Embracing the Texture

Before I get into the spinning for today, I want to thank all of you who left comments or sent me emails about my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. I really appreciate all your thoughts. The Mister has talked to his brother a few times, but they've decided to spend some time with just their little family for a bit, so we've told them to let us know if they need anything and are around when and if they want company.

We are now entering the last week of the Tour de Fleece, and I'm determined to finish at least one more spin before it ends. In a typically go big or go home move, I've decided that the final project won't be an achievable 4 oz. spin but rather to spin up all my HipStrings custom batts -- all 12 oz. of fiber. I dithered a bit about how to spin them and whether I wanted to fade them together somehow, but I realized that if I was going to use the yarn for a garment of some sort (because with 12 oz. I very well might end up with enough yarn), then I didn't want to end up with yarn that I'd have to fiddle with if there were sleeves to deal with. I landed on the simplest option, short of spinning each batt into its own skein: I am spinning all of each batt onto its own bobbin and then will ply the three singles together. And I have already completed the first:

I know many people will spin batts woolen (they are a woolen prep, after all), but when I do long draw, I have to watch what I'm doing and can't read at the same time. And I think you all know how much I enjoy being able to multi-task while I spin or knit! So I am spinning these batts semi-woolen, which means that I'm taking a woolen prep (carded batts) and spinning them with a worsted technique, short forward draw. It means that I press a lot of air out of the fiber as I spin, so the singles are denser, but I also find that worsted spinning helps to trap some of the textured add-ins to these batts -- things like colored silk, sari silk, etc. I will admit that I've been pulling out some of these bits when I get a good clump of them that won't draft evenly, but for the most part these singles are much more textured than my typical singles spun from combed top. And all those bits and bobs create real depth of color in addition to texture. I'm nearly halfway through the second batt (the darker blue), and I love the bits of yellow, orange, and hot pink that have been showing up.

I finished a knitting project last night and have a really good library book started, so if we get the predicted thunderstorms later this afternoon, I should be very happy spinning and reading for the remainder of the day.

I also got a surprise in the mail yesterday (well, I knew it was coming, but I didn't expect it to come until Monday) in the form of my June Southern Cross Fibre club shipment. This is called Ice Cave and it's on Bond wool:

This will work very nicely for my Shifty sweater spin, don't you think? It'll be going on the wheel just as soon as I finish up the HipStrings batts.