The first ball I made last year wasn't quite enough to make a decent-sized hat, so at the beginning of December I started carding some more Hurricane (that was the day that DD2 'helped' me once she got home from school).
Christmas meant that I didn't get any spinning done at all, but over the last few days I've set myself to getting it done and on Monday, the latest skein was plied and it was wound onto my Niddy Noddy yesterday.
The first photo below is the skein wound but unwashed; the second photo is after washing, rinsing and drying. I hope you can see the difference in the skein (the weather's grey and dismal again and it's hard to get good photos). I dunked it in a sink of warm water to which I'd added a squirt of washing-up liquid. Once I'd left it for a bit and then rinsed it, it was still a bit dingy, so I put it to soak in fresh warm water to which I'd added a good-sized blob of Eucalan wool wash. After several rinses in warm water, the colour had changed from greige to cream and the yarn has softened.
I shall be winding it into a ball later and casting on for an Awesome Hat. This is a basic-looking hat, but has a few 'tricks' that make it a better-than-average pattern (but that's to be expected with Mimi Hill). I've got 175m of yarn (just under 100g - I think I lost 2g of dirt during washing) which should be enough, although I can use the first skein if I need to (I think I spun them the same way and they're more or less the same thickness).
I shall update you on progress when there's something worth showing (I'm hoping it won't take long to make the hat).
That was really interesting. I definitely see the difference before and after you dunked it. After, it looks softer and fluffier, to me, but the color looks softer too.
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