In my last fiber post I left off with the yarn plied and wound into a skein. The next step was to wash it, spin it in my spin-dryer, and hang it with a weight to “set the twist” and leave the yarn relaxed and ready to knit.
My creamery has been repurposed for fleece storage and processing. The shelving is great for storing fleeces, my triple-sink serves all my washing needs, I got a little spin-dryer to spin the washed wool, and my first cheese vat, a repurposed restaurant steam-kettle, is getting ready for its third career as a dye-vat, after Melinda and I take Windrush Farm’s class in dyeing.
In the creamery, I washed my three skeins of Romney yarn, spun them dry one at a time, and hung them off an old hose-rack, weighted down by old milk-hose clamps. Once they were dry, they were ready to wind into balls and knit.
Based on yardage and weight, it was clear to me that my yarn falls into the “extra bulky” category. Not a whole lot of patterns for yarn that bulky, but I found a cute pattern for a beanie-hat using “wheat stitch,” which was a new stitch for me. It came out great! And I have enough yarn to knit two more hats!
