Slub, slub, slub

As I have mentioned before, I have been playing with spinning slubby yarn. New spinners have no trouble doing this - it is what beginning spinning looks like, fat and thin. But try doing it on purpose! And in a not-random way! It is not easy.

"They" recommend using top for this endeavor, but I stubbornly stuck with some roving I had on hand, a "Montage Medley" which is a fancy term for "mill ends". I think it was made by Ashford. If I decide to make more slubby yarn in the future, I will use top and see just how much easier that is (and whether the result is better) .

While spinning some of the slubby, I wrapped it at the same time with navy thread. To do this, the thread has to be held above the twist, so that it wraps. In a way, it is like spinning and plying at the same time. I also spun some plain singles from the Montage Blend, to ply with the slubby singles.

When I tired of spinning slubby, I still had a lot of the Montage Medley left, so I tried spinning some with white silk and some with navy Kidsilk Haze. The idea was that the silk and Kidsilk Haze would be mostly buried in the MM, so I held it below the twist, with the fiber. My results varied, with the silks showing some of the time.

There was plenty of single yarn, so after plying the slubby single with plain single, to create a two-ply, I three-plied the plain single, silk single, and Kidsilk Haze single. Of course, I ran out of one of those singles before the others, so I made a two-ply with the plain and Kidsilk Haze until I ran out of the latter, then finished with a two-ply of just the plain.

A new (to me) thing I tried was steaming the finished yarn instead of soaking it, to set the twist. My SO had loaned me his handheld steamer and I watched a couple of YouTube videos in preparation. I guess it worked okay - my yarn tends to be rather balanced once I am done plying, but it did feel fuller when I finished.

I ended up with a lot of yarn:

• 3-ply plain/silk/Kidsilk: 136 yds (176 g)
• 2-ply plain/Kidsilk: 20 yds (16 g)
• 2-ply plain/plain: 18 yds (11g)
• 2-ply slub/plain: 136 yds (111g)
• 2-ply wrapped slub/plain: 64 yds (59 g)

So what shall I make with all this? The roving is soft so the slubby yarn is soft, so it might be a nice woven or knitted scarf. The yarns with the silk and Kidsilk Haze has a tougher feel, though. I will have to let the yarn "age" a bit while I consider my options. Any suggestions?