Ritual

I went a little nuts during Into the Whirled's last store update. One of the ones I bought was this merino in the colorway "Ritual."

Firecracker

I got to play with my friend Erica's new Lendrum. I worked on a sparkly wool art batt from Harveyville, KS, appropriately called "firecracker."

Nanaimo Bars

I made Nanaimo bars over the weekend.

I used this recipe as usual.

Mount Pleasant

I've spun up the Neighborhood Fiber Mt. Pleasant roving that my friend Jess gave me.

Jewel Tone

The Knit Picks roving sat around neglected for awhile, but it is now yarn.

Stuck in the Middle

I wanted a spindle project for when I couldn't be tied to a wheel, so I turned to the lovely green Loop top and my new turkish spindle.

I do love the sparkle, the beautiful long color changes and the fact that it drafts so effortlessly. I'm not sold on the idea of a center pull preparation though. Since it's unspun, you can't really pull on it with much force without it breaking . After the first few breaks, I found myself gingerly tugging on it to pull out a bit at a time. But that got annoying pretty quickly, so I've been reaching in and pulling out whole wads at a time, untangling and then spinning just that section. It's a real pity I didn't just start from the outside end. It should get better through, as the middle part empties out.

Sapphire Heather

I'm still not up to plying the green merino silk, so I'm going to work on something else.

This is 7oz of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes roving in "Sapphire Heather."

In Practice

I used the black colonial wool to practice some Navajo plying. Here's the single:

And the 3-ply:

I really have to work on distributing the twist evenly when plying. The worst of the it will likely even out in the wash I bet, but there's definitely room for improvement in my plying technique. I have a lot of trouble controlling the treadle and bobbin of singles while simultaneously trying to set up the three strands for the next bit of plying.

This was just a warm up. I'm trying to get better at Navajo plying for I can ply this:

I got it off the bobbin and into a centerpull ball, thinking I would make a swirly 2-ply. But now I've decided to try for a 3-ply, with the bonus of conserving the order of the colors.

Old Colonial

I got these 2 2oz braids of colonial wool from Nature's Yarns in Virginia a long time ago.

Time to throw it on the wheel. Or maybe the spindle. We'll see.

Cranberries & Green Beans

I got this 4oz braid of Natchwoolie long wool from a Ravelry destash.

The colorway is "Cranberries and Green Beans." I was a little surprised when it turned out to be two separate 2oz strips of roving.

I decided to spin them separately on one bobbin.

Then I plied the two different colored singles together.

Et voila! Swirly whirly longwool!

Snooze Control

I've put the deep sleep roving to bed, as you can see by the stupendously bad lighting:

Turkish Acquisition

I have a new toy, thanks to my friend Erica:

It's a Turkish spindle from Knit Picks. I'd never spun on one before. It doesn't spin for very long, but I do like the "make a ball as you go" feature.

Deep Sleep

This is on the wheel now:

4oz of corriedale cross from FiberFancy in the colorway "Deep Sleep."

A Bird in Hand

I worked on a few things last week and over the weekend. I finished the first macaw sock.

It came out nice. I'm resigning myself to the two socks not matching, which is more likely than not with a handpainted yarn.

I also spun more of the Forks jacob roving. I'd show you a picture, but I accidentally left my bag-o-craftiness at Jersey family's house. So I'll have to put that spinning project on hold for now.