Juggling

Normally at this time of year, I'd be doing all the spinning I could. This year, however, I have knitting that has to continue, so I feel like I've been bouncing from one thing to another.

I did primarily focus on spinning over the weekend. Yesterday turned out to be a pretty crummy day (overcast all day, with showers in the afternoon and evening), so we all pretty much sat around all day. I watched two movies on my laptop and spun for much of the day, which resulted in finishing up the second bobbin of FatCatKnits BFL singles:

I started plying later in the afternoon, and I'm a little more than halfway through. I'll try to finish this evening while the Mister puts Rainbow to bed. I'm plying on my miniSpinner, so it's a pretty easy and mindless project.

While the above bobbins were resting, I spun a little bit on my Sheep to Shoe kit, which I'm spinning for three-ply sock yarn (well, I'm going to chain ply this bit, anyway). These singles are very fine, as you would expect, so it's not a fast spin by any means, but I think it will be a good one.

Because each S2S kit comes with 8.5 oz. of fiber, I thought it would be interesting to do a bit of a comparison. The first half, which you see above, I will chain ply after splitting the top vertically into four strips (so the colors will repeat and the knit fabric will stripe). The other half I will split into thirds horizontally and do a traditional three ply. The colors will obviously be the same, but the two finished skeins will be a good representation of the ways you can play with color in spinning.

The knitting that is still going on primarily consists of two projects: my Waiting for Rain, which is nearly finished, and the colorwork mittens, which are about halfway done. I pulled out the shawl last night for about an hour and got to the final lace section, so I'll attempt to finish that tonight. The mittens are turning out to be a quick and easy knit, so I may have a finished pair by the end of the week.

I'm still a little bit in denial about it already being July -- the summer seems to be going by way too quickly. I had hoped to have all the collection knitting done by the end of the summer; once the mittens are done, I'll have five more samples to knit up (but two of them are the largest patterns and will likely take the longest to knit). The good news is that the first two have already been through my tech editor and are in testing, so at least I'll get those squared away while I work on the rest. And fortunately the deadlines I've set for these patterns are entirely my own, so I can give myself an extension if I need one!

Distracted

I am supposed to be spinning my gradient right now. You'd think I'd want to be, as it's my favorite fiber to spin, Polwarth. But I am not. Why? I've been distracted by bright green fiber. I suppose it's a reaction to winter and its darkness and lack of color, but really, can you blame me?

This was taken yesterday, as I worked on spinning the second bobbin of these singles (FatCatKnits Falkland, in case you were wondering). We did get hit by the giant snowstorm, though fortunately we were at the tail end of it and only got about six inches. That was enough to make the roads very messy, so we laid low at home and let the crews plow and salt before we ventured out. It was good to have the excuse to sit behind my wheel for a while.

Even in terrible light, the greens in this fiber seem to glow! I've moved on to the third and final bobbin, which I hope to finish up tomorrow evening. Then I suppose I'll go back to the long slog that my gradient spin has become -- as least until it's time to ply these singles.

First New Yarn

I really missed spinning while we were away, so as soon as the necessary things (unpacking, cleaning, etc.) were done around the house after we got back yesterday afternoon, I sat down at my miniSpinner to ply of the bobbin of singles I finished just before we went away. I must have been really excited about spinning, because I managed to ply everything by the time I was ready to go to bed. That might seem like a lot of spinning, but using my miniSpinner with the WooLee Winder meant that it was actually less than about three hours' worth.

The finished skein is currently soaking in the bathtub, but here's what it looked like freshly plied (though bear in mind that the colors are a bit muted because it's a very dreary day here and the light was not so great when I took the photos):

On the bobbin

Skeined on the niddy noddy

This yarn is Corriedale from Southern Cross Fibre in a colorway called Splendour. I believe this was one of the October club colorways, and it's certainly very autumnal. I spun it into one of my "pseudo-self-striping" sock yarns, and unless it shrinks a ton in the wash (which I very much doubt), it should be plenty for a pair of socks.

Meanwhile, while we were away, two more club shipments arrived. First was the final installment of the FatCatKnits Famous Couples for this round, in Rhett and Scarlett (I'll bet you can tell which is which):

I ordered this round in BFL, and I'm thinking that I will do a traditional three ply with each color separately and then use the two resulting skeins for something striped or with stranded colorwork.

