Just like in 2019, I ordered a Schaap & Draak advent calendar in 2020. It’s so nice to unwrap a small present every day during the darkest month of winter.
Each little bag contains a ~25g fibre sample in (usually) a bright colour. I don’t spin them immediately – I like collecting them first, then turning them all into rolags, and then spinning them. Three times the fun!
So I started spinning in January. I didn’t spin every day – I even knitted three shawls in between – but I picked up some rolags regularly. This time, I varied my gradients. I had prepared two rolags per fibre sample, and I turned some of the gradient samples into long gradients (for example, pink to purple over two rolags), and others to back-and-forth gradients (for example, pink to gold and gold to pink). Just to keep things interesting.
I used a spindle per rolag, and tried to keep the same yarn thickness (more or less) over the entire project, so that it would be easy to combine the results someday. There were many different fibre types and mixes in there: BFL, merino, silk, tencel, Masham, etc. I liked some more than others. But there was a nice variety of fibre and colour there, so it never became boring to spin it.
And then, suddenly, I was done spinning the singles! I had kept the singles on my spindles until the end – my aim was to use most of my spindles in this project and I did. So after finishing the spinning, it was time for a group picture!
There was one thing left to do: ply. I decided to go for my standard chain ply again, and quickly processed all the singles on my wheel. Then I measured the metrage and weight, and in the end it turns out that I’ve spun 3424 metres/586 grams of yarn in this project. Not bad! An average of 584m/100g, which is light fingering/heavy laceweight.
Then I decided to get last year’s results and combine them. I wasn’t feeling well that day, but playing with the colours, quietly ordering them, was very soothing and I felt better afterwards. Fibre therapy. I still don’t know what I’ll make with these mini skeins, but it will come to me, and until I know, I can play with them.
2 thoughts on “Six months of advent”