Learning Experience (or Not)

The other day I was knitting away on my handspun socks.

They had a heel and I was working up the leg and enjoying the feel of knitting with handspun (as one does) and I noticed something. I noticed that the foot looked long. It looked too long really, I started to get a sinking feeling. I look at it, I held it up to my foot. I looked at it some more. I thought about the gauge I had checked and the math I had done to check on when to start the gusset increases. I decided to try it out. I pulled the needles out and pulled the sock on my foot. There was over an inch of sock flapping at my toes. Way too big.
I really don't know what happened. I measured gauge in a couple of places (partly because it's handspun and might be a little different here and there) I figured out how many increases I would need to do and how many rounds that would take. I added in a bit for the actual heel turn and away I went. I did actual math. They still didn't work.
To me, that's part of the trouble with toe-up socks. You don't know that it isn't right until the heel is actually done. At that point it's so demoralizing to have to rip back. I decided these needed a good, long time out. So then, this happened.

Yup, ripped out entirely. I'll reskein the yarn and wash it and then maybe I'll think about winding it and casting on again but maybe top-down this time. No sense getting all crazy again.
I also heard the other day that it's six months to Christmas. That caused me to do this (after ripping the handspun sock).

I'm not too sure who these will go to yet. I was thinking my stepdad but now I'm not sure. Is this too, uh, girlie? Time will tell. Please note: I obviously didn't learn from being frustrated with the other toe-up socks. These are toe-up too.

Molly Ringworm Socks

This week has been busy and full but very good too. My darling cat came home so I've been enjoying lots of furry snuggles and knitting plain, simple things. As evidenced by these purse socks that got finished.

Normally Tuesdays are for spinning but all I've really been doing for spinning is getting in a little practice with my spindles before the Tour de Fleece starts and the progress is slow going on those.
So, back to the socks. I started them some time ago and while they're just plain socks, they didn't actually spend a whole lot of time in my purse, which is why it took me so long to finish them. The purse spot was being held by my Vesper Smoke on the Water socks for a long time and only when they were finally finished did these fall into place.
The yarn is an absolutely beautiful 80 Superwash Merino/10 Cashmere/10 Nylon blend from Ethereal Fibers in her Autocorrect series and it's called; Molly Ringworm. I love all the colors in it although I'm not too sure about the way the colors lined up with my stitch count but they're lovely, soft socks and I can't wait for it to be cold enough for me to actually need socks again. (Although, I don't want it to come too soon!)
I did a plain top-down sock with these and worked an eye of partridge heel and decided to change up the toe and did a round toe rather than a flat toe. I wanted to see how it would fit. Except for this brief modeling session, I haven't worn them though so time will tell if the round toe is a new favorite.

When these lovely socks were done I decided to opt for sanity and pull out a languishing UFO to finish rather than start something new. So I dug out some lovely handspun socks I had started a long time back and I've been working steadily away on them.

Look, this one has a heel now! This is 100% Merino from Gritty Knits but I spun it and plied it very tightly so I'm not too worried about wear. To give you an idea of this yarn, I'm knitting with US 1s (2.25 mm) and it's chain-plied yarn. It's very fine. They're a joy to knit (isn't it always a joy to knit with your handspun?) so I'm enjoying them immensely.

Lack of Ideas

After a big spin, or even just a focused spin where I'm trying to get a specific weight of yarn, I like to have a little palate cleanse. I pick something I have no plans for in the immediate future and just spin it "quick and dirty" as I like to call it. It usually comes out to about a 2-ply sport weight and I have lots of fun taking the spinning pressure off.
Today's spinning I really debated though if I should chain-ply it or two-ply it and ultimately, since I didn't have any plans for it, I decided to two-ply it, thinking I would have more options then.

It sure looks nice lying on the mossy grass of my back yard doesn't it? It did come up to be about a sport weight and I have 300 yards there. A nice, round number. But let's look a little bit closer.