Also, in a minor fiber miracle, my SCF December shipment actually showed up in December! I can't be sure exactly when, but it was here yesterday before the mail came, so it had to have arrived by New Year's Eve at the very latest.

This should be a very interesting bit of fiber to spin: It's 80% merino and 20% rose fiber. It's soft and silky, and I think it should have good drape. The colorway David chose for me for this shipment is called Primordial.

Before I can tackle these two new arrivals, though, I have some fiber to spin for the Gradient-along I'm hosting in the Ravelry Spinning Knitters group. The idea is to spin a gradient yarn and then knit/crochet/weave it into a project. I'm going to be spinning some Bee Mice Elf Polwarth that I bought quite a while back.

I have a total of 8 oz., and I'll be joining them at the purples. My hope is that I'll have enough to knit a Hitofude Cardigan when I'm done.

Contrasts in Color

I've felt a renewed urge to spin this past week, and I've actually got more than one project going, which is unusual for me. First, I started spinning the 8 oz. of gray Gotland. I managed to get the first bobbin done this week (that's 4 oz., though it doesn't look like much because the bobbin is so big).

I've started the second bobbin and am hopeful that I'll get it spun up this week, especially with the time off for the holiday. It'd be great to be able to get this plied by next weekend. I'm really enjoying this spin. The fiber is beautifully prepped and drafts effortlessly, and there's a lovely subtle variation in color.

Because I can't spin all gray all the time, though, I've been alternating between the Gotland and the Southern Cross Fibre Corriedale you saw last week. I managed to put a couple more layers on the bobbin over the weekend; I'd estimate I'm roughly a quarter of the way through the fiber at this point. The bobbin doesn't look a whole lot different from the last time you saw it, so I'll wait to take a photo when it looks a bit more substantial.

Meanwhile, my next shipment for the FatCatKnits Mixed Blessings club showed up this past week, and I was very excited to get it. The famous couple for this round was Anna and Mr. Bates (of Downton Abbey). I selected superwash Targhee for this round because I enjoyed spinning some of it during the Tour de Fleece this summer.

Anna is the green/gold/brown/purple colorway; Mr. Bates is the blue/red/brown/gray. I have absolutely no idea how to spin this, and fortunately with two projects on my wheels, I have time to ponder. I'm open to ideas!

Preparations

I spent a great deal of time this weekend getting a lot of handspun ready for Indie Knit & Spin next weekend. I had previously pulled all the handspun out that I was planning to put on sale, but I needed to measure and tag all of it. Some of it needed to be reskeined and much of it had to be remeasured, so it wasn't a quick job. I finally finished the last skeins today. And in case you'd like a preview, here you go:

That's more than 70 skeins of handspun, ranging from laceweight to super bulky and from less than 100 yards to close to 700. There's some undyed fiber and plenty of dyed fiber, with many different wool types represented.

Meanwhile, seeing as I'm hoping to get a lot of the above yarn out of the house, it was only appropriate that I spent a good part of the weekend spinning up some yarn to replace it. I finished the second bobbin of my FatCatKnits club fiber (superwash merino/sparkle) Friday night, even staying up a little late to finish.

I decided to try a new method of plying with my two bobbins. I chain plied all the singles but while holding both strands, effectively getting a four-ply yarn. To vary the colors, I alternated which bobbin I pulled the new loop from. The results were a bit unusual but not uninteresting. I finished rather late in the afternoon, so there was very little natural light to take a photo of the finished yarn, but I think you can get the idea.

The yarn has been skeined and washed and is now hanging to dry. It looks to be about sportweight and fairly well balanced; I'm hoping to have somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 yards. I don't know that I'll do this type of plying again, but it was certainly a fun experiment!

Stash Management

Dealing with my stash is something that's constantly in progress. I have been buying yarn and fiber for many years now, so there's quite a bit of stuff in there, but I am trying to make a concerted effort to keep it under control. As far as the fiber stash is concerned, there has been a fair amount coming in due to the two fiber clubs I'm in. One way to try to keep that managed is to try to stay on top of the shipments -- which is why I put in several hours this weekend trying to finish spinning up the second bobbin of my most recent FatCatKnits shipment.

This is the second colorway (Sam of Sam and Dean), and I'd estimate that I'm somewhere between one-half and two-thirds done with it. I started it Friday night and spent about another hour on it today, so I think another evening or two should do it. I'm hoping to find time this week to finish these singles so that I can ply next weekend.

