At Last

Happy Friday, friends -- we've made it to the end of the week! I normally try to post first thing in the morning, but today I wanted to get my walk in early to avoid the worst of the rain moving through here this morning. I took an umbrella just in case and only needed it for the last mile or so.

Today I have a finished project to share! Though, as the Knitmore Girls would say, it's not finished finished finished.

This is the skein of undyed CVM and Romney from the Ross Farm that I've been working on for far too long -- since mid-February, if you can believe it. I have no idea why it took me so long, especially considering that in the past I have spun a couple of pounds of undyed fiber in far less time, but it really doesn't matter. I finished plying yesterday evening, using up nearly all of my singles. You may remember that I had two bobbins of this faun-colored CVM and one of a darker brown Romney, and I plied all three together, but the Romney (as expected, because I had less of it to begin with) ran out and I made a plying bracelet with the singles on the fuller of the two bobbins remaining to use up the rest, so what you're seeing on the top layer here is all CVM. On my to-do list for this afternoon is skeining and washing this yarn.

Now that this spinning project is done, I need some color! As tempted as I am by my most recent club shipments, I am committed to spinning the older stuff first, so I went into my big bag of Southern Cross Fiber stash and pull out this:

This is, quite literally, the oldest SCF fiber in my stash -- it's Primordial from December 2015, and it's on an 80/20 blend of organic Merino and rose fiber. Mary and I emailed a bit back and forth about the rose fiber earlier in the week, and I realized that what I was telling her about it was really just assumptions on my part, so I decided to do a little research. It turns out my assumptions were correct: Rose fiber for spinning is a cellulose that is made from the stems of rose bushes. It's marketed as a form of vegan silk because it has the same shine (which I think you can see in this photo despite the bad lighting). It's made into fiber in much the same way that things like bamboo and tencel are, and it gives the same sort of pearly shine to the wool it's blended with. I'm not 100% sure how I'm going to spin this other than I know it will want to be spun quite finely because of the blend. I'm leaning toward spinning it end to end and chain-plying to preserve the colors and also make it a more mindless spin, but ideas and opinions are welcome.

Have a great weekend!