Tuesday, February 20, 2007

I LOVE 3-Day Weekends!!


Why, you might ask? Because I can spend enough time spinning to actually accomplish something. This past weekend I finished off 4 huge (well, 2 huge, one large and one medium) skeins of yarn. Woo-hoo! The Spinderella thrums were already spun up and waiting to be plyed, one and one/half bobbins of the pale grey romney was spun and the other two rovings were snug in their bins in the wool room. I got out the bin of "Honey" (improved Eng. Leicester from Anne Grassham in NZ) and quickly spun up two bobbins and plyed them. I have already spun a skein of this fiber and it's a wonderful thing - so shiny and fluffy. :) After spinning two bobbins of Honey, I wandered around, trying to choose something for my secret skein pal. I decided upon this Fine NZ romney hogget in a silvery gray. The fiber is wondrously soft, but the roving was sticky and hard to draft! Boo!! This is one of the rovings from Wooly Knob and I can't tell if it's sticky because it's cold or because it got felted a bit in its travels. The good thing about a sticky roving is that it makes it so much easier to spin a thicker yarn. Heh heh - I took full advantage of that and made a lovely thick 2ply that will knit up quicky and felt easily. Overdyeing this light gray gives wonderful jeweltones, too, so my secret pal should like this a lot.
Honey, toffee colored Leicester from Anne Grassham's flock in New Zealand. Leicester is a longwool breed not known for softness, but this lofty and softly spun and plyed yarn has a wonderful hand. This photo does not do the yarn justice.
This fleece is also from NZ, purchased from Sue Cote way back in 2000. The sheep is simply identified as "E-106," but her wool is very soft and a glowing pearly pale grey. I got a whopping 568 yds from just under 6 oz. I'm thinking I might dye this wool - the pale grey would overdye marvelously.

This is another skein of the Spinderella Thrums that you have seen before. One ply light blue, the other a deeper blue and the result a richer, more interesting yarn. 210 yds.
And here is the skein for my Secret Skein Pal - Carissa. She knits for her kids and this wool is very fine NZ romney hogget. I think this will make snuggly warm caps for the whole family. I had trouble drafting this roving for whatever reason, so I chose to leave the singles very thick and to ply them softly. My magnetic winding counter failed to count when I was winding this off, so I don't know how many yards I got.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow, you've been busy! All the yarn is lovely.

Opal said...

Beautiful yarn!