and it looks very even to me, and also I LOVE the colour.
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