SLWY -- Now With Even More Woolly Goodness!

I mentioned in my last post that I had gotten some nice Springy fiber and that my spinning wheel had been calling out to me. Well, dear readers, I answered that call. I didn't start in on the pretty new fiber. It's been a while since I sat down to spin, so I got out some plain-Jane merino top to get back into the swing of things:



I got this some years back at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. (I'm SO going this year. I haven't been since 2002, I think. I can't wait!). I'm aiming for a heavy laceweight/fingering weight yarn after plying:


My wheel is a Jensen Tina II, with a Woolee-winder. I love both of them. As someone who is somewhat tall, I like upright wheels so I don't feel like I'm hunching over to spin. The Woolee winder allows me to spin without having to stop and move the yarn from hook to hook, which makes the spinning go a lot smoother. Plus, it's just plain much more fun when I can just keep going and going until I run out of fiber.

The thing I find challenging about spinning is judging how thick or thin to make my singles in order to get the finished yarn the right size. Think about a laceweight yarn, for example. You have a general idea of how thick a laceweight yarn is, but in order to spin a laceweight yarn, you have to remember that the separate plies are even thinner. After knitting for a while without spinning, my sense memory focuses more on the final yarn size than the ply size, so I have to consciously make the singles thinner.

So far, it's going very well. I'm about a quarter of the way through this batch of fiber. I can't wait to see what the final product looks like, and to knit something with it.

I haven't neglected the knitting, of course. The Bleeding Hearts Stole is going, but slowly. I don't think progress pictures would be very interesting, because it doesn't look that much different.

Now that I finished the Deco Socks (FO pictures coming soon, I promise), I needed a mindless sock project to work on in between the stole and bouts of spinning, so I cast on using the spring green Duet sock yarn from my last post:

While this isn't a color I generally wear, it's making me insanely happy right now. After a long, dreary winter, I need to see shades of green. I love the yarn, too. It's very soft. The main yarn comes with a smaller skein of coordinating yarn for the heels and toes which blends in very nicely(as you can see in the picture). I'm knitting these on size 0 needles, so they won't go as fast as my last couple of pairs of socks.