I started writing this post on Tuesday but then an incident happened where our washer died and I had to drag the sopping clothes out and wring them out so I got sidetracked and forgot to finish. So you're getting this on Wednesday instead of Tuesday. We'll just say that for this week, Wednesdays are for spinning.
Quite some time ago, Hobbledehoy put up a pre-order for some Lord of the Rings Battlings. If you know me, you know that I love the Lord of the Rings and so, I placed an order.
They were, of course, just as lovely as I had been imagining when they came. This set is the Rivendell Forest and they're lovely blues with touches of yellow. There's even a few places that are such a deep blue it almost looks black. My original plan was to spin it all onto one bobbin, spin the other set onto another bobbin (yeah, there's two. You didn't think this was all I got did you?) and ply them together. Once I saw them in person though, I decided I didn't want to do that. The colors are very different and I didn't want to tone them down too much. In either case. I didn't really have a plan but that didn't stop me from spinning up the lovely Battlings.
Doesn't it look wonderful? I love the little hints of sparkle and how it goes from those pops of yellow back into the deep, rich blues. Such lovely fiber. (Don't mind the furry little legs of my assistant back there. My dear cats pretty much never let me do anything alone. Taking photos is included in that.)
At this point though, I needed to decide what I was going to do with it so I let it "rest" on the bobbin for awhile. And I thought about it.
Eventually, I was watching the KnitGirllls podcast (probably my favorite podcast. I just love the interactions between Leslie and Laura, it makes me feel like I'm hanging out with a knitting group, even when I'm knitting alone). Laura was discussing how she had recently used some 100% silk thread to ply with and it got me thinking that maybe that was the right choice for this fiber. After all, at only 2 ounces, I didn't want to lose any yardage or tone down the colors by plying it back on itself.
I thought about it for a bit. Then, I did some research on where I could find some silk thread. I ended up finding out that our semi-local (to me) JoAnn Fabrics had some. I decided to check it out the next time I was nearby. Then, I got a coupon in my email for 60% off and made a point to be nearby to get some thread.
So exciting!
There were limited color choices but I thought this bright royal blue would be good with the blues in the singles. I was completely and totally guessing on yardage. I had no idea what to expect! At one point during plying I thought I would have way too much thread leftover. Then, I thought I would completely run out of thread. Eventually, I had my lovely new yarn plied.
I just love it! It's a little unusual. Sort of lumpy and bumpy but I think that's really fun. You still get the great color changes but the thread adds something too. So, which ran out first? The thread or the singles?
The thread. But there wasn't much left of the singles so I didn't try to do anything with it. Just a few yards so I was pretty good on my guessing.
I really feel like this was the right choice for this fiber. It turned out so beautiful!
Now that it's off the Niddy Noddy though, it does need a bath, it's pretty curly. It feels a little bit scratchy because of the thread so I'm not sure what I will do with it but I really love it. I've got about 330 yards so a decent amount of a light sportweight or heavy fingering weight yarn. I can't wait to see if it puffs up in the bath!
