From Deep, Deep Stash

One of the items in my 21 in 2021 list was "Spin the oldest fiber in my stash." This week, I did just that.

I started spinning in 2008. At the time, there weren't a lot of indie fiber dyers -- even indie-dyed yarn was still a rarity. My first few spins were things that I found at my LYS at the time. It wasn't very long, though, before I started looking for dyed fiber on Etsy and found my first fiber love, AllSpunUp. I am linking to Kristin's shop not so that you can buy from her (because sadly she stopped dyeing -- or at least selling her dyed fiber online -- a while ago) but so that you can look at what she's sold and get a sense of her skill. If you look at the handspun section of my Ravelry notebook and scroll back toward the beginning, you'll see a lot of ASU spins. Most of what I bought was spun pretty quickly, though I have a number of braids still in the stash from after she got really popular and it became harder to get her fiber, thus making that stash precious. This braid, however, was purchased on December 13, 2008, and I'd never gotten around to it.

Once or twice I contemplated spinning it; at some point I'd divided it into thirds, and I guess I thought I would card it into rolags at one point, because I found two of them in the bag. I never got further than that, though, and I suppose because it was superwash BFL (not necessarily my favorite fiber to spin) and kind o of boring in its colors (just tones of one color), it wasn't a priority. But there wasn't anything wrong with it, and good fiber deserves to be spun! So my spinning this week was focused on doing just that.

I know that with BFL I tend to get lower yardage than with other wools (I suppose it's just denser), so even though the fiber had been split into thirds, I decided to spin a two-ply yarn to maximize the yardage. The easiest way to do that and to ensure zero waste was to spin all the singles onto a single bobbin, wind them off into a center-pull ball, and ply from both ends.

It ended up being a very quick spin -- I spun the singles on Tuesday and Wednesday and plied on Thursday, and then on Friday I skeined and washed the yarn. I'm very pleased with how well distributed the different shades of blue are throughout the skein.

As predicted, the yardage was a bit lower than I'd usually get for the amount of fiber, just 293 yards of two-ply fingering. But I'm still happy with how it looks and thrilled to have finally converted this very well-aged fiber into yarn!

A Final Skein

It's Sunday (though it doesn't much feel like it now that we're on vacation), and Sundays around here are for spinning talk. I did not bring a spindle with me, though I did consider it briefly, but I did bring my most recent finished skein. I finished it up on Wednesday night and I just couldn't bear to leave it behind.

Remember this fiber that I picked up off the freebie table at Indie Knit & Spin?

It was merino from one of my favorite indie dyers who sadly hasn't done much dyeing in recent years, and naturally I snatched it up as soon as I saw it on the table (I do still have a decent All Spun Up stash, but that doesn't mean I'm opposed to acquiring more). I decided to do a quick and dirty two ply with this yarn, originally aiming for a DK to worsted weight but (given my propensity toward fine yarns) ending up with more of a sport. Still I'm quite pleased with the finished skein.

It's a bit difficult to capture the color accurately -- the paler parts are a light greenish yellow -- but you can see just how bouncy and elastic the yarn is. I ended up with a bit more than 260 yards, plenty to knit a hat or cowl. I'm definitely using this for something for me, both because it's precious ASU and it's a bit delicate for a gift for someone who might inadvertently felt it.

You may have noticed the little widgets on the right side of the blog where I've been keeping track of my yardage, both knit and spun, this year. It's been a good tool to give me a sense of how much crafty work I've done, and I'm rather astounded that I've spun more than 8,300 yards this year! I have big hopes for getting through a decent amount of my fiber stash next year, perhaps even spinning for some larger projects. I definitely want to knit more with my handspun in the year ahead, though there's such a large amount of it already that I'm contemplating opening an Etsy shop. What do you think -- would you be interested in buying some of my handspun? I'm happy to hear any and all thoughts.

A New Favorite

The number of spinning days I have left this year are quickly diminishing, so I'm trying to finish projects up. I'll be ending 2016 with one less FatCatKnits club shipment left to be spun, as I finished up the second skein of the lobster-inspired Rambouillet earlier this week.

As with the first skein, this colorway (Gamma) was spun into a three-ply fingering weight, and the skein dramatically shrunk after finishing (though you can stretch the skein quite a bit). There's a bit more yardage in this skein than the first -- nearly 239 as compared to 191 -- and I'll readily admit that this one is my favorite of the two. Here they are together:

I don't think there's enough contrast between the two skeins to use them together in colorwork as I originally intended, but I think they are destined to be used together somehow. And they've taught me that I absolutely love this breed and must spin some more of it soon!

