Handspun Malabrigo Nube Roving

One fun aspect of writing this blog is revisiting the origins of older projects. It’s a joy to rediscover details that I had all but forgotten over the years.

For Mother’s Day in 2014, one of the gifts from my husband was four ounces (about 113 grams) of Malabrigo Nube 100% merino wool roving in the colorway Cereza 33. The cherry reds in Cereza range from a light pinkish-gray to a deep red-black.

With my most recent spinning projects, my default thickness has been yielding a two-ply fingering weight yarn. I’ve noticed those same projects are often overspun, giving them a tight rope-like feel. I think this is due, in part, to fear that such thin yarn will break if I don’t add plenty of twist.

When I started finally spinning my Malabrigo Nube a few weeks ago, I challenged myself to spin thicker singles with less twist. There is definitely some variation in the size of each strand, but the final two-ply yarn is a lofty and relatively consistent bulky weight.

You may notice different color variations between the skeins. The roving was thick; sometimes I pulled long strips of fiber from the length and other times I pulled clumps across the end. The strips kept the original color variations intact, while the clumps blended the shades for a more even midtone yarn.

The fiber for the skein in front was pulled from the length of the roving. The fiber for the skein just behind it was pulled in clumps.

As I was preparing to write this post, I pulled up various pages on my Ravelry profile to collect details about the fiber. Lo and behold, I really began spinning it in 2016 during Tour de Fleece! Sure enough, I found one more skein of yarn in a cabinet. Surprisingly, it’s the same weight as the yarn I just finished spinning.

If I hadn’t been writing this blog post, would I have noticed the old skein of yarn before making something from the new skeins? Probably not.

Cheers to the joy of rediscovery!