As the roving dried, the colors brightened considerably. Initially, I was not sure if the colors went together. After drying, however, I thought perhaps they could all be spun together quite nicely.
Dyeing roving is apparently different than dyeing yarn. The roving tends to be more variegated, giving the resulting yarn a bit more depth of color. I also noticed some amount of felting. This did not make it difficult to draft, as the amount of felting that occurred was quite small. It did, however, make the draft look larger than it was, which resulted in some very thin threads spun.
I had planned on making a self-striping yarn, but as thin as these threads were, I decided that I would have to make a three-ply rather than a two-ply yarn. Unfortunately, my spinning wheel can only handle two bobbins on its lazy kate, so I had to improvise.
It took a little more effort to handle the extra thread, but if I had an appropriately tensioned kate, it would probably have gone easier.
Plying the various colors together definitely had the effect of toning down the yarn... possibly a bit too much. 285 yards, 6.5 ounces. I need a longer niddy-noddy to handle skeins this large.
The overall effect is not bad. I used half of my dyed roving to make this skein. With the rest of it, I will probably try Navajo plying in order to preserve the stripes. I think I will try the three-ply technique with some brighter colors next time. And maybe a single-color skein.... the grape/lemon lime mixture made a fairly nice dusky lavender color. Perhaps I could try to darken it a bit.
