Spin the ... Bag?

I think I mentioned in my last post that my fiber stash was in need of some reorganization, so today I decided to tackle one portion of it: my Southern Cross Fibre stash. I don't remember exactly when I joined the club, but it was back when there was still a waiting list, and I was on that list for several years before I got a spot. At the time I first joined, David was dyeing two colorways a month, and you could sign up to receive one or both. If you paid for just one, David would pick which one you'd get based on your color preferences, but there would usually be extras of both colorways so that if you wanted both (and were quick enough to get to his store when he posted them), you could buy the other one. He'd also offer semisolid coordinates to go with the multicolored colorways and offer limited quantities of those. So over the years, I've amassed quite a fiber stash from him and haven't been able to keep up with the spinning. I did get a good portion spun last year, but I wanted to pull out everything today to get a good sense of just how much I have. So in the interest of full disclosure, here is the entirety of my SCF fiber stash:

I've arranged it more or less in chronological order, from left to right, top to bottom. The oldest bag of fiber is on the top left; it's from August 2015. The most recent is the bottom right, from October 2020 (I've actually spun the most recent fiber I've received, which was the November 2020 shipment). There are two bags in here (far right on the top row and on the third row from the top) that are undated that I received as prizes, and you'll also notice a double in the second row -- one of those was a prize as well but was a duplicate of a club colorway, so I was able to date it. Each of these bags contains a minimum of 110 g/3.9 oz. of fiber, so in all, I've got 2,530 g or 89 oz. of fiber here to spin!

There's a spinning group on Ravelry that does an annual event called Spin the Bin. I've never actually participated in it, but from what I gather, you get some sort of bin and put in it everything you want to spin over the course of the year as a personal challenge. My bins are all full, so I have instead a zippered comforter bag that I've now put all this fiber into, and while I can't promise I will spin only SCF fiber this year, I want to make a decent dent in it. There are some bags I can combine (the two that are the same, obviously, but also some that are the same fiber base and similar colors), but there's also nothing wrong with spinning these bags individually. I really want to embrace the mentality that none of these is precious and should be saved, because, really, saving fiber for someday doesn't actually accomplish anything.

Before I can dig into this pile, though, I have a new project on the wheel that I started late last week. Back in October, during "virtual" Rhinebeck, I won a bullseye bump of fiber from Loop Fiber Studio. I never put it away in the stash room, so I figured I might as well start spinning it because it was already next to my wheel. This one is called Vernal Equinox and is a mix of merino and nylon with a touch of sparkle. It alternates sections of color with sections of black, and as I'm planning to chain-ply, I'll get stripes.

This method of fiber preparation is really interesting. The fiber is carded, I believe, and then arranged in a cylindrical form that you pull from kind of like a center-pull ball of yarn. They're beautiful to look at and fun to spin. I think I'm maybe halfway through this one.

This spin has been keeping me company while I've been reading, and I expect by this time next week, it'll be a finished skein!

We are hunkering down here for another snowstorm that's supposed to come through tomorrow into Tuesday; the current estimate is 6-10 inches (though yesterday they were saying 8-12). I'm glad that Rainbow and I are both off tomorrow and none of us has to go anywhere!