Another month is drawing to an end. As the month has progress, so has my spinning for the monthly Jenkins spindle challenge. The challenge only requires 25 grams, only slightly more than 3/4 ounce to be spun in the month. I have spun along, spinning several samples that I had, they are good to carry in the car with my tiniest spindle; I worked on some Tunis roving that I purchased that is a nice blue with variation from light to darker; and I worked on a 5 ounce braid of Shetland blended with Bombyx in a color blend called Elderberry. That fiber is so smooth and soft and spins very fine.
During the month, you post 4 check in photos of your progress, then a final photo taken on a scale to show how much you spun. I stretched out my check ins this month, posting my 4th and my scale today. I had spun about half of the braid of Elderberry and I wanted to ply it.
My total for the month was 129.54 grams, the ball of Shetland/Bombyx has a small doggie tennis ball wrapped inside that weighs 20.8 grams, so it has to be subtracted from the total on the scale.
After lunch, I started plying that ball on my wheel, figuring it would wait until next month when I finished the braid to fill the bobbin. I was so wrong. I barely got it all on the bobbin, then wound it off on the Niddy Noddy to measure how many yard it made. As I said, it is only about half of the braid. The finished yarn was 24 WPI, very fine, the skein is under 2 ounces and there are 489 yards in the skein.
It is gorgeous and I still have 2 1/2 ounces left to spin. I am going to end up with over 1000 yards of this yarn. And the kicker is, I don’t knit with lace weight yarn. I guess when the rest is spun, the skeins will go in my shop. It will take me all of next month to finish spinning that braid.
The morning harvest had lots of beans, a few peppers, 1 tomato, 2 cucumbers. As I was doing dinner prep, I blanched and froze two more gallon bags of beans, plus cooked some to go with our dinner and set aside a bag to take to daughter tomorrow. The third planting of beans are blooming, but beans aren’t forming quite yet, so we will have beans in the freezer and lots more to enjoy.
The morning began foggy. It is always interesting to look out the back and not see the next ridge and then later, it is visible again.
Stay safe everyone.
Oh Fran! Your yarn is gorgeous. Also you can’t find green beans like you grow in Tennessee and they are my favorite. All they grow here are half runners, and I don’t like green beans with huge beans in them. Also, I can’t find Silver Queen corn here. Go figure! Thanks for your blog. It’s so interesting.
Thanks for your comments, always. The beans are Contender (Buff Valentine) Bush Snap Beans. They are a short season variety so I can get several plantings in a season. I buy the seed from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange in Louisa, VA, though I can generally get the seed at the nursery I prefer or the Natural Foods store in town and don’t have to order them. It is going to be a lot of yarn when the braid is finished and since it will all be spun on Turkish spindles, it will be hard to price. It may have to become a gift to a lace knitter or a prize at Knotty Ladies.