Eight pretty skeins…

…all in a row. O.k., so it’s really nine skeins, but when I thought of the title for this entry, I hadn’t yet finished the silk. This might explain why I haven’t been getting much knitting done!

Today’s entries are, from the left: chestnut brown Romney lamb fleece from The Pines Farm, hand dyed Blue Faced Leicester roving from Winderwood Farm, hand combed grey CVM fleece that I got at a St. Distaff’s Day spin-in, cinnamon Corriedale top from Aurelia, hand dyed merino/silk top in watery blues, hand dyed “Soft Wool” (primarily Targhee) in spring green, Lisa Souza’s “Bird of Paradise” merino top, and in the front (left), bombyx silk sent to me by Kerry, and (right), merino/tencel from Ellen’s Half Pint Farm that I picked up in Maryland this year. Whew!

I have about 8 oz of the chestnut that is probably destined for hats/mittens, unless I can find more of the stuff. The finished yarn is somewhere between a chunky and bulky weight. I’m not sure of its exact yardage, but I’m guessing it’s not tremendous. This was my first really successful woolen spun, long draw yarn, and I’m now sunk deep into the long draw vortex. What a hoot! I have only one hank of the BFL (about 180 yards), so it’s probably also destined for hat-itude, or perhaps mittens.

The grey CVM is only part of a fleece – an extremely filthy fleece – that I’m having to hand comb due to a break in the fiber. I’ve currently got about 500 yards of the stuff. I love what happens to greys when they’re overdyed, so once I get it all spun up, I’ll decide on a final color. Because of the break, I’m getting an unfortunate amount of waste, and I’m just hoping to get enough for a project at this point.

The cinnamon Corrie is the base color of the Stockholm Sweater. I already have 8oz of a coordinating brindled roving spun, and have nearly completed the 24 oz of cinnamon. This is being worsted spun at sport weight. The blue silk/merino (also a wosrted spun sport weight), came in at just under 400 yards.

The pale green is two pounds of my favorite “Soft Wool” that is destined to become Brenda Zuk’s “Shoal Waters”, to be complemented by lovely glass buttons from the fabulous Sheila E! Two pounds was probably overkill, but as this sweater is knit with the yarn doubled throughout, I wanted to be safe. The Bird of Paradise on the end has yet to tell me what it wants to be, but I’ve got 1.5 pounds of sport weight. Inspiration will strike soon, I hope, because this is one of my favorite colorways of Lisa’s. The woman *is* color magic.

My biggest thrill, though, had to be the silk in the bottom of the photo. Here’s a close up:

I’m jazzed about this because it’s the first time I’ve ever been able to spin bombyx silk. It has a squeak and crunch to it that makes it a tough spin for me, but I decided that it might be like little kids eating broccoli, i.e., I just needed more exposure! It was a tremendous opportunity for some fun. I learned a lot about spinning silk, I think. At least, I learned a lot about how I should spin silk. I had a much easier time when I pre-drafted enough to get the fibers nice and fluffed up. I know that there’s some controversy between the PreDrafterians and the NonPreDrafterians, but when it comes to silk, I know in which camp I reside! Thanks again, Kerry. I ended up with about 730 yards.

My second biggest thrill is the merino tencel, because I was largely able to achieve a “hand painted” look without Navajo plying a single, or hand painting the finished yarn. I split the roving (just a 2oz taster) as cleanly in half lengthwise as I could, and then really tried for consistency in the grist so that I’d get roughly the same yardage on each bobbin. When I plied it together, I was pleased to see the colors mostly lining up, with only small spaces of overlap. I got about 530 yards out of my two ounces, making it a reasonably respectable lace weight. Here’s a close up:

Now, it’s off to finish up the newest Romney batt. I made it in under the wire, Caroline – it’s still Monday!