Patricia from Yummy Yarns kept sharing photos of her beautiful batts and eventually I gave in to temptation and purchased these two bundles of pretty :o)

I also bought some thread as I decided I wanted to try spiral plying to stop their colours becoming too muddled.

Opening out the bats and tearing them into strips to use was really fun. Each section was different and there was a surprising amount of pretty shimmer hiding inside the darker one! :o)

I saw a broomstick lace crochet wrap on the front of a magazine and did something I rarely do – I bought it! It did come with some cute broomstick lace tools which looked useful :o) I figured the lace would help show off the yarn with its big open loops and I slowly started making squares :o)

I was trying not to worry about lumps and bumps. Not really going all out “art yarn”, but embracing the different fibres wanting to do different things. My husband didn’t seem impressed with the inconsistency given I’d been showing off my smooth purple blanket yarn the day before! Spiral plying was really fun and I think the end result looks cool :o)

Spinning without worrying too much about consistency was very freeing, but it was a little challenging at times working from the strange mixture of fibres – some wanted to draft much more easily than others! I really enjoyed seeing each batt turn from a bundle of fibre into yarn and then into squares :o)

I hadn’t left an awful lot of yarn for the border so I joined them by sewing with some of the thread. This reminded me that I hate sewing squares together! Wow it took a long time. Not helped by managing to get 3 squares attached the wrong way and having to redo them! Ugh! But eventually I got them all joined :o)

I had to get the scales out for the border to make sure I didn’t end up with any partial rounds (it’s not easy to undo this yarn). So the border is fewer rows than the pattern, but since I changed the square construction too this is no surprise. I’m not good at following patterns ;o)

The final wrap got a good blocking which really helped even out the squares and open up the border.  I wore it to Yarndale and it received a number of lovely comments :o)

It has been years since I last spun any yarn, literally! My Mother actually found my membership card for the New Forest Association of Guilds we joined for Saturday social spinning in 1994!

Bizarrely, I recently found the last yarn I spun over 20 years ago stashed at the back of a draw!

I’m definitely going to have to try washing this and, assuming it doesn’t fall apart, make something with it :o)

Back then I didn’t really knit or crochet or have anything to do with the yarn I created. As fun as it was, the process stopped there.

Recently my parents came to visit and my Mother turned up with her Ashford Traveller wheel for me to try out and see if I still enjoyed spinning. The answer was a resounding yes! :o)

So much so I apparently wanted to start writing a blog again to share my creations :o)

My first yarn was rather lumpy, bumpy and very bulky! But I had just enough to make a little scarf! :o)

From floof to finished item was incredibly satisfying :o) So much so that I quickly ordered more merino tops and began my experimentation blanket. A simple granny stripe blanket I can use all my crazy attempts on, in purple ;o)

My most interesting discovery so far is that when I crocheted I was undoing the ply in my yarns and in fact I need to spin “backwards”. So now I spin my singles anticlockwise and my plying is done clockwise and the newer yarn remains nicely plied as I crochet :o)

The left of the photo shows the new rows where the yarn stays plied whereas on the right you can see that the 2 plies end up just sitting next to one another. Interesting and useful to know! :o)