Unexpected Exercise

I spent my spinning time this weekend working on plying my Southern Cross Fibre organic merino singles, and it proved to be a bit of spinning gymnastics. I was planning to chain ply this bobbin of singles, and I decided to give it a go on my Lendrum with the WooLee Winder on. I used to chain ply all the time on my Lendrum, but since I got my miniSpinner, it's been faster and easier to ply on it because there's no need to stop to move the yarn guide. Because of that, I've gotten used to sitting a particular way, somewhat sideways to the wheel. However, when plying on the Lendrum, I actually have to have my feet on the treadles, so chain plying meant a lot of twisting -- and I certainly felt it in my back. Fortunately, I was able to squeeze in several plying sessions over the course the weekend, and I finished it all up this afternoon. Here's how it looked on the bobbin:

And here it is right off the niddy-noddy, before its bath (though the color is a little off):

The skein is now hanging to dry in the bathroom, and I'm hoping it'll be dry by the morning. I abused it just a bit in the finishing process in the hopes it would bloom a bit and not look so wiry, but the yardage looks good -- somewhere in the neighborhood of 450-500 yards.

I couldn't stand the sight of two wheels sitting empty, so I immediately started my most recent FatCatKnits shipment (this one was in BFL). I started with Molly:

What you can't see in this shot is that the fiber started with a beautiful golden orange and then transitioned through a pale yellow before it turned blue. I'm planning to spin the other colorway, Jesse, on another bobbin and then ply the two together; someone in the club has already done this, and I loved the look of the finished yarn so much that I decided to shamelessly copy the idea.

While I sadly do not have photographic evidence of it, we had a big moment here this weekend: Rainbow has started to learn to spin! I got out a basic spindle and some undyed Corriedale top and gave her some basics. She clearly needs a lot of practice, but the desire is certainly there. She woke me up bright and early this morning asking if we could spin some more!