Another way to manage the stash is to use or get rid of the handspun I've spun over the years. I have knit with a good amount of it and given some away as prizes, but lately the handspun skeins in my stash have started to outnumber the commercial skeins. Luckily, I'll have an opportunity to liberate some of it in two weeks, when I'll be selling it at Indie Knit & Spin. My afternoon consisted of dealing with this:

This is just some of the handspun I've pulled out to sell at the event. What you can't see are the skeins that I already labeled and set aside as well as what's still in my stash (some because I want to keep it and some because I haven't gone through it yet). It's hard to get a sense of scale, but that's a pretty big plastic bin they're crammed in there. By the time I called it quits for the day, I'd pretty much filled the bin (many of these skeins were in individual plastic bags, which took up even more space) and there were still more skeins left to label. Some are going to take a bit more time because in some cases I need to reskein or do some calculations to determine yardage, but most of the pile has been labeled and accounted for. And by golly there's a lot! Digging into this was a bit like going back in time, because there are some skeins from when I first started spinning in this pile. It's hard to believe they've been sitting there all this time. I just home someone else will love them and take them home!

All that Glitters

A very quick post from me tonight, mainly because I don't want to take more than a few minutes to stop spinning! I didn't get in as much spinning as I wanted to this weekend, but my first bobbin of my FatCatKnits September shipment is almost done.

This is superwash merino and nylon sparkle, and you can see from all the flyaways on the bobbin that the sparkle is long and kind of wiry. It's annoying me a bit, to be honest, but I'm dealing with it. I have about 12 inches of top left to spin, so I'm going to post this now so I can try to get the rest done tonight!

Water Lily

Thank goodness for my WooLee Winder bobbins and their large capacity -- I needed one to ply this whole skein!

This skein is made up of two colorways of Southern Cross Fibre Eider wool, Water and Lily. I decided I liked them so well together that I spun each color onto its own bobbin and then plied them together. The finished yarn is DK to worsted and a very respectable 425 yards. I'm not sure what I'll use it for, but I'm happy to be done with it.

I started something new on the Lendrum, the first of the FatCatKnits Mixed Blessings Club shipment for September. The fiber is something completely different, an 80/20 blend of superwash merino and nylon sparkle. This is Dean:

I'm spinning both colorways end to end and then I'm going to do an interesting thing with chain plying with both strands. I have no idea how it will turn out, but it will be a fun experiment!

All the Projects

As I mentioned in my last post, I didn't spin much over the weekend, in large part because I suddenly had the urge to cast on everything at once. I suspect the fact that Saturday was cold and rainy and generally gloomy played a large role in that urge -- after all, when it's cold and miserable, don't you want to surround yourself with warm, woolly things?

First, I finished up Rainbow's school sweater. The knitting was actually done on Thursday night, but I needed to find buttons at my LYS on Saturday and I didn't get around to sewing them on until Sunday evening. So now the sweater is officially done (albeit not yet blocked), and Rainbow is clearly very happy with it. It fits perfectly, with a bit of room for her to grow, so I think it should get good wear for the next couple of years at least.

I used the child's top-down v-neck raglan cardigan from Ann Budd's Knitter's Handy Book of Top-down Sweaters, in the smallest size available and at a gauge of 5 stitches to the inch (though technically my gauge was closer to 4.5 stitches to the inch, but I used that to give me a little positive ease). I used just under three full skeins of Spud & Chloe Sweater, a very nice blend of superwash wool and cotton, in Pine Needle. Most of the sweater was worked using US 6 (4.0 mm) needles, but I did the ribbing on US 5 (3.75 mm) needles. I like the yarn in the sweater, but I didn't love knitting with it -- the high cotton content made it a bit hard on my hands, and the tension issues that that caused resulted in a bit of rowing out when I was working flat (you can see the difference in the transition from the raglan shaping, which was worked flat, to the sleeves, which were worked in the round). I'm not terribly concerned about this issue, as I think the stitches will even out as the sweater is washed, but it's something to keep in mind should I ever want to work with this yarn again.

Meanwhile, I also wound some yarn and swatched for a sweater for me in some Miss Babs Yowza, purchased at MDSW several years ago and sitting in the stash ever since. The specified gauge is 19 stitches and 26 rows; I got 20 stitches and 30 rows with my swatch (work on US 6's) after blocking. I might try another swatch with needles a size larger to see what happens, but I think I can make it work with this gauge if I need to. The yarn is superwash, so I can block out a bit more room if I need to. The next size up is 4 inches larger, too, so I definitely want to stick with the size I usually am.

