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One of the things I love out the online crafting communities is the ability for people from all over to get together and make a joint effort of something. Sadly I am usually too busy to manage anything for the Knitting Olympics or the Tour De Fleece. But this time I did manage to make a small effort, more of a “nod” really.

I finished the merino/silk that was languishing on my wheel for who knows how long.

This is the sister yarn to another yarn I spun up in a different colourway from the same fibre. It’s lovely looking and the silk really gives it a nice drape and shine. I ended up with 260 yards fingering weight, navajo plied. If I am to be honest, merino and merino blends suck to spin. It just doesn’t draft smoothly and makes me INSANE. Each and every time I spin it I remember I don’t like it. It’s time to dig through my fibre stash and clear it out once and for all because THE BURNING HATE - I just can’t take it anymore. So maybe you will see some merino for sale in the near future…

I also spun up this little lovely, which you may remember from NH Sheep and Wool.

The colours definitely remind me of cotton candy! It’s a chunky yarn, I got 130 yards out of 4 oz so I would consider it pretty lofty. I did a two ply and this spun up super fast! It was a blended fibre roving, Alpaca/Mohair/Border Leicester. So I like this yarn but I will not buy from this vendor again.

This was FILTHY. I mean, I’ve processed fleeces that were just shaved off an animal and put in a bag, so for me to say this was dirty… and this was like, really really dirty. I just don’t understand how something that was obviously taken from three different animals, dyed, and then processed into a roving was as dirty as it was. My lap was covered in VM and mess. Each draw I had to stop and pick things out (although I eventually just settled for cleaning out the pokey stuff) and when I washed it the sink water became opaque. If you look closely you can see some VM sticking out of the yarn. Still! Those animals must have been made of straw.

I may in fact contact the vendor and ask them what their method is for processing fibre to this extent without using ANY WATER WHATSOEVER. It’s actually quite amazing and instead of complaining maybe I should be giving them props for what must be some new way of dying with only air, dust and dirt. Or maybe they grew pink, yellow and blue sheep?

I also started on anther NH Sheep and Wool purchase that doesn’t seem quite as nasty.

I have 6 oz. of Icelandic pin draft, surprisingly soft, and I am enjoying it so far. My floor didn’t need to be vacuumed after I finished my session at least! I am aiming for about a dk weight here with a two ply so I am trying to not squeeze the hell out of this stuff as I wind it on. Maybe I will have enough for a vest. Am I being too optimistic with 6 oz? I’ll probably just get a scarf.