Do you see all the barberpole-ing of the light and dark? In some fiber I like that and even fractal spin (split the fiber in different ways) so the colors will barberpole but in this case, I was thinking that I may add it to the Mitered Crosses Blanket yarn and with the contrast I don't know that it will work. In that pattern I really need contrasting light yarn and dark yarn and I'm not sure this will fit the bill with all the light and dark contrast in the yarn itself.

It isn't bad though. I do like how it turned out. Bouncy and soft but sturdy. I just have no plans for it. So, give me a hint. After I wash it, what should I do with 300 yards of sport weight two-ply handspun? Any ideas?

Handspun Undyed

I'm sorry for the radio silence the last week and a half dear readers. I have had a pretty awful time. My dear cat Kiki ran away and I haven't found her. It's been over a week and my heart is broken with worry. That's not something I normally talk about here (you don't really need to know just how much of a crazy cat lady I really am) but I felt you deserved some kind of explanation.*
In between searching frantically, sobbing uncontrollably and calling people in a panic I would sit down and try to calm down by spinning. I've been spinning the 4 ounce ball of roving I got from Shepherd's Harvest this year from Riverwinds Farm. It's undyed cormo and it's amazing. About 3/4 of the way through it I realized I still had a ball of roving sitting here from the year before (or possibly before that. The wool fumes get to you, I can't remember exactly when it was from.) I decided to spin that too and ply them together. I did. It all came out to be a very nice light fingering weight yarn.

It's a two-ply and I really love it. I have no idea what it will be but it's so beautiful and plain and simple. It really makes my heart (at least a little bit) happy.
Although it hadn't yet had it's bath here, I did wash it now and it didn't plump too much so I'm a little bit disappointed with myself because I didn't even end up with 800 yards. With 8 ounces. I love it anyway and I look forward to knitting with it.

*My dear girl isn't fixed so at this point I'm hoping she is just overrun with little kitty hormones and will still come home. I have to believe that so I don't lose my ever-loving mind.

Sweet as Honey

I've been knitting away on my cowl, although it's now gotten so warm outside it makes a cowl look a bit ridiculous. I don't think I've mentioned before that it's the Honey cowl pattern, although I knit it with lighter yarn, fingering weight. The yarn is actually Gritty Knits, as I know I've mentioned about 15 times before, I'm in her Merino-of-the-month club and this fiber was from January 2013. I spun it awhile back and didn't put it away in the stash. It just sat there, looking at me, begging to be knit so I finally caved. I tried it in a lovely shawl pattern. It didn't work. The colors were great but the bouncy puffiness of the yarn completely hid the lovely lace. So, I changed it up. I started this cowl.
I used a fingering-weight cowl pattern to know how many to cast on and I can say; I don't love how big it is. It's a little too wide. I may have to stick a shawl pin or something in it to keep it close around the neck so it isn't too loose and not warming. I did manage to finally decide I'd knit it tall enough though and cast off. It's about 8 inches tall and that's plenty for a cowl in my opinion.

I really like the way it came out. The stripes are especially fun and the simple slip stitch pattern was mostly fun to knit. Toward the middle it slogged a bit but I decided to just keep going and somewhere along the way, I found my joy in the simplicity again.
One of the best things?

This little ball of leftovers. I'm thinking it just might be enough for some very simple, short little handwarmers. Which will totally match the cowl. How fun is that?
Sweet as (handspun) honey.

