The first one I finished was the stuff that Mitzi gave me to work on while I was at spinning guild. I'm not sure what the fiber is or where she got it. I don't even remember how many yards I got out of it. But it is my first 3 ply yarn and my first time Navajo plying. I really like it. I think it is wool so I might make a little felted bag out of it. Yay.
The second I finished was a batt from Loop. I am so excited about this. The first half of the batt was spun up on a drop spindle and I finished the rest of it on the wheel then plied the two singles together. It is her Kimono colorway and is a blend of red and hot pink bamboo, eggplant cooridale and purple mohair with lots of glitz in it. I got about 200 yards of a nice fingering/sport weight. I think I have already decided on the Branching Out scarf pattern. This yarn is just screaming to be a drapy neck decoration.
Last, but not least, was some practice roving that Grace threw in with the wheel. She has some single already spun so I put that on the bobbin and spun up the rest. I then Navajo plyed it to keep the colors sort of together. When you ply it to keep the colors together, it is much harder than just pulling up loops willy nilly. But I like the look it gave this yarn. I think I ended up with about 70 yards of a nice worsted weight yarn. How much do I love that you can search for patterns on Ravelry by yardage? It is heaven for handspinners.
But not only that! Over the Thanksgiving weekend, we went to a farmers market. There was a stall there with lamb for sale, but she was also selling yarn. So I started talking to her. She didn't have any of her handspun, just mill spun. But she mentioned she also had roving for sale. $12 for 1 lb. Crazy cheap. So I snatched that right up. It is a Dorset/Cheviot blend. Not merino soft but decently soft and smooshy. So I decided to try dying with the Wilson's cake icing dye. I split the roving into approximate quarters. and set to dyeing.
2 of the quarters I dyed with burgandy and moss green. As you can see, burgandy does not really turn burgandy. More of a hot pink really. It is pretty, just not really the effect I was going for. I laid out the roving and dyed in segments so the roving transitions from pink to green and back. Not sure how I am going to spin this one up yet.
This quarter was dyed with violet and moss green. I laid out the roving willy nilly and then using my eye dropper, I scattered the dye willy nilly. Then smooshed the dye all through the yarn and threw in a bit extra vinegar. In one of the tutorials I read, they said that the dyes with Red #3 will break in a high acid solution. Which in this case is what I wanted. So I ended up with a blend of pinks, purples, blue and green. Love it.
This one turned out nothing like I planned. Burgandy, moss green and orange food coloring. Whoo is this sucker bright. I am currently spinning it up and hope to make it a fluffy two or three ply heavy worsted/bulky weight. This stuff is heaven to spin. I might have to hit up Bill and Lauren to grab me more of this the next time they go to the market.
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