K-K-K-KOMBO SPIN

I got kind of addicted with welfordpurls’ spinning podcast on YouTube. She talked about combo spinning in one of the early episodes, and when I picked up these two braids at a knitting retreat in April, I immediately knew I wanted to do a combo spin. One of the braids was a Southern Cross Fibre club color, the other an unlabeled mystery fiber I picked up for free.

Initially, I wanted to do a 2-ply – spin each braid onto separate bobbins and ply them together – but the mystery braid had already been dipped into so I would’ve ended up with more singles on one bobbin.

Second plan, split the braids lengthwise in thin strips, spin alternating from each pile and then navajo-ply. The drawback was that the colors may not have blended as much as I wanted. I started spinning this way, spinning quite fine and with a lot of twist to account for the chain plying in the end. And then I had a brainwave…

Plan #3: Spin one bobbin in A, B, A, B… order and the other B, A, B, A… and then 2-ply. This way there’s more color blending which is what I initially wanted. The “bad” (not really) thing is now I ended up with a thinner and higher-twist yarn than I’d aimed for.

I was planning to knit a shawl with this but now that I know the final yardage, I’m faced with a dilemma. It’s definitely plenty for a large shawl but it might also be enough for a small-ish cardigan. Would I wear a cardigan in these colors? There may be some swatching ahead.

• On Ravelry: Dark Heart of Winter

• Fiber: 110 g of Southern Cross Fiber Kent Romney Lambswool in Heart of Winter + 74 g of mystery wool

• Yardage: 1078 m or 1179 yd

• Skein weight: 180 g or 6.3 oz

• Grist: 599 m/100 g or 2971 ypp

• Plies: 2

• Yarn weight: Light fingering

And now I’m eyeing some more potential combo spin pairings in my stash!

#spinning #combospin #twoply #Romney #wool #fiber