Hazy Lace

Tuesdays are for spinning and today is Tuesday, although with Memorial day yesterday (here in the United States at least), it really doesn't feel like it could be Tuesday at all. I did finish some lovely spinning I've been wanting to share though. The Zarzuela Fibers BFL/Silk in January Haze.
It started out as a lovely braid of pinky-purpley fiber with sections of gray. Absolutely beautiful but for some reason it just wasn't calling to me to spin. I wanted to spin something fine and lacy though and silk blends are so great for that so I decided to give it a try.
To be honest after I started it, this sat for several weeks just waiting to be spun because it didn't hold my interest. They're all colors I love but for some reason, they weren't colors I wanted to spin. I brought my lovely Schacht Matchless spinning wheel to Shepherd's Harvest this year though, with this braid on it and all the quiet time around fiber and fibery people encouraged me. I got moving on it and finished the first half of the braid. I even got a start on the second half.
Once I got home I found my love for spinning returning and I decided since I was on the second half, I might as well keep on spinning. I did and soon finished the second half of the braid. The next day (Yes, that's right, I actually waited overnight like recommended. Sometimes I can be responsible.) I plied it up. Hours and hours of plying later I had this;

A gorgeous braid of fiber. I'm a little disappointed in my yardage, 520 yards doesn't seem like a whole lot when I think about how much time I spent spinning it. Although a great deal of that time was spent ignoring it so maybe that shouldn't count.

It's lovely and shaded and skinny though and I can't wait to figure out what it would like to be knit into. I think it's going to be amazing.
It hasn't had a bath yet so it's possible it will plump up a bit too, making the yardage much more reasonable, but we'll see.
A lovely lacy yarn just in time for the heat to kick in. It's just warm enough that I want to knit light, lacy things right now. Maybe a hazy sort of lace. 

Shepherd's Harvest Recap

Life has been really busy lately with lots of family and real-life stuff getting in the way of fibery pursuits. I did have plans to attend Shepherd's Harvest Festival with a friend though and snuck away to do just that.
We drove down on Friday with a stop at Trader Joe's along the way, neither of us had been to one before so that was super fun. My friend picked up a little Rosemary plant that became her mascot for the weekend, like Prince William is mine. Yes, we are knitting nerds, we are also proud of it.
Friday we got to the hotel and checked in, lugged all our stuff up to our room and settled in to relax. I made a nice little nest of knitting and spinning on my bed and got all cozy.

The way we travel, we like the option to be anti-social in the evenings so we packed food for our little room fridge including these amazing little goat cheese medallions with herbes de provence. I could write a sonnet about them, they were amazingly delicious!

We crashed early and slept well; away from responsibilities like husbands, pets and children (hers not mine, the children at least). Saturday morning Prince William was raring to go.

He didn't want me to have a few minute to knit my purse sock and wake up. He wanted to get there!
Prince William loved the bunny agility.

Tested out a Sidekick wheel and tried desperately to talk me into taking it home with us.

It is awfully cute and he is awfully persuasive. One may have to come live here in the future.
All that persuading is rough on Prince William though, so he took a rest on the grass.

We decided to head back to the hotel for the day and have some relaxing time. I had barely purchased anything at this point, I seemed to just have trouble deciding what I wanted, that seemed to follow me all through the festival.  I just kept remembering the nice wool at home. Who actually does that?
Saturday evening at the hotel I relaxed and my friend attended the Antique Wheel talk downstairs. It sounded interesting but after all the outdoor time and wool fumes, I was ready to zone out in front of the TV. I didn't even get a whole lot of knitting done.
Sunday we got all our things together and headed back to the festival. This time I was able to make decisions (at least, to a point) I picked out a couple of things from the amazing choices at Cloudlover.

And because of these sweet little additions to my friend's home, we set up outside with our wheels.

Meet Sugar and Stinker, two adorable little red-eyed white angora rabbits. They're both females and are a mix of English, French and mostly German Angora. She's super excited to have fibery animals and is learned all kinds of things about their care.

Prince William really enjoyed the spinning outside, although lots of people thought we were demonstrators and asked us lots of questions. He even conceded that the Matchless is a very good, if heavy to carry around wheel and we could wait on the Sidekick (it helped that the one we tried was conspicuously absent from the festival the second day).
Eventually the time came to pack up and head for home. Rosemary and Prince William said a sad good-bye.

We headed off for home with some lovely things in tow.

