Spinning for an Urchin

I really enjoyed knitting the Urchin pattern and I've been wearing the hat when ever I go out, so I've decided to knit another one. This time, though, I want to use yarn I've spun. The pattern calls for a super bulky yarn, maybe thick and thin, which is a good deal thicker than I have made before. So tonight I spun up some small sample skeins to decide how to proceed.

I knew I wanted to use the Louet Corriedale roving in the warm wine colourway. I also wanted to add some Fiddlesticks laceweight in a similar colour (50 % merino, 50% tussah silk).

My first sample (far left) is a thick and thin single plied with a strand of Fiddlesticks. Because I'm not used to thick and thin I think I over felted this in the finishing step fearing that it would come apart otherwise.

Moving right, my second sample is a cabled yarn. I spun a single of Corriedale and then plied it with a strand of laceweight, adding extra twist while plying. I then plied this 2 ply to itself to get a 4 ply cabled yarn. I think I added a bit too much twist but otherwise I like how this sample turned out.

My last sample is another single of Corriedale plied to a single of laceweight only this time I held the laceweight taut and let the Corriedale wrap around it as I plied. I really liked the effect but I'm not sure I could make it as thick as I need.

I finally decided that I would do a cabled yarn to get the desired thickness. I wanted more shine, though, so instead of plying a single strand of laceweight to a strand of Corriedale I decided to use two strands of lace weight. This should also help build up the thickness a bit. I've spun and plied one bobbin's worth of 3 ply. Tomorrow I will spin another such 3 ply and then ply everything together. Hopefully I'll end up with something bulky.