Meanwhile, I've been trying to finish up the All Spun Up merino that I started spinning last week. I finished up the second bobbin of singles yesterday, and today I started plying.

I think the finished yarn will be somewhere in the neighborhood of sport to DK, and I'd say I'm about halfway done (I snapped this photo early on in the plying while there was still some natural light). I would have a finished skein except for the fact that I spent a good portion of the afternoon moving my stash from the "stash room" to the basement in preparation for a remodeling project we're doing in January. It was probably a good exercise because it forced me to see just how much yarn and fiber I actually have! Suffice it to say that 2017 is going to be a year of knitting and spinning from stash.

Winding Down

It's the first Sunday in December, and it's just occurred to me that I'm working on my final handspun projects for the year. We leave for our vacation in Florida in less than two weeks, and I'm not planning on taking any spinning with me at this point. So I have less than two weeks to wrap up what's in progress.

I have just (literally, just -- the skein is soaking right now) finished my second skein of FatCatKnits Rambouillet in Gamma. Here's what it looked like earlier this afternoon, when there was still enough daylight to take a decent photo:

I loved this colorway, and I really like how it plied up. I know the skein will shrink up significantly after it's washed as the first skein did, but I already know that this skein will have a bit more yardage because I had more than 30 more wraps on my niddy noddy than I did with my skein of Clawd.

I have a feeling that there's not enough contrast between colorways to use them together in colorwork as I originally intended, but I'm sure I can find some great way to use the skeins together. I know I loved spinning this breed, so I'm sure I'll enjoy knitting with it.

Because I can't bear to see a wheel naked for any length of time, as soon as I finished spinning the last of the Gamma singles, I immediately started the next project. I figured I might as well spin up the All Spun Up merino I picked up at Indie Knit & Spin, and I'm spinning thick (for me) singles this time around so that it will be a fast spin.

This looks like it will be a sport to DK weight when it's plied, and I think it will be the perfect yarn for a brioche cowl like I made for Rainbow (though this one will be for me).

Why Did I Wait So Long?

Once upon a time (or about five years ago), my favorite fiber pusher was very popular, and her shop updates would sell out very quickly. One very popular update was a series of color block braids, and I managed to snag two of them. Then, they sat in my stash -- they were just too precious to spin. Finally, a couple of weeks ago, I decided enough was enough. I pulled one out, split it down the middle, spun up two bobbins of singles rather quickly, and then I plied.

My objective was to have two plies that more or less matched up in color, but I did not execute that plan quite as well as I hoped. The singles on the second bobbin were obviously a bit thicker than those on the first bobbin, so I ran out and had to wind off the remaining singles and ply from both ends of the resulting ball to finish the skein. Nevertheless, I am very happy with this yarn. It is soft and squishy and bouncy (I had to thwack it several times in the finishing process to distribute all that plying twist). It looks to be about sport weight, verging on DK in some spots, and roughly 227 yards. What will it be? I don't know yet -- but I do know that it won't be very long before I spin up the other color block braid!

Deep-stash Spinning

While a general goal for my spinning this year has been to spin up more of my stash, a more specific goal has been to spin up the fiber that I've been saving because it seemed too precious to spin. Some of that has been fiber from my favorite dyer, who stepped away from dyeing for a time (and, though she's technically returned, hasn't put up much in her shop in several months). During the period where it was unclear whether she'd ever start dyeing again, I'll admit that I was hoarding the fiber I already had from her in my stash. I was saving it for who knows what; I guess it seemed like as long as it was there in the stash, I'd always have some. It's a bit ridiculous, I know, but there you have it.

During that period when Kristin wasn't dyeing, she also wasn't on Ravelry anymore, so I became a moderator of her group, along with a couple of other spinners. At some point, we decided that we should have a knitalong in the group to encourage people to spin their All Spun Up stash, and we're currently in the middle of another one. I thought it was the perfect opportunity to spin some of those precious braids.

This skein was finished last weekend, and you already saw it on the bobbin, but here it is, all skeined and finished.

I'm very pleased that I got what I was aiming for -- a three-ply worsted weight. The skein is approximately 210 yards in length, so it should be plenty to knit Rainbow another hat.

Inspired by this project, I decided to pull out another precious braid from the stash -- this one was bought back in March 2010 (or at least that's when I entered it in my stash).

