An Equinox in Wool

Yesterday afternoon I met up with Eileen, Kat, and Jane online to chat about spinning. This is the second time we've done this, and I think we'll continue to do it for the foreseeable future. While we were chatting, I managed to chain-ply an entire skein of handspun! This is the Loop Bullseye Bump that I've been spinning for the past week or so. The colorway is Vernal Equinox, and it's a mix of pretty pastel colors interspersed with black. Here it is fresh off the wheel last night, right before I put it in to soak:

I know the lighting is terrible, but I think you can get the picture -- it was a little limp and scraggly, clearly in need a good long spa treatment. This morning, it looked much better:

The yarn was fingering-ish weight fresh off the wheel, but it plumped up nicely to more of a sport/DK after washing and drying. There's also the tiniest bit of sparkle in it, just enough to catch the light every now and then.

This isn't very consistent yarn, which I expected. I typically spin from combed top, in which all the fibers are nicely aligned and lend themselves to a smooth yarn. This fiber, however, comes in roving form, so even though I used my typical short forward draw to spin it, the prep makes for a slightly more textured yarn. I'm not really bothered by the inconsistencies, and I think it actually works with the fact that the yarn is mostly merino -- it's got a soft fuzziness to it.

Speaking of merino, I have already pulled out the next bit of fiber to spin. I am tackling that big backlog of Southern Cross Fibre club shipments, starting with the oldest one, which happens to be organic merino.

I spent some time contemplating how to spin this. First, there was the number of plies to consider. I was tempted to do another end-to-end chain-ply, but it's been a while since I did something a bit more fun, so I've come up with a different plan. I pulled the fiber apart so the green/blue areas are mostly separated from the brownish gray areas and weighed what I had to more or less divide it into thirds:

I'm going to spin a traditional three-ply, and I'm hoping that if I've thought this out correctly, I'll end up with something like the Spincycle yarns. I've had to borrow a bit of the blue/green fiber to add the the brown/gray in order to have the bundles weigh closer to the same amount, but I think if I distribute them evenly, it won't be too obvious. I'm really excited to see if it works out as I'm hoping -- it's a good thing I got an audiobook from the library that should keep me entertained for a while!