new toy...or two

The wheel arrived and has been a fabulous friend for the past month or so. I've made quite a few delightful sample skeins and finally finished my first 4oz project tonight - a 50/50 Merino Tencel blend in the colorway Scorched from Twisted on Etsy. Her colors are fabulous and have sucked me into purchases I had no intention of making.

As the yumminess is still on the bobbin, I have no idea how many yards I managed to get out of the 4 ounces or the wpi, though I suspect it's between a fingering and lace weight. My spinning strategy: split the roving in two, spun one half and split the second half into fourths. That gave me one ply with very long color repeats and the second ply with much shorter color repeats. I originally thought I would try and match stripes by spinning the two halves the same but when I realized I could simply buy striping sock yarn in the same colorway from Meg, it seemed foolish so I went for something that would be more barber-poling.

My other project for the evening involved starting the process for creating yarn for a friend's wedding shawl. She wanted a very particular color for her shawl - pale gold, not white, not yellow, but pale gold. Being part of the search team, I can say that it hasn't been easy to find pale gold yarn, especially not in a heavy lace weight/fingering weight. But as it turned out Outback Fibers had the perfect two fibers. We went on a field trip there a couple weeks ago while we were on the way to buy Toy Number Two from Fire Ant Ranch.

Tonight's product is a blend of 75% cream and 25% maize. I think it's quite lovely and will try and get Suna's approval in the next couple days because the picture isn't completely accurate, of course. I spun a sample the day of our excursion by holding the two rovings together. She posted a picture of the yarn and it seems much more golden than what I blended tonight so approval will certainly be in order. But since the fiber was acquired locally, it shouldn't be a problem to get more and Outback Fibers was fabulous (a studio in a home but overflowing with fiber delights enough to get me thinking about felting) so going back would certainly not be a bad thing.

In other news, my first shawl from hand spun yarn (the green stuff from the last post) is almost complete. I'm trying to finish a boring scarf for a friend before I let myself finish it but with any luck, that will be done in the next few days. {fingers crossed}

Comments

[Kathy]

Beautiful colors!

[farm-witch]

I linger staring at your spinning! Looks like you and Rose have bonded just fine. Awesome!

[Suna]

I tagged you for a meme. That will encourage you to post more, so I think.

[JessaLu]

Woo! Spinning! :o)

'tis lovely, m'dear. :o))

[Cheri]

Purty!

[Suna]

I think the yarn photographed more gold than it is in "person." Perhaps a conscious effort to not put in TOO much of the darker gold is all that's needed. But I am happy to "approve." Thanks for posting. My feed reader was happy to see you.

[Alison]

A post, a post! :-) Wonderful looking stuff there. Congrats on the new wheel!

[Jessica]

The spinning is lovely and I am green with envy over the drum carder. I've been lusting after one of those for years. You must let me know how you like the one you bought. I want some pictures of the new wheel. How is it working out for you? I bet it's light years nicer to spin on than the old cranky traddy. Keep us posted!