Spinning Like a Fiend

Things have been spinning up a great deal lately. there's just something about spinning. I cannot for the life of me explain it but I've found myself doing more spinning than anything else lately. First, I was working on the 4 ounces of Merino from Gritty Knits in the September 2011
Merino-of-the-Month color.

I finally finished spinning it and dutifully waited overnight to start plying. I plied and plied and plied. Then I went to bed and slept and started plying again the next day. I plied and plied and plied and plied some more. (I really wanted this yarn or I would so have lost interest sooner.) I finally finished.

It came out just beautiful.

As I've mentioned before, it's navajo-plied to keep the colors together and I spun straight through the braid to make it almost like a gradient with one color on one end, a different color on the other and the center completely different. This picture doesn't totally do it justice, you can't see how the colors move through the skein.

I tried to hold it out so you could see a bit better.

It sort of worked. I think you won't really be able to see it well until I wind it up and I am vehemently resisting because I have a couple of projects on deadlines and I know I won't be able to resist this yarn once it's wound into a ball. I will have to cast something on at the soonest possible moment.

As I said, it came out lovely. I got (prewashing measurement) 658 yards of Navajo-plied yarn. I cannot believe the yardage. This is 4 ounces people! I think it's safe to say this came out as laceweight and I'm so excited and happy with it. I'm telling you, the resistance I'm displaying in not winding it up is amazing.

But that's not all! (Infomercial Style) Remember the Spunky Eclectic yarn that I spun up awhile ago. As you may remember, I didn't love it but a lovely friend from my knitting group did and we arranged a trade. The yarn has gone to live in it's new home and something else has come to live in my home.

Two of these amazing braids of Falkland. The colorway is Giza Shadows and they're dyed by Fiber Fancy which is a dyer I hadn't tried before. I think the soft subtle shading in these braids is amazing. I absolutely love them. As a matter of fact, I love them so much that although I received these on Sunday evening at Knit Night, I had this by Monday evening.

Well, look at that, it's a lovely skein of worsted weight yarn. I really debated about how I would ply this fiber, I knew I wanted about a worsted weight to knit some great spring project (once my deadline knitting is done of course.) I'm thinking a bag or purse as a matter of fact. Any suggestions?

Anyway, I really debated about how I would ply this yarn but ultimately decided to Navajo-ply. What can I say, I love how it keeps the colors together. I really love how it turned out too.

This first skein has about 200 yards and the second has a bit less so it might be closer to a bulky-weight. What's that? The other skein? Oh yes, that's right, today I finished plying the second skein of this yarn. I still absolutely love it and I'm so excited to get to knitting but I have things to finish first.

One of my deadline projects is a sort of secret but the other is not. It's the second of the Critter sweaters. It's the larger of the two, for the older girl and I had a minor mishap in that I had it come out way too big. I was past dividing for the sleeves when I realized it so I have some ripping and reknitting to do. If you need me, that's where I'll be.