Lazy Dragon begins

Two spinning projects on the go evidently wasn't enough for me because I had to start a third. (There's a fourth hibernating.)  I'm spinning up this peachy coloured BFL from On The Round on Etsy (in my stash for a little while) to make a new design that won't leave my head.  It's a Lazy Dragon shawl intended to make maximum use of a braid of fibre. However, being a lazy dragon, it must take minimal effort (for a spinning knitter).

Showing off the gradient

with a dragom

Here is how I've begun.
Step 1) photograph roving braid with a dragon. (non-essential step; potentially too much extra work for a lazy dragon)
Step 2) unbraid the roving until you have a crazy long length that requires you to stand on a chair as it drapes over your neck.
Step 3) find the mid point of the roving and pull apart into 2 still-long lengths
Last step could be avoided with two braids for a larger project.

One half with the darker end and pinky middle

Second half with the yellowish end and pinky middle

Step 4) Split one of the halves length-wise and try to make those halves equal.
I chose to split the darker half for the bottom of my shawl (where the design begins).

roughly equal length-wise halves

Step 5) grab the end and pull off a small chunk. Fluff it width-wise and prepare to spin it from the fold to maximize fluffiness of the yarn.

Fluffy tuft

Fluffy tuft folded in half and waiting to be spun.
I later made smaller tufts by pinching from the tip. Those were easier to work with.

Step 6) Start spinning from the fold. I'm going for a singles sport weight, so I started with a sport yarn leader. This project will be knit from the singles, so I'm making sure the yarn will hold up. Now is definitely not the time to have light twist, but neither to I want to over twist it and lose the fluffiness. That's why I chose BFL - it doesn't need a gross amount of twist to hold together.

Spinning on a medium sized Turkish spindle from Thomas Creations/ThreadsThruTime

Started spinning on July 1. Finished the first oz of singles the next day. My fastest yet.

Step 7) (again, optional) photograph finished 'turtle' of yarn

Pretty ounce of yarn on the spindle

underside of the yarn to see colours

some Thomas Creations / TTT spindle pron

Having completed the first section of yarn, it's time to start knitting. After swatching on different yarn, I went back to a familiar stitch that does wonderful things to handspun singles and provides glorious texture and depth to a knit project.

Step 8) Start knitting from the Turkish ball of yarn.  This is an essential step.  There's no rewinding for a Lazy Dragon.  No skeining or setting the twist. You must knit straight from the spun ball. If you spin with a different tool, I suppose you may have to rewind it. Or go get a turkish spindle.

underside of knitting to keep some things secret!