6.26.09

Yesterday, I started the day with this:
Spun until we drove out of the country to the city for lunch (3-4 hours) then came back and spun another couple of hours:
Ended the day like this:
I can not believe that there is still half of the first of these twin balls left. I DO like the irony, a PEN for scale with the PENCIL roving.

6.25.09

Thanks, Grand Purl Baa, for the layout hints! And Happy Birthday

I refuse to call that color school bus yellow anymore. From now on I will call it MANGO. So much more delicious, do you agree? This was sacrifice fiber. That is, I wanted to spin the pink from Alchemy Fibre Arts (see the June 22 post) but I knew I had to get back into spinning on some fiber that I could sacrifice. I selected the Abbigale pencil roving (see June 23 post) and tried out some of the scrids and made a fine mess and accomplished nothing. Well, nothing useful unless I start needle felting...Then I found left over fiber from a spinning class and sacrificed it and any other loose fiber I could find. It is the MANGO above with coral, green, wine, and brown. I like what came out.

There is not much of it and it ends with a clot of 2 types of brown. I Navajo plied it and tried to remember how to spin worsted weight for doubles knowing I was going to triple it. It falls somewhere between DK and Chunky. HMHC asked me what I was going to do with it and I really do not know. It would make charming stripes on brown boot socks or winter house socks so maybe I'll set it aside for that.

Maybe part of a WILD TEA COSY?

6.23.09

All about the Abbigale
It is (was) four balls of pencil roving. The colors are kind of pale and I am a saturated color kind of girl so I never really paid much attention to it. I have not done any spinning in over a year, but that did not stop me from finding some roving and ordering up a big puffy package or two from England. As referenced yesterday, the pinks all came from Alchemy Fibre Arts (The link should work in this post and if so, I will go back and edit yesterday's.) I bought 3 batches of pinks through reds through purples and spent yesterday morning arranging them. That was when I decided I should get back into spinning with something less challenging and found the pencil roving! Imagine my surprise when I pulled out those four little nuggets and found that each one was wrapped as DOUBLE pencil roving!
If you do not know me, you have no idea how thrilling this discovery was for me. Here is a picture that may give you a clue:
Yes, I am obsessed with color, balance, and proportion and keeping the order just as I think it should be. If I could only harness some of that dementia for housework...
Anyway, I spent a few hours separating the roving into 2 identical balls. The plan? Perfectly matching plies! I am certain they will not be balanced in weight since I am really a novice spinner but it will be fun to ply them and see how closely the color changes match up on each single.

Oh...and the picture at the very top of today's post? Just enough short little off-ends to warm up for the real thing.

6.22.09

Caught my attention last night:


I brought out my spinning wheel, set it up, looked at ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL my fiber, played with the pinks above from Alchemy Fibre Arts at Etsy.com then decided to spin something else entirely. This stuff which I have not the first idea about. Here is the bag it came in from Jackie's Fine Yarns.
Yeah, I know. I don't know what it is, if Abbigale is the colorway, maker, or the name of the sheep it came from! More tomorrow.