Nothing at All Like That Scottish Play

I've been reminded a bit of Macbeth this week as I've been working on my latest spin, though it has everything to do with the name of the fiber's colorway -- Boil and Bubble -- and nothing to do with the fiber or the project. Quite frankly, it's been the complete opposite of my experience with The Scottish play -- every minute has been delightful! The first bobbin was finished up Friday afternoon, when I got to leave work early for the holiday weekend and found myself home alone (Rainbow had the day off from school, so she went to my in-laws' to sleep over).

Try as I might, I just cannot get my camera to capture the real depth of these colors. It's almost like David was inside my head when he selected these colors for me, because I can't think of any other combination I would be more drawn to. I've also been very pleasantly surprised by the fiber. It felt rough when I first pulled it out the bag, but it feels absolutely lovely to spin. It reminds me a little of Targhee, in that it's somewhat spongy, and it's got a very matte finish to it. I am spinning my default singles, which usually result in a three-ply fingering weight, but I have no idea how the fiber will change when I wash the finished skein.

Because the fiber contains only about three colors (with areas of blending), I have been splitting the top prior to spinning each bobbin. I split the original length of top in thirds widthwise, but now I'm taking each section and splitting each in half and then splitting each half in half again, which gives me four little bundles of fiber to spin per bobbin. I figure this will help to distribute the colors a bit.

Now here's the part where I must admit that more fiber entered the house this past week -- but I have to say that I feel zero guilt about it. A couple of weeks ago, Ginny of FatCatKnits posted in her Ravelry group that business hasn't been so good lately. Thus far this year, I'd been good about deleting the shop e-mails she's sent out without buying anything, but that post was all the motivation I needed to place an order. On Wednesday, after an extremely long and stressful day at work (9.5 hours with no break!), I came home to find this waiting for me:

This is, from left, 5 oz. of Rambouillet/silk in Little Sister,  4 oz. of Panda Sparkle (superwash merino/bamboo/nylon sparkle) in Algae Bloom, and 4 oz. of superwash Targhee in a new colorway called Eloise. I really should put these braids in with the rest of the fiber stash, but it's made me so happy to look at them and occasionally pet or squish them that they're still sitting in my bedroom.

In an effort to make more room in my stash for fiber and handspun, this week I finally took the plunge and opened up an Etsy shop! There are about 15 listings up now, but I'll be adding more soon once I did out the Big Box 'o Handspun from the basement. You can find me on Etsy at Fluvial Fibers.