This one is 4.2 oz. of merino, one of two color block braids I bought during one of the updates that went quickly. Originally, I'd planned to spin it fine from end to end and chain ply, but buoyed but the nearly instant gratification of spinning a thicker yarn, I changed that plan. I split the fiber in half vertically, and I'll attempt to get the two plies to match up when I ply.

This is the result of about an hour and a half of spinning last night. I estimate I'm about halfway through this bobbin. If I can find some time later today, I'll try to finish it up.

Pump Up the Purple

After all the brown of my last spinning project, I was excited to get to some color, so it's perhaps no wonder that I've already finished it. I didn't spin much during the week, but this weekend I've been doing little else, or so it seems. I finished the first bobbin and started the second on Friday night, finished up the second and started the third yesterday afternoon, and then finished up the rest last night after I got Rainbow to sleep.

Today, thanks to the speed of my miniSpinner, I plied it all. This is not the best of shots (my camera, it seems, did not feel much like focusing today), but here it is on one of my great big WooLee Winder bobbins:

I skeined and washed it this afternoon, and it's currently hanging to dry in the upstairs shower. It looks to be a worsted weight, as I was intending, and provided it doesn't shrink up too drastically, I should have a bit more than 200 yards.

Now I have to figure out what to spin next. There are a couple of contenders, including a batt set that I bought about a year and a half ago that's been sitting next to my spinning area ever since it arrived. I could also spin up another All Spun Up braid that's been marinating in my stash as part of the spinalong. Too many choices!

From Deep in the Stash

About five and a half years ago, not long after I started spinning, I discovered All Spun Up on Etsy, and she soon became my fiber pusher. My first order from her contained two braids of fiber. One got spun up rather quickly (shortly after we moved into our house, actually). The other one sat in my stash to marinate for a long time. After Kristin stepped away from her dyeing business and it was thought that there would be no more fiber from her, I hoarded what I had left. But, after she came back in the last month, I decided it was high time I spin that braid, especially given that I was participating in an All Spun Up spinalong.

Here's what it looked like when I got it (photographed on plants in my parents' backyard when we were living with them temporarily):

I split the top in half and did a simple two ply, which looked about fingering when it came off the wheel but poofed up incredibly in the wash.

The twist on this yarn is tight, as I like, but even tighter than I anticipated. As a result, this skein is super bouncy and elastic. It's now about sport weight (with some thinner spots), and I ended up with 346.5 yards from my 4.3 oz.

Though I'm sad that the fiber is gone, I have to say that I love this yarn. I'm going to need to find the perfect pattern for it for something for me.

Oh, Miss Crabtree!

Several years ago, I bought a braid of fiber from Kristin at All Spun Up for a spinalong but never spun it. When it arrived, I thought that the colors just weren't me, so I put it away (fiber hoarder that I am) for a later time.

When I decided to host the spinalong in the All Spun Up group on Ravelry, this braid was a frontrunner to be spun first. I asked the advice of the group, and most people who responded agreed that it was high time that I showed Miss Crabtree some attention. So I pulled her out and started spinning her when the spinalong officially started.

This particular braid was a BFL/silk blend; I don't remember the exact proportions, and it's not written on the bag that the fiber came in, but I suspect it was something like 85/15. I decided to spin it from one end to the other and then chain ply, with the goal of getting a three-ply fingering weight in the end, but apparently I can't spin anything that has silk in it in any way other than super thin. My finished yarn, even though it's a three ply, is still pretty much laceweight. And it's just over 600 yards, meaning I had 1,800 yards of singles.

As iffy as I was about the fiber (and the singles while I was spinning it, I'll be honest), I adore the finished yarn. It looks so much like fall to me, like ripening apples on a tree whose leaves are starting to lose the bright green of summer. Rather than packing this yarn away, as I so often do with my handspun skeins once they're done, I've left it out to look at for a while until it calls to me and tells me what it wants to be.

An End, at Last

It seemed only appropriate that on the first day of the Tour de Fleece, I finished a long-suffering WIP from my own handspun.

Pattern: Breezy Cardigan by Hannah Fettig
Yarn: my handspun -- 85% Polwarth, 15% silk from All Spun Up, 8 oz.
Needles: US 4 (3.5 mm) Chiago Goo Red Lace circs
Started/Completed: June 29, 2012/June 29, 2013

This sweater started way back in October of 2011, when I received two beautiful twists of fiber from my favorite dyer (who is, alas, now out of business) as part of a spinalong. The colorway for this fiber was Tapestry, a name that, in my opinion, was a perfect fit for the deep colors in the fiber. It took me a good two months to spin up one huge skein of two-ply laceweight -- a total of 1,630 yards. I knew that with that much yardage, I had to knit a sweater, so at some point last summer, I wound a really enormous yarn cake and got to work. I cast on for the sweater leading in to last year's Tour de Fleece and made a good start on it (as you do when you're working a top-down raglan and the rows are still short).

