Do you know what this is? This is the bottom of a capacious Rovings bag. It seemed bottomless while I was spinning it. Now, it looks like this:
12 bobbins of singles. I spun all of the singles on my Schacht Matchless with the Woolee Winder. All on the same bobbin, and then wound off onto cardboard spools. Alden would have been so proud.
The bag contained 6 color repeats (brown, chartreuse, blue, pink, grey/white). Each repeat filled about 1.5 bobbins. I labeled them 1-6, and A & B. I will be finishing off the yarn as a 3 ply, plying color repeats 1, 3, and 5 together, then 2, 4, and 6 together. This should nicely balance out any inconsistencies in the singles.
The singles are approximately 32 wpi. The sample shows that the 3-ply yarn is about 12 wpi, pre-washing. Yeah, a huge difference. The reason is that the singles are softly spun with a long draw, and measured under slight tension. The yarn poofs up quite a bit in the plying. After washing, the yarn should bloom to a nice worsted weight yarn.
Specs:
Fiber: Rovings polworth
Colorway: Rocky Mountain High; last seen here in the upper right hand corner
Weight: 925 grams
Purchased: Soar 2006 (Lake Tahoe)
Singles: 32 wpi
If you are interested in perfecting your long draw, I highly recommend getting your hands on some of Rovings rovings (not their combed top, but their rovings). The fiber is wonderfully prepared for long draw. You’ll find that it’s very easy to find your rhythm.