Well Worth the Wait

When I spin, I have a tendency to spin fine yarns, so it should not come as a surprise that it sometimes takes me a while to finish a project. I was a bit shocked, however, at how long it took me to finish this skein, because it felt like I was spinning a lot (and I was using my miniSpinner, which usually makes things a bit faster). My Ravelry spinning project page tells me that I started spinning this fiber (my Fat Cat Knits club shipment from July, I believe, an 85% polwarth/15% silk blend in the colorways Betty Boop and Olive Oyl) way back on August 15 -- so more than a month and a half from start to finish. As a reminder, here's what the fiber looked like before I started spinning:

I decided I wanted to do sort of a faux gradient, so I split each braid in half lengthwise and alternated the pieces so that they would flow into each other (blue going into purple, orange going into yellow):

I wound all the fiber up into a big ball and spun from one end to the other, then chain plied. It took several plying sessions to get it all done, but I finally have a finished skein. After washing, it looks to be a light fingering weight and roughly 689 yards. It's gorgeous, and I love it, but I have absolutely no idea what to do with it.

The colors are just amazing:

As soon as I finished plying and winding off and got the skein in the wash, I knew I wanted to start something new (but much thicker), so I pulled out another braid of FCK fiber, this time superwash merino in a colorway called Wayfarer.

I split the top into thirds and am spinning up a three-ply worsted weight (or perhaps heavier). I am thinking that the yarn from this fiber would be good for a hat or mittens when it's done. The first bobbin of singles was finished up in short order yesterday and the second one is about halfway done.

Judging from how quickly this is spinning up, I think I'll have a finished skein by next Sunday!