spinning winterberry farm fibers

A few weeks ago, I went to the Wayland Farmers' Market for their fiber day. Before I tell you about the fiber I got there, I just want to say, that we had a great time looking at locally grown fibers, yarns, and locally made finished products. It reminded me of the farmers' markets I used to go to growing up in France.

There were a lot of choices, but my heart settled on fibers offered by Winterberry Farm.Winterberry Farm is a small farm in Colrain, MA. Jill and Jim raise sheep and  angora rabbits. Jill hand dyes beautiful carded fibers as well as locks and sells raw fleeces.

I fell in love with her beautiful carded rovings. The roving I picked was a blend of cormo and polwarth in a heathery blue colorway with little flecks of softly contrasted colors.

It took me a little bit of time to figure out how I wanted to spin the fiber. Being more of a worsted spinner, I first had to accept that the finished yarn would be textured. After sampling, my Roadbug wheel and I  settled on a short backward draw, with no smoothing of fibers, with intention of keeping the yarn as a lightly fulled singles. The short backward raw allowed to have a little more control over the diameter of the yarn.

After I was done spinning the singles, I really liked the yarn but felt it still had too much twist for a singles. I ran the yarn again through the wheel but in the opposite direction to take some of the twist away. Pleased with the result, I finished the yarn lightly fulling it.

Here is the result, about 450 yards of super soft dk singles with character!

I have started knitting the yarn. I am working on a simple, natural, button down vest for the tiniest man in my life.