Since I came home from SAFF, I have been spinning and dyeing more in the past month than I have in the last year. I have also been trying to felt some of these fibers together (as yet, unsuccessfully). Part of it is an attempt to justify the money that I spent at SAFF, but also because I want to spin more than I have been.
Last Friday, my friend Jane came over, and we played around with dying fibers. I used some of the 3lbs of merino that I bought. I came up with this wild purple-blue-grey thing, which I have not spun yet. I also played around with some blue and yellows. Check this out:
I am calling it parrot. The yellows and blues made the yarn mostly green, but there are also spots of purple, turquoise and yellow in it. It is 58 yards of chunky merino - very soft. I think this is enough to do a cap or as a great trim on something else equally fabulous.
I am currently working on spinning enough yarn to knit myself a sweater. I want to have at least 1200 yards of worsted weight natural grey merino. I only need about 850, but with the extra yardage, I can break off the sections that are too thin or thick and make a more consistent knit. My spinning is getting fairly consistent in gauge thus far. I am currently spinning a kettle dyed roving that I call rose garden. I put about 6 oz of the merino into a pot, and added color until I was happy. This is the roving as it is being spun up
:
This picture is not the best, but it gives you the idea. I am guessing that I am going to have about 200 yards of this for my finished yarn. I think that these yarns are going to go to Nitwits, and wait for the right home there. Who knows what will happen with them!