As you would expect would happen with a laceweight sweater, I soon grew bored with it, so into the bottom of the knitting bag it went. Every now and then I'd pull it out again and put in a few more rows, so it continued to grow, albeit slowly. Then, as spring gave way to summer, I realized that my poor neglected sweater was nearing its first birthday, and it's usually not in me to let projects linger that long without being finished (with one notable exception). So I decided to focus on getting it done, hoping to finish before this year's Tour de Fleece started and I put it down once again in favor of spinning all the time. I'm very happy to report that this happened, and in fact I finished it on the day the Tour started (I figured that it was acceptable to take time away from spinning in order to finish a project out of handspun).

There's not too much to say about this sweater. I knew I'd like it because it's the lightweight version of one of my favorite hand-knit sweaters to wear. The knitting itself was pretty mindless; it's a top-down stockinette raglan, so for the body I really only had to pay attention every other row, and for the sleeves, I just had to count rounds in between decreases. The real challenge in this pattern was keeping the motivation to finish it; when you're working with laceweight, it can take a long time to see any perceptible progress, so sometimes it felt like I'd been knitting for hours and only added half an inch in length. I'm glad I stuck with it, though, because this is an incredibly wearable sweater. It's actually perfect for this time of year, because I almost always need a light layer in the office to keep warm in the aggressive air conditioning. This sweater adds just a little warmth without bulk, and I can easily shove* it in my bag at the end of the day and not notice any extra weight on the walk home.

I will note that I did discover one pretty significant error in the pattern, and I have been in touch with the designer about it. When I was ready to start the ribbed cuff of my first sleeve, I realized that the stitch count I had -- which matched what was listed in the pattern -- was not divisible by four and thus wouldn't work out with a 2x2 rib. I though maybe it was just an issue with my size, but then I got out my calculator and realized that it was an issue for all the sizes. I immediately sent Hannah a PM on Ravelry, which was answered several days later by one of her helpers, who said that I should work one more or one less set of decreases in the arm. I wasn't about to rip back several inches' worth of work to add another set of decreases, so I worked them into my first round of ribbing. I don't think you can tell a difference, and frankly I don't think it's such a huge deal; I was just surprised that this type of error hadn't been caught before (but bear in mind that I was working with a hard copy; it's very likely that the error has been corrected in the digital version).

Silly photo (c) Rainbow

Now I'll bet you're thinking that after this experience I'd never knit another laceweight sweater again. You may be right, at least in part. I'm not in a hurry to knit another right away, but I wouldn't say I'd never do it again. In fact, I have two gorgeous skeins of laceweight that the Mister and Rainbow bought me for my birthday this year that are just begging to become a sweater (because, frankly, I'd be buried alive by a shawl that used all that yardage). The key is to start it knowing that will take me a good amount of time to finish and not plan to have it done by a certain date -- unless I want to eschew all other projects and crafts until it's done. So I'm not casting on just yet, but don't be surprised (or call me crazy!) if it happens again in the near future.


*And by "shove," I mean "fold it carefully and wrap it in a bag or something so it doesn't get snagged by anything."

Millefiori

This yarn has been done for most of this past week, but it took until this weekend to get a decent shot of it (though I still couldn't seem to get my camera to do it justice). It started out as this twist of fiber, 50% merino/50% silk from All Spun Up:

I set out to spin this a medium weight (sport to DK), but with such a high silk content, it really wanted to be spun ultra fine. So I went with it and ended up with two-ply laceweight.

The final skein is approximately 796.5 yards, so plenty to do a large shawl.

Trust me when I say that it's a lot prettier in person -- for some reason, my camera either wants to capture the color accurately or the shine accurately, but not both. The colors are rich and the shine factor is high. I'm extremely satisfied with this spin, and once I finish the current projects, this just might be the next thing on my needles.

Mid-ply

Today's spinning session will be day four of plying my All Spun Up merino/silk Millifiori. As with all laceweight I've spun, this last step is taking a very long time, but I know that with this fiber it's totally going to be worth it.

