Duh

Summer has always been the season of spinning for me....especially when the weather is nice and I can indulge in some spinning on my deck.

 

I've been working on a project I started long ago.  The fiber is 100% merino from Greenwood Fiberworks, one of my favorite Etsy stores.  I have two braids (8 oz. total) of the lovely stuff, which was a special edition colorway created by exhausting the dyebath after other colors were done.  (I'd tell you if I could what she called it, but I've lost the tags...and anyway, it's not repeatable!)

 

The thing is, this project has been going at a snail's pace.  Even given the fact that I'm spinning a laceweight single it's taken much longer than usual.  As I'm generally monogomous when it comes to spinning projects, and as I have a ton of other fiber to work with, this is a problem.

 As I was sitting at my wheel yesterday morning, listening to a beautiful audiobook and dreaming fibery dreams while the wool slipped through my fingers, I had a minor epiphany.

 

Which is really more of a face-palm/d'oh moment.

 

Silly spinner...it would be so much easier if I would predraft the fiber!  Duh!

 

I had split the first roving into small, manageable sections, but I had not predrafted each piece.  It only took about 30 minutes to go through the wool, gently tugging the roving into gossamer strands and coiling them into their nests.

 

Now, the wool is FLYING through my fingers.

 

I suppose I'd best start thinking about a knitting project for it....I'm thinking lace...with beads...it reminds me of a quiet pond on a summer's day....

 

In other spinning news, I finally wound this yarn off of the bobbins, where it's been languishing for months and months and months.  (maybe years?)  Another etsy find, it's composed of Shetland wool and silk, which is a truly bizarre combination.  Spinning it was perplexing.  Shetland is nowhere near as soft and gentle as most of the wool used in silk blends, and it behaved rather oddly.  Can't say I really enjoyed the process much - which is why it's sat for so long.  The crazy thing is that the finished yarn (anther laceweight, BIG SURPRISE!) is actually quite fun.  A nice Euclan bath and a good thumping in the shower, and it's proving to be a pretty awesome yarn.

 

Now...if I can only figure out a project...

 

She says with a wink.

 

I have no doubt the Green Woman will have this one figured out pretty soon!