Spindling away

I've been continuing on my journey into spinning and I've managed to finish two yarn within the past few weeks.

First up is the fawn coopworth wool I bought at the Connecticut Sheep and Wool Festival, which became this pretty little yarn.

Between these two skeins I have about 95 yards.  The weight overall is probably worested, but it gets kind of bulky in some spots and dk-ish in others.  It's pretty and rustic and I'm quite pleased.  It's also the first yarn I made with my Kundert Spindle.  Having a better spindle made a huge difference for me, and is at least part of the reason why this yarn came out nicer than the black Shetland.

My current plan is to knit this up as a hat, probably Buttonhead from Knitty.  I have some faux leather buttons that I think will work well with the rustic nature of my yarn, and of course look really cute.

I also made my first foray into colorful rovings with another Sheep and Wool Festival purchase,

I like the barber pole look of many hand spun yarns, and wanted to achieve a similar look with this yarn.  I though this would look nice since the roving had such bright cheerful colors.  To do this I split the roving in half lengthwise and started spinning each half from opposite ends, with my Kundert again.  While the same color did meet at certain point I did get my barber pole at others.

From this yarn it also became apparent to me that setting the twist really can make a huge difference.  I got Maggie Casey's book Start Spinning for my birthday and followed her directions for setting the twist with this yarn.  I don't have a before picture, but I think the yarn looks so much nicer now.  Here's a closer view:

Overall, I'm happy and I really like it.  My spinning is more even in the these yarn and I was able to spin thinner.  I ended up with about 85 yards of yarn that is probably DK to Worested in thickness, but have no idea what I'll use it for.