Assuming I can finish up this afternoon, I can skein it up this evening during the Oscars!

Millifiori, Continued

A short post for today, because there's not much to show. Since finishing up my sweater yarn, I've been working on spinning my All Spun Up 50% merino/50% silk into a two-ply laceweight. It's slow going, but at least I am now on the second bobbin:

I am still loving these colors and enjoying the spinning, even if it is taking a lot of time! I'm hoping to get the singles done this week so I can ply and move onto something just a tad thicker!

Spinning Motivation

I'm here with your weekly update on my sheep-to-sweater project. I must say that before I did this the first time, it seemed like such a big undertaking. Then, having done it once, it was still a big project, but one that was total doable. This year, with the miniSpinner, it's almost a piece of cake.

As of this afternoon, a full pound of singles have been spun (the eighth bobbin's worth not shown, as it's still resting on the bobbin). I spun 30 ounces last year and will probably do at least that much this year; if that's my final number, I'm more than halfway done spinning the singles. The miniSpinner does have something to do with the speed at which I've been spinning the fiber up, but I think I also have some good motivation in the form of the fiber that arrived at my door last week.

It's nearly impossible to capture the beauty of this fiber. It's 50% merino, 50% silk, and it really seems to glow. I am saving this until I am finished with the sweater spinning (or at least finished spinning the singles), both as a reward and as a means of keeping my consistency, but I really want to dig into it now!

On Pace

While I haven't been spinning up my fleece as much as I would like in the past week, I have made some some decent progress. I have gotten through 8 ounces so far (the three bobbins' worth you see here, plus once batch of singles still resting on the bobbin).

I've found that in the same amount of time that it took me spin an ounce last year on the Lendrum, I can spin two ounces on the miniSpinner. If that continues to be true, I should be able to get through the same amount of fiber in half the time. Of course, last year I was spinning an ounce almost every day; this year, I've only sat down to spin three or four times, so technically I think I'd need to spin more often to keep up the pace. Regardless, I'm pretty much on track with where I was last year, so I think it's reasonable to think that I'll have a sweater's worth of yarn within a month or so.

One of the reasons that I didn't get as much done as I was hoping is because I had to finish up a project that when on the wheel just before the holidays and was finished up when we got back from our trip. This was the December 2011 All Spun Up spinalong, a gorgeous 50% merino/50% tencel blend in a colorway called Water Lilies. For speed's sake, I decided to spin the fiber in one go and chain ply it -- I even spun the singles a little thicker than usual so it wouldn't take forever. The resulting yarn is what you see here:

As I was plying, I realized that it took me a little while to successfully spin a little thicker -- my first several yards of singles were much thinner than the rest, so evidently I had difficulty spinning anything thicker than my usual! In any case, most of the yarn is roughly DK weight, and the skein is 207 yards.

You can see in the difference between the two photos how difficult this blend can be to photograph -- the shine of the tencel really throws the color off! I haven't thought much about it yet, but I think this yarn will need to turn into some sort of neck accessory with a lot of drape. Eventually, of course. There's plenty of fiber to spin and plenty of handspun to knit still in the stash!

New Year, New Yarn

I'm typing this quick post from our gate at the Southwest Florida International Airport, where we're waiting to get on our flight back home (and dreading it, a bit, to be honest -- we've be thoroughly spoiled this trip with warm weather and sunny, cloudless skies every day). I have some big doings to talk about when we get home, but for now, I do have some handspun to share with you -- it is Sunday, after all.

You may recall this gorgeous All Spun Up Polwarth/silk fiber that arrived at least a couple months ago. When I got it, I knew I wanted to challenge myself, so I set out to spin up all 8 ounces into a two-ply laceweight, one huge skein of it. It took me nearly two months to spin the singles and ply, even with my miniSpinner, but I got it done.



A whopping 1,630 yards are in this skein, which didn't use the full 8 oz. (I had a bit leftover on one bobbin). I was hoping for closer to 2,000, but I blame the poof factor of Polwarth. Still, this should be enough to make myself a laceweight sweater. The colors are really hard to capture accurately, so here's a shot without the flash.



Can't wait to knit this up!

