twistedloops

For a while now on Ravelry, I’ve been following the Ply by Night spinning group.  As a newer spinner, it’s really interesting to me to see what happens in it.  The idea is that everyone spins the same fiber, and then knits the same projects.  The group had their first spin-along in January, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to join.  But, after watching for a while, I’ve been kicking myself for not joining in.  It’s so interesting to see how different all of the yarns look.  I feel like I’ve learned so much about planning my spinning projects, not just sitting down with the fiber and spinning.

The next round of spinning is the March/April spin-along, and I decided not to miss out this round.  I jumped in and got the fiber.  This round, we’re using a custom dyed Blue Faced Leicester Top from Briar Rose Fibers.  I just got my four ounces yesterday.  It’s lovely, and so, so soft.  I can’t get over how much crimp still exists in the wool.

There is so much color variation close together, I’m not sure how to preserve some of the color differences when I spin.  I’ve been watching in the group, and bulky singles seem to do well at keeping the color defined.  I may try to separate the darker sections from the lighter sections and spin them separately.  I think I may watch a little longer before I jump in and spin this.

I liked the Ply by Night group so much, I invited the other local spinning Ravellers to join me in the group.  Some liked the idea so much that we’ve started our own local spin-along.  We’re using a few different fibers from Bellwether Wool Company, which is local to us.  We went over to the owner, Lois’s, house, visited the sheep, and picked our roving colors.  We decided that as newer spinners, we wanted some challenges both in spinning new to us fibers and in trying colors outside of our standard safe palette.  We opted for a total of four ounces.  It’s two ounces of the Tropics color in the center, which is a Border Leicester wool.  There is one ounce each of the Screaming Green and the Blue, both of which are Wensleydale.

I’m still planning what to do with this roving color combination.  I think that the green and blue will both be muted by the tropics if I blend more as I spin.  I’m just not sold on what to do yet.  There’s talk of a get together to try out the drum carders, so I may wait until after that to start spinning.