Briar Rose Fibers Pumpkin BFL

Pigskin Party Notes:

Only the 4th skein is eligible for the 2025 Pigskin Party, as the singles for it were spun and they were plied after the start of this year’s season.

4th skein is 545 yd of a 2-ply, which is 1,090 yd for PSP yardage

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I’ve had this fiber since at least 2009, as — according to my spinning notes here — I spun 2 oz of it for a test knit Baby Belle that I knit back August 2009. I am 99.9% sure it’s this same fiber, though I didn’t really add extensive notes to the handspun record.

I have a 15 oz. bump and what was a 12 oz. bump, though when I pulled it out of stash — in this adorable fall basket that it’s been living in for yeeeaaarrrssss — there was half a bobbin of singles in it along with approximately 9 oz. of the 12 oz. bump. If I used 2 oz for my original spin, then there was probably 1 oz. on the bobbin.

The first thing I did was run what was on the bobbin back through the wheel to freshen up the twist, because I have no idea when I started spinning this again, could have been back when I was still living at my house (it probably was because I have no recollection of working on it here).

It was spinning up really FINE, just like I love with BFL. Not gonna lie, this spin is going to take a very long time to finish because I do want to keep it fine, and I am thinking I’d like to end up with a heavy fingering/sport weight, which is probably what a 2 ply will be. Whether or not I do this all before moving on to another project or not, who knows. But for now — especially after just finishing those Classy Squid batts — I am relishing this lovely, fine spin, and the colors…OMG…totally my vibe right now as it is already fall/Halloween in my heart. 🙂

9/3/24 – I’ve spun two bobbins from the smaller bump, 1 bobbin from the larger bump and am working on the 2nd bobbin from that larger bump now. I’m going to ply 1 bobbin from each into a 2-ply as long as I have enough of the smaller bump to do so, just because that one has a bit more of the green and the other has a bit more of a bright orange and I want to try and balance out the colors. It’s coming along great, and I’m still really enjoying it!

11/16/24 – I took a break from this since I was in PSP mode, but then I found a finished bobbin of singles in my spinning gear basket…I have NO idea when I spun those, but I decided that since that gave me 4 bobbins of singles, I’d ply what I have so far. (I was a little too jazzed to do that and didn’t even think to run them through the wheel again to energize the twist, but I think it’ll be fine. Well, it’ll have to be now, won’t it? LOL)

I was thinking I needed to clear off bobbins for my Traveler so I could spin my holiday countdown fiber, but then I decided I’m going to spin those on my Sidekick instead and do a sort of staggered gradient/striping kind of thing? But I’m going to go ahead and finish the plying of these singles that I have so far, then maybe I’ll get back to spinning the singles on my Traveler.

9/22/25 – This project has largely been languishing over the past several months, though I think I did finish plying the other two bobbins and have also spun more singles. I need to look and see if I have a second plied skein or if I’m just imagining that. Hm. I know at one point, I was spinning singles and I had a bobbin break…the one end popped off. I fixed it as I could, since it had a lot of singles on it, and I’m going to be plying it soon. Hoping there won’t be an issue with anything being caught.

I have worked on finishing up  a fourth bobbin of singles in the past few days while Bill was on his return trip to and from Nova Scotia to retrieve the sidecar camper, and I now have another skein plied, though I can’t wind it off the bobbin until I find my niddy noddy, which seems to have gone missing in my effort to get things out of the way of leaking roof water in the porch room. Sigh.

11/3/25 – The last of the fiber is now spin onto two bobbins of singles. Hoping to get them plied in the next day or two and have this project finally done after more than a year. This final skein will count for this year’s Pigskin Party, since the singles and the plying were all completed during this year’s event.

I added pictures of the first three finished skeins plus my final two bobbins. The colors aren’t accurate due to the light in here. Earlier photos were more color accurate but I wanted a photo record for getting to the point.

Finished Skeins:

Skein #1: 572 wraps; 240 gr./ 8.5 oz.; 960 yd. unsoaked; 864 yd. soaked (11/18/24)

Skein #2: 354 wraps; 148 gr./ 5.2 oz.; 590 yd. unsoaked; 531 yd. soaked
(9/23/25)

Skein #3: 306 wraps; 143 gr./ 5 oz.; 510 yd. unsoaked; 459 yd. soaked
(9/26/25)

Skein #4: 364 wraps; 172 gr./ 6.1 oz.; 606 yd. unsoaked; 545 yd. soaked
(11/4/25)