One Bobbin Full

It's been a while since I had a spinning post on a Sunday because I've been working on the same project for almost a month. It's not quite done, but at least I've reached a milestone in the process. Here's a full bobbin, holding 4 oz. of extremely thin (40+ wpi) singles of All Spun Up polwarth/silk

This bobbin is resting at the moment until I figure out what to do next. I have another 4 oz. of this same fiber/colorway, and originally I thought I'd spin that up the same way and ply the two together for one really enormous laceweight skein. But now I'm having second thoughts, not only because it'll take me another month (maybe) to spin the second bobbin of singles but also because I'm not sure what I'd do with 1,600-2,00 yards of laceweight. So I may end up chain plying this one and splitting the other 4 oz. in two to spin a laceweight with that. Or not. Any suggestions are appreciated.

In the meantime, to take a break from spinning so thin, I got out this month's Crown Mountain Farms shipment (4 oz. of Icelandic top) while Rainbow took her nap this afternoon and spun up two bobbins' worth in a ridiculously short amount of time. Here's what it looked like before:

This was my first time spinning this particular breed, and it was interesting -- definitely on the hairy side, though not as unpleasant as the Lincoln I spun several months ago. My singles are about fingering weight, and it looks like it'll ply up to about DK weight.

I'm excited that this fiber went so quickly, because I'm really trying to make a dent in my stash; my fiber stash, like my yarn stash, has gotten a bit out of control. That didn't seem to stop me, though, from picking up some more yesterday at Indie Knit and Spin.

Falkland from CosySpins

Falkland from Gwen Erin

Falkland is one of my favorite fibers, and I haven't spun any in a while, so I'm looking forward to getting at these soon!

Down to Earth, Part I

Those of you who know my spinning know that my favorite dyer is Kristin at All Spun Up. When I first discovered her Etsy store, very few people knew about her, so it was relatively easy to get my hands on some of her hand-dyed fiber. Of course, once handspun from her fiber started showing up on Ravelry, it wasn't long before she became incredibly popular -- to the point where if you didn't pounce the minute she posted an update to the store, you couldn't get any of her fiber.

Thankfully, Kristin has been doing regular spinalongs. She posts ahead of time what the fiber blend will be (though the colorway is a mystery), and if you want to participate, you post in a thread on her Ravelry group so she has an idea of how much fiber to dye. The listing is then up for a couple of days, and as long as you check within 24-48 hours of the listing, chances are good that you can get some of this much-coveted fiber.

For this May/June, the fiber blend was merino/silk (an 80%/20% blend), so I signed up for a double dose of 8 ounces. The dye job did not disappoint -- she calls this particular colorway Down to Earth.

For now, I started with half of the fiber and spun a very thin single (I'm not sure I realized just how thin it was), then chain plied it to keep the colors distinct.

I am completely thrilled with how this turned out. As I was spinning it, it made me think of a seascape -- the pale blue of the water, the white of the sea foam, the brown of the sand and pieces of driftwood, and the gray of a cloudy sky. And of course there is nothing like the experience of spinning this fiber blend; it is just luscious going through your fingers, and the resulting yarn is soft, silky, and light.

This skein also marks my first entry into my LYS' Summer of Socks and Lace contest. I was aiming for fingering weight, but at more than 600 yards for my 4 ounces, it's on the light side of that.

I have no idea what this will grow up to be, but in the meantime, I will be very happy just wearing it wrapped around my neck! I still have another 4 ounces to play with, so perhaps I'll have a matching skein for this in the near future.

Completely Enchanted

On Thursday night, as I was wrapping up things and getting ready to head to MDSW, one of the things on my list was to skein up the finished yarn from the latest All Spun Up spinalong. I believe the last time you saw it, the singles were halfway done.

The name of this colorway is "Enchanted," which perfectly described how I felt about this fiber. Shades of blue and green, my two favorite colors, on a luscious blend of 50% fine alpaca, 30% merino, and 20% silk -- what's not to love? I knew I wanted it to be a two-ply laceweight, and the singles were definitely the finest I've ever spun. I used my miniSpinner for the first time (other than the bit of practice I did with the sample fiber that was included with it when it first arrived) to do the plying, because I knew it was going to take a long time. Even with the electric spinner, it still took me about a week of plying sessions to get it all done.

When I finished skeining it up, I realized why: My 4.125 oz. of fiber yielded more than 1,000 yards of yarn that is roughly 36 wpi. And I love it.

Now the challenge will be to find the ultimate pattern for this yarn! Suggestions are welcome.

Coming up soon: a recap of MDSW!

Half Spun

My spinning has been extremely slow going because of how thin the singles are, but I managed to finish the first of my two bobbins the other day.

Every time I look at these colors I like them more. I hope that I'm able to get some good yardage out of this so I can knit something spectacular with it!