Monday, October 12, 2015

Spinzilla Day 7 and Final Results

Here's what I did on Day 7, and a wrap up of everything.

I found the jumbo flyer for Emma's Ashford wheel and started to ply the alpaca/silk, then I realized that it was going to take approximately a billion years to get through the whole skein because the jumbo flyer only has one very slow spinning ratio.

So I decided to ply on my Matchless and just make two skeins- at least it would all get done before the end of the day. But I'll be darned, the entire 6.5 ounces fit on the bobbin!

Well I'll be darned. It all fit- 6.5 oz alpaca/silk 2-ply. Spinzilla Day 7.

After I plied that, I looked at the clock and decided that I maybe had enough time to do one more bundle of fiber, so I pulled out a Fiber Optic gradient. This is a gorgeous set of greens, and I not only had enough time to do the singles, I also plied it.  This one had to be chain-plied (3-ply) rather than a regular 2-ply in order to preserve the color gradient.

Spinzilla Day 7

I love the way a gradient looks when it's in cake form. This is 4 oz. (1125 yds) of Fiber Optic merino/silk "Saint Patrick" 3-ply and 6.5 oz. (1165 yds) of Friends in Fiber "Weeping Willow" alpaca/silk 2-ply.

Spinzilla Day 7: 4 oz Fiber Optic merino/silk "Saint Patrick" 1125 yds 3-ply (chain ply) ; 6.5 oz Friends in Fiber "Weeping Willow" alpaca/silk 1165 yds 2-ply

So that's the bulk of what I did yesterday, plus plying several cakes of singles from earlier in the week.  And here's my final result for seven days of spinning.

Spinzilla 2015 results:  11,251 yards of yarn equals 34,278 yards of Spinzilla spinning credit

A total of 53.2 ounces (3.3 pounds) of fiber gave me 11,251 yards (6.4 miles!) of yarn, equaling 34,278 yards (19.5 miles!) of Spinzilla spinning credit (length of singles plus length of plying).

I'm quite pleased with myself.

3 comments:

Rachel said...

You are inspiring in a slightly annoying way! ;) Seriously, this is amazing...considering I'm lucky if I can get done even 8 ounces over the 6 months I'm 'home' in winter. The most impressive thing to me about this is not only the amount of yarn you spun, but how perfect those skeins are. You never sacrifice quality for quantity...

Now -- this winter we must talk about how to spin and ply a gradient yarn because I may have a package of gradient fiber in my stash. Add it onto the list of things I need to learn from you! Feel free to start charging. ;)

Anne said...

You Rock!!!!!! I need to check and see how 'Knot Another Hat' team did over all. You contributed a LOT of yardage. I'd hate to see what you could do if you didn't work full time and have to be a parent. Rachel, please plan on coming over for the Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival... the first weekend in November.

Anonymous said...

I'm in awe. You casually decide to spin up 4 more oz, even chain-plying it after finishing plying 6+ oz, in one day! It took me over 20 hours, evenings over the course of a couple weeks, to spin & ply the 5oz of Mallard yarn.

Beautiful spinning!