Beauty All Around Me

A week and half ago I enjoyed the company of other spinners down at Common Threads and had purchased this Merino/Tencel blend dyed with different shades of pinks. I started spinning it that day and continued to work on it a little each day over the next week. This past weekend I had spun it all up very thinly and it was time to think about plying.

That was when I first realized that I probably should not have spun it all onto one bobbin. Having the singles all on one bobbin gave me only one option for plying. A 3 ply using the Navajo plying method. I knew I wanted a fine weight/gauge yarn, so a 2 ply was going to get me closer to what I wanted. I did a test sample of a 3-ply and a 2-ply and while both were beautiful, the 2-ply won.

I measured the bobbin with the singles on it, measured the empty bobbin, subtracted out the bobbin weight of the full bobbin, split the difference in half and added back on the bobbin weight. That was how much they needed to weigh if they were going to have an even amount on each bobbin. Then I started hand winding onto the empty bobbin, pausing a couple of times to check the weight. I wasn't sure if this was going to work, but to my surprise the bobbins were almost exactly even when I came to the ends. Next time, I'll think about my intentions for the yarn before I spin it all onto one bobbin. Then I'll split it accordingly.

Once I actually had the two bobbins prepared, I started the plying. I don't know why I thought plying would go quicker than the actual spinning, but it didn't. I'm still a slow spinner anyway so maybe when I get more comfortable it will pick up. But the fiber is tricky. You keep thinking that you're almost done (this happened when I was spinning the singles too) but it doesn't seem to be finished. You keep going and going and there is still more, but a little less, and it tricks you into continuing because it's "almost done". Two nights up until midnight later...

And this came into my possession today...Tilli Tomas Plie - American Beauty and Tilli Tomas Voile De La Mer - Atmosphere.

This means Giselle will be gracing me with her presence very soon. I have stalked this yarn and drooled over it for awhile now, but just haven't been able to justify the money. It's so beautiful, but I guess I have my limits on what I would spend for a sweater. This year, I decided to make one really nice sweater and splurge for the yarn. If I just plan my projects accordingly, then maybe next year I'll be able to do the same thing and have all the fun I want. Just on a timeline. I got this from Dreamweaveryarns.com while they were having their online Stitches sale this last weekend.

And yes, I know I'm using the same colors as Marnie did for the pattern. But when it's beautiful the way it is, why change it? It just so happens a friend wrote about that exact thing on her blog. My sentiments exactly.