As long as I was winding yarn for the swatch, I decided to wind some handspun that I've already started knitting into a two-color brioche cowl, this time for my mom for a holiday present (assuming I can finish it by then). This is FatCatKnits Polwarth/silk/nylon sparkle from a club shipment from about a year ago. It doesn't look like much now, but it moves quickly when I do work on it.

This is one of those projects that I can pick up and put down easily as there's no real pattern -- it's just a repetition of the two rows (knit one row, purl one row). The yarn is being a little difficult to work with because there may be a tad too much twist in it, though for that I can only blame the spinner (me). I think once it's done I can rough it up a little bit when I wash it to get it to fluff up a bit.

As if all that weren't enough, a couple of orphan skeins of Cascade 220 Superwash (which went into hiding when I was taking pictures) followed me home from my LYS on Saturday along with the buttons. They are going to be a new cowl for Rainbow for this winter. I'm going to do another double-knit pattern, but this time it will be closer fitting rather than an infinity loop so it can stay inside her coat and not catch on anything while she's playing outside.

I'm also working on some design stuff, but that needs to stay offline for now. Some of it will be revealed in the weeks to come, so not to worry -- I won't taunt you with it for too long.

Phew! That's a lot, isn't it? I guess we are full swing into knitters' season now, and frankly, I'm quite happy about that.

Not Quite as Planned

I really had every intention of spinning this weekend. I had hoped to finish up the second bobbin of my Southern Cross Fibre Eider wool so that I could spin this week, but all I managed was about 45 minutes on Friday evening. Boo. Here's what the bobbin looks like -- it's a good start, at least.

This colorway is called Water, and as you'd expect, it's a mix of greens, blues, and deep purples. I don't think I ever posted a photo of the completed first bobbin, so here's one to give you a sense of how much more I have to spin:

While there was little spinning this weekend, there was some fiber! After waiting for it all week (thanks, USPS!), my first shipment for this round of the FatCatKnits Mixed Blessings club showed up with the mail on Saturday. It had been shipped on Monday, and only from one state away, so it was a bit of a mystery as to why it took so long to get here.

The theme for this edition of the club is Famous Couples, so each shipment contains two colors inspired by a pair of characters. This month, the pair is Sam and Dean, the brothers in the TV show Supernatural (a show whose existence I'm aware of but have never seen, mind you). I'm trusting Ginny to know how to represent these two.

It had been long enough since I signed up for the club that I'd forgotten what fiber blend I'd picked! This is superwash merino/nylon sparkle, which should be a good sock blend. I think I'm going to try spinning this as a two-strand chain ply -- basically the idea is that you hold the two strands together to ply but alternate which strand forms the next loop. The result is a sort-of four-ply yarn. I think that should give me some interesting blending of the colors and some new spinning skills.

Disappointment and Delight

There was a time when I was spinning the same type of yarn over and over again and I could reliably get the yardage I wanted. Apparently that time is no more, if my latest skein is to be believed.

I spun up this Southern Cross Fibre Shetland as my typical three-ply fingering weight. While I'm happy with how this yarn turned out, I'm somewhat baffled by the finished yardage -- only about 287 yards. Typically, my yarn of this type ends up being between 350 and 400 yards -- sometimes even upwards of that. On the one hand, the amount of fiber I had was a bit less than usual (110 grams, or about 3.9 ounces). Still, I don't think an extra tenth of an ounce would have made much of a difference, so the reason is still a mystery.

After I finished plying the Shetland, I immediately started spinning something new -- and what difference! This is SCF South African Superfine/mulberry silk, a 50/50 blend. And it is amazingly soft. I'd originally intended to spin a two-ply fingering weight, but as soon as I started spinning I realized this fiber wants to be spun extra fine, no doubt due to the high silk content.

This is not going to be a quick spin, that's for sure; what you see on the bobbin is probably three or four hours of spinning. But I just know that it's going to be absolutely stunning when it's done.

I received some more sparkle in the mail this week in the form of a Tour de Fleece prize from the Fat Cat Knits team. Ginny, knowing how much Rainbow loved the sparkly yarn I spun during the Tour, send me 4 oz. of blended merino/sparkle top in addition to an FCK t-shirt and some awesome handspun tags.

This fiber will be a fun spin -- and take a wild guess who's already claimed it!

