Today went to Michael’s to get yarn for a small weaving project a friend asked me to make and picked up some crochet cotton to core spin/thread ply with.

I had this massive 6.3 oz batt I bought for over 40% off (and free shipping!) from Lovelyarns in the spring that I wanted to spin. It was massive! It was like working with a wool blanket.

I heard that core spinning or thread plying is a good way to stretch out your fiber because you don’t have to ply the yarn with itself so it goes further. Like yesterday I plied two 3 oz single spun yarn together to make a stronger two ply yarn but that meant I only had the length of 3 oz of fiber. This way I get the length of the full 6.3 oz. Which might actually be enough yardage to make something small.

The batt was sort of unicorn colored so I got a multicolor cotton yarn to spin it with in similar colors. That Michael’s had but no black yarn.

I ended up mostly core spinning but there were some parts that were more plied. I wanted a sort of thick and thin look and since the colors were similar, the core looked good peeking through.

I ended up with three bobbins’ worth! Now I need to wind it on the niddy noddy and set it with hot water.

In other spinning news I won a travel wheel on eBay over the weekend and it doesn’t seem like it shipped out yet and I’m getting nervous. I’d like it to arrive soon so I can get it up and running while Tour de Fleece is still going on. The listing was a little funky—it said it was a double treadle when it was clearly single in the listing pictures but the seller sent me more pictures from different angles and apologized about the listing being incorrect unprompted. It sounded like she was selling it for a friend and didn’t know much about it. That was sort of a red flag but they are so expensive new, I couldn’t resist. I’ve taken my Kiwi 3 out and about to lessons and it folds up to a degree but it is a little cumbersome and needs to be strapped in the seat of my car.

The one I won is the Joy 2 I was debating getting before I got the Kiwi. I do love the Kiwi but it’s not as portable as they made it seem and while they do sell a bag, it’s very expensive and doesn’t make it any smaller! I thought maybe there would be third party bags out there since it is such a popular wheel but none that I can find. It does fit in our tiny house well because the treadles fold up and I like the height of it; it’s going to meet ups or classes that’s a pain. The Joy 2 is really portable, comes with a bag and could fit under the bed when I’m not using it. It would be nice to actually go to some of the guild meet ups or spin in public days a little easier. Or take it on trips. When I got the Kiwi I was going to take a learn to spin class while we were on vacation at a yarn store there and there just was no room for it.