E is for Effort

I seem to have been doing more spinning than knitting in recent weeks.

Not that the results have been pleasing.

In a package of fibre that I bought from World of Wool was this bump:

Picture taken from the World of Wool website

It doesn't look too bad like that does it.  Truth be told, when I took it out of the postal package, I did think that the colours weren't really 'me' and I decided that I must have put it in my online shopping basket and not taken it out.  Anyway, I decided that this would be my next spinning project as I've enjoyed spinning WoW's merino/silk blend rovings before.  I started merrily spinning away and then got a bit concerned as the white silky bits felt a bit rough and I had bits sticking out from the singles I was spinning.  I admit that rude words were said in exasperation and at one point I nearly pulled the whole lot off the bobbin with the intention of binning it.  I even got to the point where I thought I should send an e.mail to World of Wool to express my disappointment because all the fibre I've bought from them to date has been of excellent quality.

I did go back onto the website and had a look and then it clicked with me.  The white isn't actually silk.  It's bleached flax.  Oops.  That's why I'd put it in my shopping basket -- I've never spun flax before.  I continued spinning, pulling out and discarding the particularly rough bits of flax that I found too difficult to spin.

Once I'd finished spinning the fibre onto one bobbin, I navajo/chain plyed it into this skein of 3-ply yarn:

The blue's got a bit lost amongst the black, grey and white, but I suppose if I'm being kind to myself it's come out quite nicely heathered.  It's just not very soft (although I've read that flax/linen should soften with further washing - although with my luck, I'll probably felt the merino at the same time).

I have no idea what this is going to be.  I don't think I've got enough for a pair of socks, unless they're short ones.  Maybe some gloves or a hat?  Possibly a scarf (although it might be a bit scratchy).

Oh well, you live and learn, don't you.  I've learned that I don't like spinning flax!