Conclusions

Though the Tour de Fleece ended a week ago, there were still some things left unfinished that I've managed to wrap up this weekend. For starters, you saw this yarn last Sunday, but it had not yet been washed, so here's the official final skein of Tour de Fleece 2015:

This skein ended up a bit thicker and shorter than the one it was being spun to go with -- it's probably DK to worsted in some spots and 172 yards. I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't get more yardage, but I suppose that is what happens when you hurry to get in one more skein. If anything, it's taught me that I can spin up 4 oz. of fiber in a jiffy if I need to, and this type of yarn might be the way to go to use up some of my fiber stash.

I also had started spinning up my Southern Cross Fibre Finn near the end of the Tour, but I only got about a third of the way through it. Late in the past week I decided to try to finish it up, and I manged to finish up all the singles last night:

I had intended to spin this into sock yarn that I wanted to be kind of self-striping (much like my Boogaloo socks), so I split the top into four pieces lengthwise and then spun them in the same order. Unfortunately I don't think my singles were as fine as they should have been; I sat down and chain plied the whole bobbin this afternoon, and I think the yarn is going to end up about sport weight and probably less than 300 yards. It might still be enough for socks, but they'll be short socks. We'll see what happens when the yarn is dry. Here's a bobbin shot, for the time being:

Meanwhile, in an effort to catch up with the SCF club shipments, when I finished the Finn singles last night, I pulled out the Shetland from May:

I pondered how to spin this for quite a while and finally settled on a traditional three ply, spun to a fingering or sport weight. I have never been all that enamored with Shetland, but I keep hoping that I'll spin a batch that will change my mind. I'm not sure this is the batch to do it, if I'm being honest. The colors are gorgeous, obviously, and it seems to be fairly well prepped (though I've been pulling out a fair number of nepps), but I think this fiber just isn't one of my favorites.

I'm not sure what I'll use this yarn for at this point, but I'll reserve my judgment until it's plied and finished. I think once this yarn is done, I'm going to need to spin something soft and luxurious, if only to let my fingertips recover (this coarser stuff gives me callouses!).

Yellow Jersey Day

Today marks the end of the Tour de Fleece, and while I didn't spin everything I'd set aside for the Tour (there's about 8 oz. untouched plus another 4 oz. that are in progess), I think I did well enough to earn a yellow jersey.

For one thing, I've finished two more skeins in the past three days -- the most recent one in just a day. On Thursday night, I plied the Shock and Awe singles. After washing, the yarn ended up being approximately DK weight (with a few thicker and a few thinner spots) and 194.5 yards.

The appearance of the finished yarn was a bit of a surprise -- I really thought the hot pink would be more prominent. But I love the tweedy effect from the blending of the colors.

On a bit of a whim, I decided yesterday afternoon to start spinning my other Fat Cat Knits blended top in Ice Princess (this one had a bit of sparkle in it). I knew how long it had taken me to spin and ply the first skein, so I figured if I could spin one bobbin in the afternoon and another after putting Rainbow to bed, I'd have plenty of time to ply today. As it turned out, I was right.

This photo is prebath -- the skein is soaking now, and I expect it will puff up a bit after the finishing process. I think this skein is a bit shorter than the first one, but they should be a good match; the plan all along was to spin them up more or less the same and use them together in something for Rainbow.

All in all, I spun up five skeins during the Tour, for a total of 21 ounces and more than 1,137 yards, plus whatever this last skein ends up being. I think I've probably spun more in years past, but given how busy the past few weeks have been, I'm calling this Tour a victory.

Picking Up Speed

There is one week left in the Tour de Fleece, and I'm determined to make a good showing. This week seemed to be more productive.

First, I finished my second skein, a two-ply sport-to-DK weight in Southern Cross Fibre superwash merino in Dom Pedro, approximately 253 yards.

I finished another bobbin of Fat Cat Knits superwash Targhee singles:

And now there are three (which have already begun to be plied, but it was too dark to get a picture):

And yesterday, I spun up one bobbin (2 oz.) of FCK blended merino top in Shock and Awe on the miniSpinner (and it's apparently bright enough that my camera didn't want to focus on it).

Once the plying is done, I'll spin up the second bobbin to match this one. With any luck, I should have at least two more finished skeins by the end of the Tour!

