Getting Back on Track

Happy last day of September, all! I can't believe how quickly this month has gone by or how we seem to be hurtling toward the end of the year, so I'm trying to savor this last day of the month.

After not doing such a great job of it in recent months, I am back to trying to tackle my Southern Cross Fibre club backlog. I continue to receive a shipment of fiber each month, so if I'm going to make my SCF stash any smaller, that means I need to work on spinning up more than what I acquire. So I started with a quick-and-dirty spin of a prize I received at some unknown point in the past (I did not note the date on the bag, which I really should do going forward) of Eider wool in two colors. Eider is a coarser wool that comes from a sheep bred both for meat and fleece, so I would not call it next-to-skin soft. It does seem like it would be durable, though. I simply spun each color onto its own bobbin, wound the singles off on my ball winder, and then plied from both ends. After washing and drying, it looks to be about sport weight.

I'm quite pleased with how consistent these skeins seem to have turned out, despite the fact that I was spinning in a hurry and not paying particularly close attention. The purple is 52 g and approximately 171.5 yards and the green is 63 g and approximately 186 yards, so both in the neighborhood of about 3 yards per gram. I don't have any particular plans for these but am happy to have them done!

Up next, I'm planning to use up three shipments in one project in the form of a combo spin.

L-R: Poisoned Apple on Bond, Posy on Bond, Blazing Skies on Rambouillet

All three of these colorways have shades of red/pink, orange, and purple (I'm not sure why the one on the far left looks brown; trust me that it is purple!), so I thought they'd make a natural combination. In theory, I could spin each bit of fiber onto its own bobbin and ply them together, but I'd like to have a more blended quantity of yarn that I could maybe use for a sweater, so I'm going to split each colorway up into much smaller bits and then mix all the bits together. I will be sure to document the process and share it as I go! I hope to at least split up the fiber today, and given that we're supposed to get the remnants of Ian in the form of rain this weekend, chances are good I'll get started on the spinning.

Finally, I'll leave you this Friday with a bit of joy -- we grew an actual cantaloupe!

It was small and didn't have much flavor (I cut it up and put it in the fridge, hoping it might sweeten a bit), but I'm still pretty chuffed that we managed to grow one. There are more on the vine, but with the weather getting colder, I'm not sure they have enough time to ripen. Still, now we know we can grow melons, and we'll try again next year.

I hope your weekend is wonderful!