Holy cow – an actual post with photos two days in a row? Don’t count on it ever happening ever again, but all of my spinner enabling friends have begged for photos of my weak plying skills – I suspect so they can point and laugh – so I figured it was easier to post than to put everyone off.
And yes I stole that title from a book, but since it was my book, I don’t think the plagiarism charge will stick, thank you very much.
Up top – the merino top I bought at Rhinebeck. The colorway, since I didn’t mention it yesterday, is Handful of Dust. Yummmmmm.
The photos are a bit out of order but I am too lazy to fix them right now, so there you have it. I had two bobbins worth of singles, and of course when I plied them I had a few yards left over on one of them, so I tried a bit of Navajo plying. I really, really like that technique, although it won’t be a good choice for me overall until I get my singles a little bit (or a lot) thinner because the resulting three ply just barely fit through the orifice. But I really like how the color changes were more noticable with that ply.
Here is a photo of my 82.50 yards of extremely thick and thin 2-ply yarn. Why no, I can’t find my niddy-noddy and wrapped the yarn around an old cookie sheet to steam and set the twist – what made you ask? 🙂 Still can’t decide what to make out of it, but it will be made soon, because of all that instant gratification need I have floating around this week.
To satisfy my needs in the meantime, I dug through the house looking for any fiber I could find, and remembered some merino silk top I had bought last year to use with my drop spindle. I spun a bobbin full of that last night, and will probably finish off the rest tonight. In the meantime I have posted on Ravelty that I need to buy more merino top in the state of NJ right NOW and some fellow crazies have hooked me up with a place to go – more on that after I get there.
This paper bag of joy was given to me by the fine ladies of Ariadne Knits
and the only reason it isn’t knitted up is that I can’t stop spinning. Photos when it’s finished, but it contained two balls of fluff (that the Kid has stolen for her experiment spinning), and enough beautiful blue laceweight to finish the dainty little necklet design that was included in the package. Go see them – tell them I sent you, they were very nice!
Last but certainly not least we have what the Kid blew her money from Pop-pop on – an alpaca teddy bear. His name is Tickles. Last year she was quite incensed about toys made from dead alapacas (as opposed to fleeces which don’t bother her at all), but last year the vendor took the time to explain to her that in the economy it came from, every part of the alpaca was used after its demise – and that alpacas weren’t killed before their time to become teddy bears, if only because they were more valuable while they were producing fiber. She pondered this in the twelve months between events, and decided that it was okay for her to purchase one. I love the amount of thought she put into her purchase.
I am off to babble some more – I am going to be on the Webs podcast soon and we are taping today. Wish my luck!
OMG – that alpaca teddy bear is adorable!!!!!
Yum! Love the plying. Really love the Navajo plying. That’s very very cool. So you need another wheel with a bigger orifice is all. No problem.
Where are you going to get more merino, hmm?
I’m such a bad friend for not stopping by! I ventured into the author’s tent just as far as the Mason-Dixon ladies for about 30 seconds on my way off the grounds. I could see crowds in there, and I had had my fill of crowds by that point — plus, I was two hours behind the time I had planned to leave the grounds. Little did I expect the traffic when I left that place, either! I got home SO late, but it was worth it. So sorry I did not see you, though.