Friday, January 11, 2008

1.11 Charcoal grey, skein 3

This is the last of the skeins I finished plying up over the holidays. The third skein of the charcoal grey merino/silk, this is where I got totally bored with grey.

Skein 3, charcoal grey merino silk
My guess, based on weight, is that this falls between the previous two skeins and is therefore probably 400+ yds, giving me a total of approximately 1400+ yds. I have at least half of the charcoal grey merino/silk left and about two thirds of the tussah silk in copper/purple. I could make more yardage of this, but I'm bored with it.
I love spinning laceweight worsted, particularly in silk or merino or... The problem with spinning laceweight worsted is that it takes forever to go through any amount of fiber at all. I used to be in awe of those people who sat down and ripped through 4 oz or 8 oz of fiber in an evening, spinning and plying and finishing. I would look at my miserable evening's output and sigh and wonder why I was so slow. It eventually dawned on me (ok, so I'm slow in things other than spinning) that these people were not producing laceweight spun worsted style. I went through a period where I played with longdraw, played with woolen spun yarns, played with worsted weight and chunky and super bulky. I proved to myself that I can spin this way, I can even produce useable and reasonably well spun yarn at these weights. I can rip through amazing amounts of fiber in an evening. I almost certainly will do so again in the future, though not right now.
I really like spinning laceweight yarns, and I really like knitting lace shawls: a perfect match if there ever was one. But... (you knew there was a "but" involved here), spending hours spinning 2 oz of laceweight yarn means that I get rather bored with the same color(s).
Having gotten bored with grey/copper/purple, I have allowed myself to drift off to other things. Green, for example (I'm sure you'd never guess). I have a small enough amount of the green that I'm hoping it will allow me to get over my boredom with grey. If not, I'll be looking for something to do with about 1400+- yards of merino/silk in charcoal grey with purple and copper accents.

1 comment:

Cathy said...

Wow - that's lovely. I'd be itching to get back to that fiber tho your greens are gorgeous. The silk - OMG!!! Lovely.

I hear you on laceweight. I am spinning the last of the islet Shetland fleece - and it is going sooooo slowly. But it will be soooo worth it.

Eventually.