Playing with Color

I'm home sick today with a bit of a cold, so I figured I would update you on what I am working on. I haven't been in much of a knitting mood, but I have been spinning with my spindle like crazy.

I finished a second skein of that brown Navajo-Churro yarn. It is a tiny bit lighter than the first skein - oops!  Guess I should have sorted the blond wool into the rest more evenly. I will have to treat them like different dye lots, which will mean alternating rows when I knit them.

Besides that, though, I finally managed to finish spinning up the whole pound! That was the first wool I bought that I took all the way from washing to yarn, and I got through it. It only took me...(checks records)... two years. And I still haven't knit the undercoat into anything. Well, no one ever said that hand spinning was a speedy endeavor.

Well, as that was drying on the hanger, I also started a new project with some wool that I bought at the same time. Both are pre-cleaned locks. I am not sure of the breed for the colored wool, but the white was labeled as a lincoln crossbreed from Barnswallow Farms in Dewittville, NY (sorry, no link, she doesn't seem to have a website).

Oooooh. Pretty colors of wool.

Lincoln Crossbred locks

They are both extremely lustrous (that means shiny) and fine, and the locks are a good six inches long.

Individual locks

So, I am making a very fine, fluffy yarn from them. I am not doing much fiber processing, just picking the locks apart and spinning away. This is resulting in a lot of ends sticking out, kind of like a mohair yarn. Hopefully, though, since the wool is a bit less slippery, the "halo" won't grow too much as the fabric is worn. 

Fluffy singles on the spindle

I am also playing around with color. I have quite a bit less of the colored locks than the white, and the colors are a real mix. I could blend them together to get a pale pastel heathered yarn, probably lavender. But why hide that beautiful variety?

Instead, I am alternating locks. I spin 3 to 5 white locks, followed by a colored lock. The plan is for a three-ply yarn. I have no idea what it will look like when I ply, but I'm hoping for an interesting result!

Another view, after doing a lock of purple.

I'll keep you posted.