Snail Spirals

How about a fiber round-up?  I've been busy recently, and finally got around to taking pictures this morning.

First, though, I want to show this:



Emma's really getting the hang of spinning!  She finished her first full bobbin of singles at Crafty Night this week, and is well on her way to filling a second this morning.  I really can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday morning than a mother/daughter spinning session.  After all the miserableness of the past year, this brings me so much joy.

Now, onto my show and tell.

This is a project from a couple months ago.  It's special because it is a blend of Corriedale wool and mohair, and the mohair is locally grown.  The goats that grew this fiber live in Summerville, at Pleasant Hill Farm, about a half hour from my house.



I blended the fibers on my carder, 80% wool:20% mohair, and spun a fine singles.  This yarn is a 3-ply, from three batts, and the skein is 340 yards, 137 grams (4.8 oz).  The spinning was delightful, and LOOK at that shine!  It's drapey and smooth and soft and will develop a lovely halo.



I have a pile of mohair left (I went a little crazy when Emma and I were at the farm...) in white, silvery black, and light tan, so watch for more of this yarn.

Next up is the gray-brown Romney wool from Christmas, which I finished off on New Year's Eve/New Year's Day.  Emma and I had a quiet night to welcome in 2012, with our dinner of shrimp, cheese and crackers, clementines, a homemade veggie dip tray, and raspberry lemonade.  This is the second year that we've done this as our "traditional" New Year's Eve party, just the two of us, and I found myself looking forward to it as much as she was.  It was a very pleasant evening of snacking-for-dinner, watching movies, and spinning.



I ended up with about 420 yards of 3-ply yarn, a total of 241 grams (8.5 oz). This will work very well as part of a future sweater with the Christmas Tunis and Friday Harbor Border Leicester-Romney that I have tucked away in the closet.  Some may be dyed, or maybe not. Not a decision that needs to be made immediately; for now I'm just collecting yarn.



Next, here's a Work-In-Progress.  This is the superfine New Zealand Merino that I bought with Emma's wheel.  It's lovely stuff, incredibly soft.  I'm spinning it very very fine (surprise, surprise...) and have finished the first batch.



This is 19 grams of roughly 130 wpi singles, but it's hard to measure accurately.  It'll be easier after plying.



Another Work-In-Progress: I'm still going on the bundle of Fiber Optic merino/bamboo top that I got at Sock Summit.  I have almost three-quarters of it spun, with only 32 grams left.  I'm spinning this very very fine, and savoring every inch.



And one last Work-In-Progress to wrap things up.  This is the Fiber Optic pencil roving from Sock Summit, 50% superwash merino and 50% bamboo (rayon).  I pulled this out after I finished the gray-brown Romney because I needed some color...and just because.



Lovely greens.  The pencil roving comes as a doubled strand, so the first thing I did was split it in half lengthwise and wind each into a ball.  I'll spin each from the same end, and when I ply, hopefully the colors will mostly match up.



I started spinning the first half last Tuesday, at Crafty Night.  I'm drafting this out very very fine (are you seeing the trend yet?!) for laceweight.  I have tentative plans for this to be woven into a scarf, using it for both the warp and weft.  The long runs of color should give a plaid-ish effect when the yarn is crossed with itself.



Whew!  So that's what I've been doing.