It's the Fiber Optic Yarns Rouge, Violet, Cerulean Gradient and it's for the Knitgirllls spinalong/knitalong. I have been talking about it for awhile. What seems like a long while.
I received the braid (from my preorder) in December. I couldn't start spinning until January 1 though. So I did, a little after midnight on New Year's Day I started. I was excited, I spun the first half of the braid pretty quickly. It took a long time.
I was so excited! One bobbin done, one to go! Then I would have to decide if I wanted a 3-ply (which would be navajo-plied) or a 2-ply which is what I had originally planned, which is why I split the braid the long way into two pieces.
Then I sort of lost steam. I knew it was going to take a lot of spinning hours to get that second half done and I just wasn't feeling it. I ignored it for probably 2 weeks at least, spinning just a few minutes here and there.
Then I realized that the deadline for the SAL part is coming up! It's meant to go January and February. We're already over halfway through February! Yikes! The handsome husband has been bugging me a bit about getting some things cleaned off the DVR because it's getting full so I decided to sit down and actually work on the DVR'd shows. After all, I DVR'd them because I like them right?
I started spinning and started watching. I watched Episodes 4 through the finale of Downton Abbey (no spoilers but I was not happy at the end!) and I was still spinning. I started working on other random bits off the DVR and various real time shows just to keep motivated. I was in the purple but it was taking a long time....Finally I managed to finish the second half of the braid.
Now came the time to decide, two-ply or navajo-ply. Tough call really. It was spun very fine so my concern with two-ply was partly strength and also that the 2 strands would not match up as well as I wanted color-wise. I knew I wanted a good amount of yardage though and two-ply is easier on my shoulder (which is much better but still reminds me occasionally that I should take it easy) so I ultimately went with two-ply.
So, I plied. And plied. And plied. I spent about 8 hours plying yesterday. Doesn't that sound ridiculous?! What was I doing all that time? I know sometimes I get distracted, going for more coffee, checking email and doing other things but really, a good amount of that time was actually spend plying so what gives?
I wound the skein onto my niddy noddy, trying my best to keep count of the wraps.
Then I understood why it had taken so long. All those hours spinning, all those hours plying. This was why. This made sense.
This skein of lovely gradient yarn. This beautiful 4 ounce baby. It has (If you're not sitting down, you should at this point.) 1350 yards. Yup, that's why it took so long.
I forgive it everything. I love it so much I'm currently wearing the skein as a scarf.
It's pretty well balanced too! And the very best part (well, one of them) is that it's not wiry. You know how sometimes (especially if you're me) you spin something and it ends up being wiry and not soft? This is soft, supple, gently shiny gorgeousness. I adore it.
It's so pretty and balanced that I'm debating whether I should even wash it. I'm ready to wind it up and get knitting. There's enough here for a circular shawl. A lovely, large lacy one. Wouldn't that be great? Of course, that would mean another new project but who's counting right?
1 comment:
Wow it looks fantastic! The patience on your part was definitely worth it.
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