It was a great time and I'm so glad we got away from everything for a couple of days. I really think I should get away again. Like today. (Too much real-life stress.)
I've definitely rekindled my passion for my spinning, which has been lacking the last couple of weeks, and I'm excited to actually get some knitting done too.

Some lovely things are kicking around needing finishing.

Starting Something

This weekend I seem to have contracted some sort of virus. A knitting virus that is. First, on Friday night I started some mittens. I know, it's a silly time of year to knit mittens but I've been thinking of knitting them for awhile and since they're colorwork (and will hopefully be a gift) I decided having extra time would not be a bad idea. I cast on and knit my little heart out. Sometimes colorwork is just what you need.

On Saturday morning I finished the cuff and moved on to the hand chart, the part with the actual Octopus. It was then that I noticed it looked a little small though. Too small. I tried to pull it onto my hand. Yup, barely fits me and I have fairly small hands. It needs a rip. (Although I might put them on waste yarn and try blocking first.)
I was so sad that these lovely mittens needed a ripping that I set them aside and decided to work on something else. The trouble was, nothing else that was already in progress seemed like a good idea. So I dug out some handspun that had been staring at me, begging me to knit it.

The staring at me was partly my fault. It didn't get put away in the Handspun stash, it stayed next to my knitting spot so I could see it all the time. It's the lovely two-ply fingering weight merino I spun awhile back. The amazing blues and greens were just calling to me. I dug around my patterns for just the right project and finally cast on Magrathea by Martina Behm. I knit along, using the recommended needle size through the set-up chart. It wasn't working. Too stiff. I ripped and went up to a size 5 needle. I started again. I knit through the set-up chart again. This time I kept going.

Isn't it lovely? Did you catch that?
I was loving knitting Magrathea and I was loving the yarn, but not together, it just didn't work. I think the blue-green handspun was just too plump or something. Not sleek and smooth enough. I ripped again and cast on Magrathea with this lovely purpley handspun. It's really difficult to photograph this purpley-pink color, it is so much lovelier in real life than this photo suggests.
Well, that solved it right? I could knit away on something lovely while I had the mittens on a (hopefully brief) time out.
Except, that didn't solve it. I still had some blue-green handspun wound up and yelling at me. I was also tired last night, too tired to pay attention to a chart. Something had to be done.

At this rate, I'll never reduce the number of UFOs in this house like I intend to. Oh well, at least I'm happy with what I'm knitting right now. (Let's not think about that too much, at this rate all my needles will be in projects.)
Hopefully these should get me through this week which is fraught with real-life stressors.

Finished Wingspan

My knitting time has been lacking lately but I did manage to sit down last night and finish the lovely Wingspan shawl. I was really nervous about having enough yarn to knit the 8th wedge and I almost, almost decided to go for the edging right away but I didn't.
I managed to finish that last wedge and knit two rows of edging, instead of the four or five the pattern calls for and then I had to make a decision, rip out all or part of the last wedge and use it to knit more edge rows, do a bindoff from the opposite end using a crochet hook, which wouldn't involve any ripping but would make a tight bindoff edge or some other crazy plan that I hadn't thought of yet.
I decided to do the crochet hook cast off, thinking that the edge could use a little stability since I was still seeing a few gaps from the short row turns. Ultimately, I love how it turned out. I'm glad it doesn't have too much pink edging on the blue areas and the tighter bindoff still gives me the stable edge I wanted.

I love the subtle transitions and how it almost looks purple in some areas where the blue and pink are twirled around each other.

The faux Cashmere is so soft and lovely that I would have no problem wrapping this lovely thing around my neck all day and all night. As you can see, the ends still need to be woven in and I will block it gently although I really don't think it needs any help, it looks lovely as it is. Despite what an easy knit it is, I didn't knit on it all over town either, I kept it at home almost exclusively, wanting to keep it away from the friend I'm considering gifting it to.
The best part? This is how much yarn is left.

