Plying Time

At the beginning of the week (or last week, depending on whether you think of Sunday as the first or last day of the week), I started spinning up a fiber sampler that has been in my stash for far too long. I never entered it into my fiber stash or even took a photo of the full box, so I have no idea when it was that I bought it. I actually lost it in my stash for a while, which I know sounds ridiculous, but it was in a white cardboard box that was identical to the boxes that some fiber club shipments had come in, and I'd saved those boxes for mailing, so I just assumed the box with this fiber sampler was one of those empties. But when Rainbow and I did our stash clean-out in December, I found it again and set it aside to spin.

This sampler is from HipStrings, one of my favorite fiber companies that also happens to be local to me. They are known for their interesting fiber blends, and I have never spun any of their fiber that wasn't perfectly prepped and thoughtfully blended. The sampler contains 1 oz. each of six different fiber blends all designed to represent something about Pittsburgh and its history. In addition to the fiber, the box contained a small photo album with images and cards explaining each fiber blend (or, more accurately, the inspiration behind each blend) and tags for each blend. I am spinning each blend on its own and chain-plying the singles. I thought I would do most of the spinning first, but now that I've filled all the slots on my lazy kate, it's time to ply:

Left to right here are Coal, Cathedral of Learning, Won't You Be My Neighbor, and Environmental. Once these are plied and skeined, I'll get to the last two blends (and I admit they're my favorites of the six, so I saved them for last). This time next week, I should have all six spun, plied, skeined, and washed, and I'll be able to share more about the blends and their names!