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"Flutterby" is spun from an unknown breed of wool. Unfortunately, my knowledge of comparative sheep is a little lacking. Whatever it is, it had a good, springy crimp and was in something resembling roving format. Resembling? erm.... Well, ok, the roving had some breaks, some thin spots, and some areas that were just plain uncooperative. This is actually the second half of the sack that went into "Woad" -- I tried it in that yarn first and gave up out of sheer frustration. I put it down, fully intending to just felt it some day. But after a couple months spent learning to use my wheel a little better, and improving the draw technique, it actually spun up quite nicely. I think that's one of the biggest differences between the standard beginner inchworm draw (two hands close together, teasing out fibers as you go) and the long draw (hands farther apart, fiber hand draws wool back while twist creeps in, other hand either controls the rate of twist of grabs the wine glass, depending on how things are going). Long draw uses the whole process of twisting (the root of all spinning) to "grab" fibers from the fiber supply, and you control how much of the fiber is grabbed by how quickly you pull the fiber supply back from the twist. Since the twist is always grabbing at the fiber, you get much more consistent control and you can deal better with fibers that maybe aren't as prepared as you'd prefer. With inch worm, if you hit a thin spot in the prepared fibers, you have a broken yarn. (Or I'm a total low grade loser.... But this is how it's working out for me.) I got the roving from a group at the Renegade craft fair in chicago, and it was a good price, so I really can't complain. Once my spinning skills caught up with my desire to spin everything I can get my hands on (Dominic's long haired cat is in danger!), it worked out just fine.
The yarn was spun originally onto two skeins, roughly half the roving on each. I always try to get the yardages to work out evenly for plying, and I always fail and end up with a little leftover skein of single. The two bobbins were then plied together, and a novelty yarn (a tag that's only bound along one side, so the other side is free fluff) was put in while I was plying.
The name "Flutterby" is a corruption of "butterfly" (hey, it was cute when I was 5). The little tags sticking out of the yarn look like a million billion butterflies in blues and purples resting on some sort of mutant blue shrub.
I like it. It's totally pettable. This is my current favorite "lap yarn". (Ok, I'm still living with my parents, and they really prefer that my cats stay in my room. I really prefer to have a cat in my lap to pet while I'm chilling out in front of the tube. The solution? Lap yarn! Big skeins are soft and fluffy, they never stick their claws into your thigh, and my mother isn't allergic to them. I live in a strange little world.....)
Stats: 7-9 WPI, 2 ply w/ novelty yarn, 109 yds
