Wash day!
Now I have 6 finished hanks of yarn for a total of 838 yards (give or take)! They are all drying now, so pretty pictures will have to wait until tomorrow. After I washed all those hanks, I cracked into the undyed BFL I mentioned yesterday. Except it turns out it’s not BFL, I’m pretty sure it’s Merino. The staple is nice and long like BFL, but it’s about a thousand times softer and squishier. Also it’s harder to spin, argh. Ah well, tomorrow is another day!
So, I ended up doing a chain ply with those pretty polwarth singles:
Argh, I kind of suck at chain plying right now. I mean. To be fair, this is only the 2nd time I’ve ever done it and it took me quite a while to find a rhythm that worked for me, the single, and my wheel. (Which reminds me, spinning slowly is very hard. I guess I should practice that too.) That being said, I do like how the yarn came out (although I do wish I’d been able to end up with a more balanced ply). I love the long color repeats, probably as much as I love the marled effect when you do a plain 2-ply.
So, with the first week of the tour happily behind us, I’ve spun through almost all of my fiber stash. All I’ve got left is the Romney fleece and some fluffy undyed BFL I got out of the bins at Webs the last time I went, which means I am kind of in the market for some pretty fiber. I’m thinking about joining one of the Woolgatherings clubs, but I’m certainly open to other sources. Who is your favorite indy dyer? Link spam me people!
Today I actually spun through the rest of that gorgeous fiber form Woolgatherings, but now I’m confused about what to do with it. I was really hoping to ply them together so I would end up with these long color repeats. But as I was spinning today, I realized I made a HUGE error when I divided the braid. Even though the two pieces were kind of close in weight, one half was considerably wider than the other. Which ultimately means that the second single I made, which is only a quarter of an ounce larger than the first one, has much longer color repeats than the first one I spun.
Still, they came out beautifully enough. Maybe I’ll leave it unplied.
Wow, Day 5 already! I had a good day today, finally cracking into that gorgeous braid from Woolgaltherings. OMG I LOVE THESE COLORS!!
I have quite a bit more on the bobbin now, but it’s too late to get a good photo. I spun a lot while we are at the park waiting for the town fireworks, which were awesome, btw. How was your 4th of July?
I got a little bit done today. First I took the Qiviut/Silk/Merino blend off the niddy noddy and made it into a hank:
And then I plied up all that alpaca from yesterday:
Whew, there was a lot of it! It took almost 2 whole episodes of Hell’s Kitchen to finish. The first two bobbins are the thin and thick plied together, and the third bobbin is just the rest of the thinner single plied to itself. There was a lot of energy in it so I am going to let it rest for a day or so before putting it up on the niddy noddy and skeining it. I’m really happy w/ how came out and am already planning what to knit with it. (I’m thinking a hat and mitts set for my Totally Awesome Sister. Shhh, don’t tell.)
I was going to move onto this:
but then I realized that my kids might like to get fed at some point today. Heh. I did go ahead and split the braid into two semi/mostly/kind of-equal pieces and will probably start it later tonight. WOOOOO LE TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRR!!!!
I was stuck at the car repair place for most of today boy did I wish I’d brought my wheel with me. I managed to make tons of progress anyway, finally finishing spinning up all the fiber I picked up from Island Alpacas when we visited Martha’s Vineyard a couple of years ago.
There sure was a lot of it. Not sure how I ended up with one thick single and one thin one, but the fiber wanted to be what it wanted to be.
Holy crap, you guys! I can’t believe it’s almost July already! Where did the first half of the year go? Well. Moving, I guess. And getting ready to move. Hrm. Well, you know what they say about time flying and having fun and all that. Anyway! Today is the start of the Tour de France, which happens to coincide with the start of the Tour de Fleece! Isn’t that a weird coincidence?
I played along with the TdF back in 2010 and spun up some lovely yarns, plus I had a lot of fun. Not sure why I didn’t do it last year, unless it had something to do w/ my still kind of wonky energy levels. Well, anyway, this year I decided to give it a go again. This time I’m playing with Team Sherlocked (an homage to my new favorite show).
My goals this year:
1. Spin every day
2. Finish the yarn I was working on before we moved. (In this case all it needs is a wash, but I’ve been putting it off because I am lazy.)
3. Finish the alpaca I’ve been working on. This might be a challenge because I kind of got bored with it. I’ve got a little more than half a bobbin of it and still a huge amount left to go.
4. Try to get finished with (or at least spin some of) the Romney fleece. This will definitely be a challenge because a) there is a crapton of it and b) I don’t really care for it that much (sad, I know).
In spite of having a clear idea of what I’d like to get done over the course of the TdF, I went ahead and started doing something else entirely.
Aren’t the colors pretty? These are the silk caps I got from A Touch of Twist at the CT Sheep & Wool festival a couple of years ago. I’d originally planned to just straight up knit them without spinning the fiber, because Yarn Harlot. But now I’ve moved to Florida and I can’t see that I have a real need for cushy little hand ovens. But I could definitely use a lacy little shawlette to keep the AC chill off my shoulders and so that is the plan.
Also I have this little 4 oz Polwarth braid from Woolgatherings which I really can’t wait to sink my teeth into. Isn’t it pretty?
I am really going to have to remember to buy more than 4 oz the next time I visit her shop. I can tell that I am going to want to spin this stuff forever.
Seriously, y’all, my friend Weaver is evil. She has been on a bit of a spinning jag lately for a while now and last week posted a link on her Facebook to this etsy shop. And even though I have quite a bit more spinning fiber than I want to move to Florida right now, I went ahead and ordered anyway. Just a little, only 4 oz. But what a gorgeous 4 oz. it is:
4 pretty ounces of Polwarth top. I’ve never spun Polwarth, so it’ll be a fun learning experience too!
Knitting Interrupted 
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