A Very Fine Thread

The weekend now wrapping up is just the weekend I needed. Friday, when I took off from work to spend it with Rainbow, couldn't have been a more perfect day. The sun was out, the humidity was low, and the temperature wasn't too warm. We left her school before 10 a.m., had lunch with my sister-in-law, got our summer haircuts, and did a little shopping. We both had some down time before we joined my father for dinner (both the Mister and my mother were out of town). Then we had a leisurely evening at home and a good night's sleep. I woke up Saturday morning went out for a run while the Mister slept in (he got home very late Friday night), then got to have a leisurely breakfast. I did the usual chores around the house but still had time to do some spinning and knitting. Today we likewise woke up on our own schedule and then did the necessary errands. We then walked to our favorite local Middle Eastern restaurant for lunch and treated ourselves to some ice cream as part of a long walk around the neighborhood. All of this is to say that I've caught up on my sleep, gotten my exercise, and spent some quality time with my family, so I have zero regrets about the several hours I have spent at my wheel this weekend -- and I have a finished bobbin of singles to show for it.

These singles were spun from the Gwen Erin Targhee/bamboo/silk from my stash. The fiber that the bobbin is sitting on is what the Polwarth/silk I received in the swap, and that will be next on the wheel.

I was thinking that these singles seemed to be taking a really long time to finish, and then I realized that they were superfine. Here's what I mean:

Single on the left; single plied back on itself on the right (the coin is a U.S. penny)

Usually silk content in fiber helps me to spin finer singles, but it seems the bamboo exacerbated that. With any luck, I'll be able to match the Polwarth/silk singles. I've decided to do an alternating chain-plied yarn, meaning that you hold the two singles together and alternate which strand you grab to form the next loop. The result is a pseudo-four ply, and the color effects are interesting because the strand that is used to form the loop will make up 3/4 of that section of the finished yarn. I don't think it'll be too obvious in this yarn, given that both batches of fiber were very similar, but it should make for a really interesting skein. I can't wait to see how it turns out!