Those few inches (plus the few inches of the blue tail) are all that remains, I didn't waste any of it! That makes me so happy, especially with special handspun like this.
So, here we go:
The Specs:
Pattern: Wingspan by Maylin Tri'Coterie Designs, the free version not the updated paid version
Needle: US Size 5 (3.75mm)
Yarn: Sparktickes Dyes Faux Cashmere in Jesse Pinkman (Breaking Bad Series) handspun 2-ply gradient
Notes: The yarn was spun in October and November of last year. The needle is a size larger than the original pattern calls for and really too big for the yarn weight but I wanted something soft and loose in this divine yarn, not too tight or firm. If I can bear to part with it, this will be a gift but I will definitely knit this pattern again!

Spinning Haze

I'm sorry for the long absence dear readers, last week sort of got away from me. I took what was meant to be a quick trip to see family for Easter. It turned into several more days than I had anticipated and I sort of flamed out on re-entry when I did arrive home.
The trip was great, I got to spend lots of time with my 3 year old niece and a small amount of time with my nephews and other niece but it was exhausting running after small children when I am not used to it and I am still fighting the cold my darling husband lovingly shared with me so I definitely needed the rest I took when I came home. For a couple of days there I barely even touched my knitting or spinning, I was just too tired to pick it up!
Now I'm back and trying desperately to get back into the groove but the dreary April showers we have had the last few days aren't helping. It's just chilly and gray enough that I'd rather tuck myself into bed with a hot cup of tea and a good book than do anything useful. I have found myself looking longingly over at my spinning wheel lately though.
Right after I finished my last spinning project, I decided I wanted to spin something finer than frog's hair again. (I'm really not sure why I do this to myself, I'm so not patient when it comes to actually doing it but I love the idea.) I dug out a lovely braid of fiber that I knew would spin beautifully. Zarzuela's Fibers January 2012 club colorway. It's been marinating in the stash for quite awhile but I just didn't get into the right mindset to spin it until recently. It's a lovely 75% BFL and 25% Silk blend in lovely shaded pinks and purples called January Haze. I think it will make an amazing laceweight but of course it's taking some time to spin.

I think it would really take less time to spin it if I actually spent some time spinning too.

Here you can see how fine the singles are spun and also the lovely shine this fiber has. I can't wait until it's finished yarn. It will be so lovely.
Again, that means I actually need to work on spinning it though, instead of just looking longingly at it. I think it's the name getting to me, January Haze. I've fallen into a Spinning Haze. Maybe? Or maybe not. Either way, it's time to get to work and get some spinning done so I can enjoy the yarn.

Knit Faster

Although I haven't been feeling too much love for the humble hand-knit sock lately, I have been working on my current socks-in-progress here and there. I don't think I even showed these to the blog yet.

Aren't they unusual? I'm not sure about how the colors are swirling down the sock but I love the colors and the yarn is soft, bouncy and wonderful. It's Nebula sock yarn from Ethereal Fibers an 80% Superwash Merino, 10% Cashmere and 10% Nylon blend and the color is Molly Ringworm from her Autocorrect series. This first one is almost at the toe and I honestly can't wait to knit the second one and wear these.
Never fear though, I'm still working away on my Wingspan shawl. I'm at the pink now! That's the last color so I'm getting close.

Honestly, I'm not entirely sure I'll have enough to do two more triangles and the last few edge rows. I'll just keep knitting until I run out I guess. If I knit faster, that means I'll have enough right?

