Two things to be happy about on this very gray February Saturday: the groundhog did not see his shadow (an early spring – horray!) and spinning time during the guild meeting.  Admittedly, I caved pretty quickly with my newly dyed BFL rovings – I snagged the three I took pictures of last night, plus one more to go with them.  I ended up with this:
L-R: Larkspur, Tranquility, Spring and Birch Mountain.  Along the top is some Angelina that I picked up from Sojourner Designs.  I am spinning it all up for Lynne Vogel’s Justify wrap.  Lynne’s version used a combination of fibers – wool, silk and tencel, I believe.  I’m sticking with my BFL but adding tiny amounts of the Angelina fiber to some of the yarns as I spin them – the little bit of shine that it adds will bring some depth to my yarns.  My plan is to spin them into many, varied combinations – on their own and in combination.  I started semi-planfully, by splitting each roving lengthwise into quarters (each roughly one ounce).  With 1 quarter of each, I’ll spin it as is, maintaining the color sequence and then navajo ply it.  The result is a yarn that mimics the color sequence in the roving.  With another quarter of each, I’ll spin it and then ply it back on itself so that I have a yarn with the same colors but some variation.  Then the real fun begins – with the rest of each roving, I’ll combine the colorways randomly.  I’ll use small amounts of each, sometimes drafting them together and then plying them, sometimes spinning them individually and plying them together, sometimes breaking off individual colors or color sequences to spin up.  I’ll add tiny bits of Angelina as I spin, when and if I feel like it.  The goal is to create many, many different yarns with the four colorways.  The small amounts yarn are perfect for this wrap.  This is the kind of spinning I love, love, love – relaxed, playful, fun.

I got a good start today, in between bidding on auction items.  I played with the Birch Mountain and Larkspur rovings:

Bottom to top, 3 ply Birch Mountain (navajo plied), 2 ply Larkspur with silver Angelina and 2 ply Birch Mountain with pink Angelina.  Each is about 50 yards, bulky weight and a bit thick and thin – I’m not so worried about super consistent spinning, more that it has a nice hand.   They were great fun to play with – the first spinning I’ve done in a while.

The rest of today’s meeting was wonderful – guild members went home with loads of that BFL roving, other fiber and yarn (thank you!) so I have more dyeing to do to replenish my stock.  I was pleasantly surprised the reaction to my new colorways – Birch Mountain was especially popular.  I will be dyeing lots more of that soon.  The auction was great, raising a lot of money for the guild.  I got outbid a lot but I did manage to come home with 6 balls of Mission Falls 1824 Cotton – enough for a sweater for my niece.  As usual, it was a great opportunity to catch up with friends.  A perfect day.

I had planned on doing another marathon of dyeing tomorrow, but I feel a cold brewing so I’m going to take it easy.  I’ll probably keep spinning and work on some knitting projects.  I promised Everett that I would make a big batch of chili.  And of course, the main plan for the day is to watch the Patriots kick some Giant ass!

Have a great weekend!  Enjoy the game tomorrow – go Patriots!