The Second Half

I have spun almost every day since we got back from vacation; I almost felt like I had to make up for lost time with my wheels. First on the list was the other half of the fiber from my November Fat Cat Knits Mixed Blessings shipment (you may remember that the first half was my last completed skein of 2014). This braid was called Rubato, and it was a mix of blues, yellows, and greens. I've only just skeined it up and it's soaking right now, but here's how it looked all plied on the bobbin:

My bobbins were very evenly done (there was just a bit of leftover singles on one and maybe a foot on another when the first bobbin ran out) and I had a few more wraps on my niddy noddy than I did for the sister skein, so I should have a bit more than 200 yards once it's washed and dried.

I actually finished the third bobbin of singles for this skein on Friday night way before I was ready to stop spinning, so I started spinning up December's shipment on the miniSpinner. If you recall, that shipment was two colors of natural swirl (black and ecru) Shetland:

I grabbed the braid that's more brown/orange/yellow (I think it's Cosmos) and got a good way through it before I stopped spinning for the night.

I decided to take the easy way out of this shipment and spin up each braid separately, then ply them together. I think because of the natural color of the fiber, the colors are going to be much more muted when spun, so I suspect the finished yarn will look fairly brown overall.

Although this particular fiber is very well prepped, I've now determined that I don't really love spinning Shetland. It just doesn't draft as smoothly for me as merino or polwarth, and it doesn't have the same toothiness as something like Jacob. I know there are people who just love Shetland, but I could take it or leave it. Of course, I never mind spinning Ginny's fibers, so I won't complain about this project. Still, it's one spin that I'm more or less hurrying through rather than taking the time to really enjoy the fiber.