Sunny, with a chance of yarn...and flowers!

And let's face it, here in my world, there is always a good chance of yarn! ;) Flowers? Not so much, but I seem to be getting lucky right now.

Let's start with yarn, because that is always a very good place to start, no? Yes! There's been some spinning happening. First, this...

This the second half of some Yarn Love top I bought at Spring Fling (this colorway is Jewels of Autumn, but it doesn't seem to be in stock at TLE right now). It was dyed with beautiful, big color segments (I kept meaning to take a picture of the roving before it was spun, but I forgot). After spinning the first half, I tried to Navajo ply it (which is a 3-ply technique using only one strand of singles...I think it is also referred to as "chain plying" because it resembles the chain stitch in crochet).

Because of the big color blocks, I thought it would yield a lovely yarn with gently changing colors. As it turned out, I'd somewhat overspun it (having just come off spinning all that yellow merino/bamboo, which needed way more twist than this wool), and ended up wasting several yards in a big tangled mess trying to N-ply, so I opted for Plan B - my usual 2-ply. I intentionally spun the second half with less twist so I could give the N-plying another try. While this plying technique still didn't come easily to me, I had a better time of it and managed to do it that way. Here is the result...

The two skeins on the right are the original skeins done as a 2-ply. The two on the left are the latest skeins, Navajo-plied. See the difference? The N-plied skeins have larger segments of color, whereas in the 2-ply, the colors are much more mixed up and slightly murky. (Sorry, there is bad lighting in this picture, but you can see the general difference I'm talking about.) And now I'm just not sure which I like better! I thought I'd like the N-plies better than the 2-plies, but they are so different, that I just don't know. Since this turned into a major experiment anyway, I've decided to knit two hats out of these...one of N-ply, one of 2-ply, just to see how different they will look.

Seriously, this is the the fun part (and sometimes the frustrating part) of spinning...you can start with fiber that has colors that look one way -- bright or vibrant or heavy on a certain color -- and end up with yarn that looks completely different. It's an adventure, to be sure. ;)

I've moved on to a new spinning project. I was organizing my roving stash (which is growing...oh my...it is growing) the other day and happened upon a box with about 14 ounces of BFL in a raspberry-ish colorway from Briar Rose Fibers. Since I'm heading to the Great Lakes Fiber Show in OH this weekend, where Chris from BRF will have a booth, I thought I'd spin this in honor of finally getting to meet this wonderfully talented dyer. It started off looking like this...

And the singles on the bobbin is now looking like this...

Pretty, no? But isn't it amazing how much it changes from the original form to the spun form? And then when it is plied, it changes again? Or maybe I'm just easily amused. LOL I don't care...it makes me very happy.

Well, this post is already pretty long, so I think I'll save the flower portion for tomorrow! I'll just leave you with this...