Winging My Way

I was really trying to be good and not start anything new but last week, after finishing my Noro shawl, my needles felt sort of empty and odd (even though I have plenty of other things on the needles.) Since I was traveling to a conference where I would be in the car for about 2 hours and I wasn't driving, I needed something to knit. I have several plain vanilla socks on the needles but I just haven't been feeling the socks lately. I decided it was all right to cast on something new and I knew just what to knit.
This is really odd for me, I often flounder for several days deciding what pattern to knit with the yarn I'd like to use or what yarn to use with the pattern I'd like to knit. I often don't find a good combination and wander away to knit what's already on my needles.
This time it suddenly popped into my head and it just seemed right. I dug out the handspun Faux Cashmere from Sparktickes Dyes. It's a gradient in the colorway Jesse Pinkman from her Breaking Bad series. I had a lot of fun spinning this unusual fiber but I had had no idea what to do with it once it was spun. Some friends suggested Zuzu's Petals, I went so far as to buy the pattern and I like it a lot and I will knit it. It calls for a lot less yardage than I had though so I was afraid I would have to greatly alter the pattern to knit it with this yarn. Ultimately, I decided on Wingspan. The yardage was much closer to the 420 yards I had. I cast on and started knitting my triangles.

I love it! I love the simplicity of it, it really makes the gradient shine and I'm enjoying watching the color slowly change from one to the next. It's easy to sit down one evening and get at least one triangle knit. I can't wait to get to the pink so I've been knitting it a good amount of time and really enjoying every minute.
It seems maybe I just needed a mindless shawl (with a little interest). Now my needles are much more content to wing their way across this shawl. 

Noro Finito!

Things have been a little bit crazy here. Last weekend I was traveling and sadly unable to get a whole lot of knitting done. I did get some movie-watching done and some wonderful time with my 3 year old niece. I even got to have a meal with my 17 year old niece. Being seen in public! Quite an accomplishment for a crazy Aunt.
I did manage to finish my Noro Stripes Shawl though. I'm so happy it's done. I had enough yarn to continue for a few more stripes but I wasn't happy with the color combination coming up so I decided to end it.

It hasn't been blocked and the ends aren't woven in yet, like I said things have been busy around here.
I also recently finished the first of my Cursed Cable Mitts.

As you can see, I immediately cast on the second in the hopes I would be encouraged to finish it but as the weather is warming up, I'm thinking these might have to take a short break. They really need good lighting to work on them too and I just haven't had that lately. I need to sit in my kitchen more, I get the afternoon sun there. Here's a close up of the cable.

Even with the better lighting here, you still can't see it very well but trust me, it's lovely. If it wasn't so lovely, I would be tempted to scrap these. I just keep struggling along with that cable. I also haven't woven in the ends on this first mitt. That's odd for me, I usually do that right away with something you knit a mate to but I just haven't taken the time. Hopefully this next week will slow down a bit so I can breathe (and weave in some ends)

Ennui

I'm still feeling some pretty big project ennui so I've really not been working frantically on anything. I do a few rows a day on this Noro shawl I've been working on for a long time and that's about it. It is pretty and springy but the rows are getting long and I'm ready for it to be done.
 
 It's pretty and stripey but also not very photogenic since it mostly looks like a big stripey blob right now.
 
See, blob. In case I haven't gone into details before; this is a simple garter stitch shawl knit with two different balls of Noro. Normally, I would use two of the same kind of Noro sock yarn but in this case one is Kureyon (70% wool, 30% Nylon) and one is Taiyo (50% Cotton, 17% Wool, 17% Nylon, 16% Silk) The idea is to knit a simple shawl doing two rows of one color and two rows of the other and watch as the colors meet up and change slowly. The yarn itself does (almost) all the work and the result is lovely.
I'm definitely getting close to the end, the two balls of yarn are getting pretty small but I have several more days work to do. I'll just try to enjoy the colors as I knit since spring has definitely NOT arrived here in Minnesota. We got a dusting of snow again last night.

Spring Fever

This month I've been feeling a little off knitting and spinning-wise. I just can't seem to settle in and focus on a project. So, when it came time to figure out what to turn in for Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup, I was at something of a loss. The Darling Clementine socks worked fine for Detention (a project started earlier that has not been finished, then gets finished during the month). Unfortunately, that doesn't count for your class and students are required (in order to keep their good student standing for sorting purposes) to turn in at least one class. I like to do at least two just in case there's an issue so last week I whipped out a couple of projects.

