Fiber Fool

Well, a week ago I spent the vast majority of my day out in the shade of our plum trees, spinning away on the BFL roving that I had dyed in early April. I had spun a little over half of it in April and then my wheel had sat empty for some time until last week. But in that day I spun nearly 2 oz of the remaining Northern Lights colorway and managed to burn my chest that is now itching as it started peeling yesterday after two hours in the pool (an hour workout followed by an hour of volleyball). On Friday and Sunday (more about that in a minute) I plied it.

It has been much, much too long since I spent quality time with my wheel. My plying (excuse my French before hand) sucked ass to put it mildly. I underplied terribly. When I washed it, the yarn ended up kinked and weighting it didn’t help. So, I put it in a grocery sack and took it with me to our weekend steeking and fondue party that was wonderfully hosted by Knitter Sansablog to get some advice. At that point I wasn’t yet confident in my decision that it was underplied. But, the experienced spinners amongst us all decided it couldn’t hurt to run it through the wheel again.

Once it was dry I put it on the ball winder (look at the ball up there, I loved the concentric circles of color in it and had to photograph it even though it sucked). Then I put it through the wheel again, adding more twist to the plying. It improved, but I found sections as I was wrapping it on the niddy noddy *again* that were *still* underplied. Fortunately I had left the yarn running through the orafice so I could run only these sections through plying a *third* time. It was fiddly. But the end result was much improved and now definitely passes inspection as a nicely balanced and relatively even yarn.

I do not want to go through that again though! It was awful to turn out such terrible yarn. It was awful to have to reply it. It was even more awful to put sections of it through plying even more. Yuck! I *must* must must sit down to the wheel on a much more regular basis. Not to mention, how do I justify purchases at Estes if I haven’t spun in months? I hadn’t plyed on the wheel since before Christmas Thanksgiving! That is just terrible!

Now, my wrist this week is not doing well so I haven’t done any spinning since, but I think I shall give it a short spin today while properly supporting my hand and wrist and see how it goes. I’m not sure what I’ll spin yet. Probably something not too important in case the support wrap/glove thingy impedes my drafting. I’m going to try hard to sit at the wheel for at least 1 hour three times a week. You all will keep me honest won’t you?

Okay, the specs on this yarn…

Fiber: Blue Faced Leicester bought last July from Detta’s Spindles hand dyed using a combination of Kool-Aid and Wilton’s Food Coloring in April, this was the Northern Lights colorway
Weight: 3.1 oz (87 gm)
Length: ~350 yds
WPI: ~20
Gauge: Light Fingering Perhaps?

Now, what do I knit with it? I was hoping for a little lighter - closer to lace weight and a bit more yardage. I think it is likely a bit light for socks. The color changes though will be quite similar to Trekking I believe. So, what would you make with it?