Sensing a Theme?

I have two spinning things to show you today, and until I sat down to start this post, I didn't realize that they kind of go together.

First is the most recent yarn off my wheel, which I finally finished nearly a year after buying the fiber. Last year at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, I picked up a 4 oz. bundle of Cormo top. I started spinning a tiny amount of it on the Jenkins Turkish spindle I bought there as well but never got beyond what you see in this photo:

A couple of weeks ago, as was starting to mentally plan for a return trip to the festival, I realized I'd never finished spinning this and decided it was high time that I did so. So, in a fit of "git 'er done," I spun up a two ply as fast as I could -- and that means I was a little lackadaisical about my consistency.

You can see there are some thin sports and some thick spots, but overall it's about sportweight and around 325 yards. What it lacks in consistency it makes up for in softness -- it's divine! I haven't even begun searching for a pattern yet, but this is definitely destined to become a cowl or shawlette -- something to wrap around my neck (that is, if Rainbow doesn't steal it because it's her favorite color!).

Meanwhile, I finally got my Lendrum out again this weekend; I'd moved it up to the stash room when we were having our bedroom painted back in, oh, December, and it'd been neglected there ever since. But yesterday I had a special spinning class at my LYS and my first love had to come with me. I was learning how to spin these:

Frabjous Fibers Silk Hankies

The class was a lot of fun. As it turns out, they aren't that difficult to spin -- the hard part is prepping the silk (you have to predraft this fiber) and getting it not to stick to you and everything else. Actually, the spinning is the easiest part because all you have to do is add twist. After about an hour and a half of spinning time, I had a good layer built up on my bobbin:

Although it's almost impossible to get a perfectly consistent yarn with this type of prep, my singles are, for the most part, the diameter of thread. It also looks like I've barely made a dent in my supply, too. I'm planning to do a two-ply, but I've got to do some serious exfoliation and moisturization before I sit down for another spinning session on these!