Spinning in the Grease - Part Three (The Final Yarn)

Old Business: I have edited my post on the 3-D Printed spindles my husband made for me.  I will do a follow up post on how they spin later.

the four final skeins 

Spinning in the Grease - Part Three (The Final Yarn)

The unwashed plyed yarn.

New Business: Previous Two Posts on Spinning in the Grease are HERE and HERE

I have finally managed to get to the plying of the Cormo yarn spun in the grease.  I have two skeins of about 250 yards of fingering weight yarn.  I have some more of the wool to spin but not enough for another skein of the same size (including a batt made from the cast offs and tangled bits).  So I am going to spin a single a ply it with a far more wild single I have previously spun.  This should give me a third and fourth skein in a coordinating yarn for knitting in the future.  I personally love this kind of yarn.

Top: single ply Cormo yarn (spun in the grease) plyed with the lower yarn
Bottom: single ply yarn of silk, wool, sparkle, and sari silk (previously mentioned as a yarn titled "Mood Swing")

Washing of the finished yarn was easy. The yarn was put into a 2 yard skein on my niddy knoddy and secured.  I heated up water on the stove in the pot I have dedicated to this task (for all yarn washing).  I added some Unicorn Wash Power Scour and threw the yarn in when it was smoking hot but not even simmering.  The yarn required two washing to get it clean and I did not remove all of the grease in the process.  I may wash it one more time in a more mild soap.  It was then hung to dry without any weight on the skeins (I only use a weight on drying skeins for single ply yarns).

I will note (and I think this is a big thing when spinning in the grease) that I pulled the yarns out of the washing pot while the water was still hot.  I did this out of impatience.  Normally I would have left them to cool with the water and dealt with them in the morning but as it turns out taking them out while the water was hot was important.  I left the water in the pot over night minus the yarn.  In the morning I noticed a cold coating of grease and dirt floating on the top of the water.  If the yarn had been still in the water I would have had to skim the grease off the surface of the water before removing the yarn or risk it redepositing on the yarn.

2 ply Cormo yarn spun in the grease, being washed.  You can see all the grease and goo that came out of the yarn in the water.

I will also note that when washing the mixed fiber yarns, that there was sari silk in the blend.  This is notorious for having extra dye in the fibers that will come out in the washing and then dye the rest of the skein.  I combat this two ways for any yarn that has sari silk in it.  First I throw in a hand full of dye catchers into the pot.  These look like dryer sheets and absorb the excess dye released into the water.  You can find them in the laundry isle of the decent grocery store.  And the second thing is not to let the yarn stay in the pot of hot water for long.  Take it out and rinse it right away with as hot a water as you can stand.  This should get most of the dye out but I would expect some further bleeding of dye over the years.  Don't block anything with sari silk in it on your good bed spread.  

Blended Yarn of 50% Cormo wool spun in the grease and 50% wool, alpaca, silk, sari silk, sparkle, and baby camel.  Shown before washing.

In the end the skeins looked and felt no different than if I had washed the wool first and processed it in a more traditional manner.

Skein one: 100% Cormo wool 250 yards of light fingering weight wool
Skein two: 100% Cormo wool 280 yards of light fingering weight wool

Skein three: 50% Cormo wool and 50% wool, alpaca, silk, sari silk, sparkle, and baby camel blend; 230 yards of light fingering weight wool

Skein four: 50% Cormo wool and 50% wool, alpaca, silk, sari silk, sparkle, and baby camel blend; 120 yards of light fingering weight wool

Grand total yardage: 880