One mitten

Remember my handspun angora?  From away back?  My beautiful, bulky, teal, thick-and-thin, fuzzy, wonderful handspun angora?  Here is what I made from it:

 

Yes, that is correct.  One K-sized mitten.  I know I should have made a scarf, I knew when I began the mitten that I would not have enough yarn for two.  I was banking on my provider having -- or being able to dye -- some fiber to match the fiber I had already spun.  Lesson learned:  do not bank.  So I am left with one bunny-fluff mitten to hang on the Christmas tree next year.  I think it will look natural there.

Handspun angora

So I had been arduously spinning the angora roving I bought at the Garden State Sheep Breeders Sheep and Fiber Festival back in September -- on my spindle -- and I had worked through about four ounces in a month.  Along comes my spinning wheel and zoom!  I zipped through the second four ounces in less than a day.  Here I am plying the spindled yarn with the wheel-spun yarn with a little help from Kelsey the cat:

Winding a hank on the swift is much quicker and easier than using a niddy-noddy, in my experience.  My swift, when it's fully opened, makes a 36-inch skein, and I had about 51 yards of what feels and knits like a bulky-weight yarn when I was done. 

Here's the skein, all neat and tidy and soft and fuzzy.  I carried it with me and petted it all day today, but couldn't resist and by 4:30 was winding it into a ball so I could begin knitting K's Christmas mittens.  It is truly delicious, and I am utterly amazed that I am so far along in the process of turning fluff from a bunny into clothing for my child.  Incredible!

My handspun!

The stats: Natural Grey Border Leicester, 136 yards or thereabouts, somewhere between aran and bulky weight -- I did not measure wraps per inch because I forgot before I skeined it, but that's such a hairy unit of measurement that I'm not sure it matters much. It's got a nice soft hand; I think it will be suitable for a scarf, hat and mittens, which was my intended project for this fiber.

I picked up a pound of this nice Border Leicester at Rhinebeck the weekend before last when I got my NEW SPINNING WHEEL (the Road Bug by Merlin Tree, more to come on that soon.)  I have about twelve different projects going on, as usual, but would like to get a gauge swatch done on this yarn soon, so look for that and poke me if you don't see it.