Here we have a handspun BFL Toilet Paper Cozy. (It's really a baby hat, just going incognito for the purposes of class turn-in.)
Then I also knitted this round dishcloth.

Nothing to write home about really. I've just been feeling sort of blah about dealing with complicated things lately. I think it's Spring Fever, despite the fact that Spring has not actually arrived. I keep telling myself to finish some things before starting new things too and I'm just not in love with any of my current projects.
These totally count as finishing things right? That means I can start something new? Like a little teeny sweater to match that baby hat? I have lots of yarn left.

Hello Clementine

Last night I sat myself down and told myself that I was about half a foot away from some finished socks and it was time to do something about it. So, I buckled down and finished my Darling Clementine socks.

Aren't they bright and sunshiney and lovely next to all that fresh snow? I continued the cable down the sides of the foot and while it is a lovely cable, I did not enjoy knitting it.

I ended up using a cable needle which seriously slows me down but dropping stitches every time and having to pick them up (repeatedly usually) made it not worth cabling without a cable needle either. I managed to lose the cable needle somewhere in my living room last night just before the last cable too. How do they disappear like that? It really is a mystery. I'll look for it later.
It's a good thing these are done too because I noticed something the night before last.

These are my handspun Whomp socks. They have a cable down the side of the leg. That's where I got the idea for these Darling Clementine socks as a matter of fact. They weren't particularly favorites but they were a little thicker, being handspun, so they saw a lot of use this winter. I could darn them or reknit the heels but the whole heel area is worn very thin on both so I think it's time to retire these lovely socks. Good-bye Whomp Socks. Hello Clementine.
(Never fear, I still have some of the Whomp handspun left so I could always make something else in the same colorway, to will remind me of these socks, and how much they helped keep my feet warm on this cold, cold winter. That is if I can ever bear to remember this winter.)

Stripe Kit

If you've been reading for any length of time you know that I'm in the Gritty Knits Merino of the Month club. Each month I get a braid of beautifully dyed Merino from the lovely Natasha and add it to my fiber stash. Sometimes, of course, it isn't my favorite colors but it's a club and that's bound to happen. I love the versatility of Merino and I really enjoy spinning it so I stick with this lovely, very reasonably priced club even though I often have more than 10 braids of Merino sitting around waiting to be spun at any given time. (That's probably a low estimate but I'm not going to reveal the truth about the stash.)
Every so often Natasha will use her lovely color sense and come up with an idea. Sometimes, being in the club gives us a chance to test it out for her and such was the case in January of 2012. I got this lovely big package in the mail and ripped into it to find...a Stripe Kit. It was 6 ounces, rather than the usual 4 and was in 2 ounce pieces. Each piece was dyed differently and the idea was to spin them and chain-ply for predictable, gradual stripes or alternate for a random pattern or anything else. The idea created a sort of stir in my Knitting and Spinning groups and lots of people spun 3 different-colored braids together. The results were gorgeous and I recently realized that I had never spun my Stripe Kit. It seemed like a great time to practice double drive on my wheel so I changed things up and got to spinning.

As you can see the three braids are very different, although the third one (on the right) has elements of both of the other two.

It was hard to get an idea of how they would spin up together though. So I dove right in and started. A traditional 3-ply all the way.

It turned out to be a very unusual yarn. It's all different and it's so hard to tell in the photos about the subtle shifts in color on each section of the yarn.

It's about a fingering weight but dense. Only about 420 yards from the 6 ounces.

Maybe here you can see a little bit better how the colors shift slowly in each part of the yarn. It's really unusual and I really can't wait to see how it looks knit up. I'm thinking after I finish some socks I have on the go, this might need to become some socks. Even though it's 100% merino, it has a nice tight twist and will be dense and tightly-knit so I think it will be okay. I'm not too worried, I have enough hand-knit socks in the drawer that I can afford to experiment a bit.