Spinning Wheel Love and a New Toy!

So almost a year ago I showed you the beginnings of this spinning. My wheel and I have been butting heads since the beginning . . . I'd like to say it's all her, but lets face it, most likely it's me. I have been spinning Knit Picks Full Circle Roving in the Caramel colorway.

My first skein which was the color Wolf and was way over spun when I plied, is the reason I didn't want to ply on the wheel. So I used my new toy Ball Winder (a gift from my sister,brother in-law, and niece) and made a center pull ball from my bobbin.

In all the pictures, the darker brown is more correct to color.



All the singles wound onto the ball winder!


Can I tell you that it worked marvelously?!?!?!  It truly did, so happy with it.


It was a dream to spin from this.


I held the outside of the ball and inside of the ball together, for two strands held together and Navajo-plied them to make a 6-ply yarn.


I plied from the center and outside, holding two strands together and Navajo-plying them for a 6ply yarn.  This one turned out to be about a fingering.  I got 158 yards.  By general sock weight standards I should have been able to get more like 400 yards with 3.5 oz of roving, but my plies are very dense and not lofty.  I checked the wraps per inch, I get 16.5, which places it in the fingering or sport weight category depending on which chart you believe.


I really like the way it turned out.


It's not soft enough for me to wear next to my neck, so I am not sure what I will do with it.