Behind Pace

Before the start of the Tour de Fleece, I had grand plans for what I was going accomplish. Admittedly, the pile of fiber I had set aside to spin was a huge amount, but I thought I would at least make a dent. And now here I am, roughly halfway through, and I feel like I've barely done any spinning at all. I suppose circumstances haven't totally been in my favor, but I really thought I would have done more by now. Oh well.

I did manage to finish up one project last night, though I stayed up a little late in order to do it. After spinning the second bobbin of my Southern Cross Fibre superwash merino singles on Monday night, I sat down and plied them last night. Thank goodness for my miniSpinner -- it made it all fast and fairly effortless.

 

Once I get Rainbow to bed tonight, I will skein and wash this yarn. It looks like it will end up being mostly in the DK range, though it's possible it might plump up a bit more in the wash. I mentioned before that I didn't love spinning this fiber, oddly, so I'm happy to have it done.

After the skeining is done, I will turn my attention back to my Fat Cat Knits superwash Targhee. I'm on the third and final bobbin now, and I'm confident that I will have all the singles spun by tomorrow night, which means I should be able to ply this weekend. I just barely started this bobbin the other evening, so there's still most of it to spin, probably a good three to four hours' worth of spinning time.

I'm hoping to try to catch up on my TdF pile a bit this weekend, but I still have some knitting to attend to as well. I actually didn't spin at all on Tuesday night and instead spent a bit of time working on the Helena. I didn't make a whole lot of progress (mainly because I had some business-y stuff to attend to and didn't actually have much time to knit), but the picot hem on the body is nearly done. I'm really hoping I can whoosh through the sleeves this weekend at some point.

I'm also still working on my Monopoly-inspired socks during my lunch break. The second sock is now at the heel, so I'll soon be in the home stretch.

At some point I'm going to need to do a cull of the sock drawers and get rid of the socks that I don't like or that are really about ready to fall apart in order to make room for these and the other stripey socks I've knit recently, because right now there isn't room for them. I suppose having a lot of hand-knit socks can be both a blessing and a curse!

Catching Up

In case you were wondering, a bachelorette weekend at the spa does not make for good knitting time. I took plenty of knitting with over the weekend, as I usually do whenever I travel, but I completed very little. The only knitting I did at all, in fact, was done in the car to and from our destination, so I'm not nearly as far along on the baby sweater as I had hoped. I did, however, finish the lace portion, so all that's left to do on the body is the picot hem.

I expect that the knitting that's still to be done will go rather quickly (small sleeves knit in stockinette in the round? -- oh yes), so perhaps I'll be able to finish this up this week.

Meanwhile, because I missed a day of Tour de Fleece spinning on Saturday, I tried to make up for lost time the past two evenings. I finished the second of three bobbins of my Fat Cat Knits superwash Targhee:

and I managed to spin the entire second bobbin of Southern Cross Fibre superwash merino in one sitting last night:

I did (just barely) start the third bobbin of FCK singles last night, but it was really only about 10 minutes' worth of spinning, so there's not much to see. The SCF singles are now ready to be plied, but I may let them sit for one more day. I do have to say that I didn't love spinning the singles, which was unexpected. Usually I love spinning superwash merino, but this batch was weirdly clumpy and even perhaps a bit felted in some spots, which made it hard to draft evenly. I'm not sure what was going on there. In any case, I'm happy to be nearly done with it.

Short & Sweet

I'm going to keep tonight's post very short and to the point because frankly I'm exhausted from a weekend away (from which I got back less than two hours ago). I was away from my spinning wheels, too, so not much progress has been made on my Tour de Fleece spinning in the past 48 hours. I did spend some time with my Lendrum on Friday night, and I'm moving along on bobbin number two of my Fat Cat Knits superwash Targhee.

I'm hoping to spend a bit more time on this bobbin this evening, provided I can keep my eyes open. Once it's done, I plan on spinning the second bobbin of my Southern Cross Fibre superwash merino.


I do have a finished skein to show from earlier in the week, a skein that ended up taking a lot longer than I'd anticipated. You saw it on the bobbin last week. Unfortunately, after it was washed and dried, I discovered that I'd put too much twist in it, so on Monday evening, I wound it into a center-pull ball, attached the end to my miniSpinner, and ran it back through the wheel quickly to take out some of the excess twist. Then I washed and soaked it again.

This is Fat Cat Knits Polwarth/black Alpaca -- it was my last Transformations theme club shipment. After the plying do-over and reskeining, it ended up being approximately DK weight and roughly 265 yards. It's pretty darn squooshy, too!