Colors on Parade

I've been so into spinning this past week or so that I haven't thought to take time of the pre-spun roving, the process or the singles. Hell, I haven't even taken the time to note ratios or pre-drafting activities to repeat myself later. I've just been a whirling dervish.

Spinning has been an activity of mine for about six months now ... I got the bug back in the pre-Spring months when I ordered a spindle from eBay. That one spindle multiplied and I ended up with my fair share of spindles, which allowed me to tackle multiple fibers at once. In the meantime, I stocked up with more than my fair share of fibers at MDS&W. Then i got my wheel in June, and it's been nuts ever since.

But I've never actually knit with any of my homespun. Until now.

Earlier this month, the Harlot posted a beautiful story of a Grafton batt of fiber that she spun up, Navajo plied and then knit into a very simple, one-row scarf. I was inspired, and I took to the wheel with a passion, tearing through my MDS&W fiber like a madwoman, spinning and spinning and spinning. Then I went to Cloverhill and discovered Mama E's roving, and got some of that and took to it. I showed you what I Navajo plied earlier last week (that peacock colored yumminess? I'm unplying it to do a double -- Navajo makes a three-ply), but late last week I hit the Cherry Garcia colorway.

Now I'm no pink girl, and I doubt these pictures will do it any kind of justice, but this colorway is like ice cream. No joke -- it's smooth and luscious, the color transitions are subtle and if I could get naked and roll in it, I would. I wish I could show you the process, really I do, but I spun it up, hung it to set the twist, and then made this:

There it is, all wound up. I'll note here that there were no fancy steps taken to preserve the colorway ... I wasn't about to f#@* up another batch of roving trying that. Instead, I let it go the way it wanted to, and the transitional result is (I think) pretty darn nice. See?

I like it. The only question is, is it mine, or do I put it in the holiday bin?

And I'm on to Fire. Mama E makes one hell of a roving, and I'm really looking forward to knitting with this once the twist is set (the plan is to soak it this a.m. before work and then hang it up in the hopes that it will be dry by tomorrow).



I have a child who wants an orange scarf.

In more spinning news, I'm dealing with some singles that I spun up last week in my frenzy -- a beautiful yellow merino/llama/silk concoction. I only bought four ounces of it and was hoping to get a fine yarn out of it. I did, soaked and hung the singles (they were very twisted) and now I have approximately 230 yards of singles to work with. I'm torn ... do I make a modified Melody (I cannot tell you how long the finished product is--it's ginormous) or something else. Thoughts?