I had a very crafty Sunday, spinning, knitting and warping up the loom. The Yarnivorous socks and Zhivago top are both nearly done. The bobbins on the spinning wheel are fattening up with singles. The loom is ready for more weaving.

Out of curiosity, I decided to see if I could make a thin yarn on the drop spindle, using some of the roving I bought at Winterwood. It turned out I could – and it was much, much easier than I expected. Clearly, spinning clean silky roving is easier than greasy fleece, and I’m wondering if we started with the latter in class so we’d be delighted when we tried the former.

I split the roving into four strips, then took one strip and tugged it a little all along the length to loosen it a bit. Then I wrapped it around my wrist and began spinning. Drawing out the fibre as thin as I dared, I got something that varies between a 2ply and 4ply.

While the roving is a gradual shift from green to blue to green, it’s not an equal transition over the whole length. More than half is green. I’m thinking I might spin the last two of the strips ‘backwards’ – starting from the opposite end to the first two – so I get a maypole effect that might spread the colours out a bit more.