Baa to Blanket, Part 1

It all started with my friend and a lamb named Poca Luna. Last year, Wendi decided to have Poca Luna's fleece spun into yarn, and guess who ended up with a whole bunch?!

Each of these cones has about 800 yards of three-ply wool. I decided that with this much wool it would be great to knit a big old Hemlock Ring blanket for Wendi. This was some time last year. Fast forward and now that it's about a hundred degrees and humid out I'm feeling the need to knit a blanket!

Do you see how the yarn laying on top of the cone is much fluffier? The yarn is wound super tightly on the cone, and so I knit a few swatches to see what happens to the yarn after it's washed, and it definitely plumps up! Partly because of this, and partly because it would be easier to work with for such a big project, I decided to soak the yarn before I used it.

I thought (for months!) about how to hank the yarn for soaking, and then just decided I needed to go for it. You can see my final strategy below. The paper towel holder in the kitchen didn't work, but the paper towel holder in the laundry room fit the cone perfectly. I set up my swift on top of the washing machine and figured out a great way to wind the yarn off the cone onto the swift! In the end it's much better with two people - one to pull the yarn off the cone and the other to spin the swift and make sure the yarn gets on the swift correctly.

Et voila! A HUGE hank of yarn! I put a few pieces of yarn every so often to keep it from tangling, and put it in a container in the tub to soak for a few hours.

I wrapped the yarn in a few towels to absorb as much extra water as possible, and now the hank is drying. Tomorrow or the next day I will re-wind the hank into what I'm guessing is going to be the biggest ball ever! and start knitting.