Better than expected

Sometimes when you get a bump of roving, you have a very clear picture of what it will look like spun up and sometimes, not so much.  I bought some roving at the Bishophill Spin-in a couple of months ago and really loved the colors.  I spun a little sample and andean plied it to get an idea of what it would look like.  To be honest, it looked like vomit.  The mixture of colors was horrendous up against each other and I was so disappointed because I'd bought 2 bunches of it.  Nevertheless, I spun the first bunch and decided to Navajo ply it to keep the colors together.  Much more better.

I love this pattern for a scarf and I thought it would show up the colors well.  I'm so pleased with how it came out, especially after the first experiment.  Just goes to show, first impressions are necessarily the truth.

By the way, this scarf is easy, peasy and makes a great long scarf.  This yarn is worsted weight, 3 ply, and I'm using size 8 needles.  Cast on 15 stitches and knit a couple of rows in garter stitch to get started.  On the next row, knit 1 and wrap the yarn over the needle 2 times (3 times if you want the inbetween section to be longer - with worsted weight I think 2 is plenty but you can wrap more if you use a smaller yarn).  Repeat these 2 stitches to the last stitch, then knit 1.  On the next row, knit the knit stitch and drop the wraps.  Repeat to the end.  Knit 2 more rows.

Just keep going like this until the scarf is long enough.  I like to add a fringe to finish off the scarf.

Something else I worked on during the long weekend was more of this Blue-faced Leicester.  A while back, I spun 4 oz of this roving on the wheel but I also wanted to spun part of it with the spindle to see how it would compare.  I've been spinning it with an Ashford top-whorl drop spindle and am getting it superfine.  I've done enough for one skein but I've got a ton more on the bobbin ready to ply and I've got a fair bit to spin yet.

I also added 2 more skeins to my white on white project.  Lesson in silliness, really.  I'd spun a bobbin of cashmere (or angora - I'm not sure which but it's one or the other) and had a second bobbin to spin before plying.  It was only 1/2 an ounce (although in this fiber, it's really quite a lot).  Feeling quite pleased with myself, I started plying.  You can't imagine how soft unless you've felt it before.  Anyway, there I was all proud of myself and plying.  Until I realized something was wrong.  Very wrong.  It took me a little while to figure it out but there I was proudly plying a z ply and an s ply.  Wrong. 

That's definitely a lesson in how the proud have fallen.  There was no rectifying that mistake and there was no getting more of the fiber.  Drats.  Drats.  Drats. 

I walked around the apartment kicking myself and while I was walking, I spied with my little eye a bobbin of merino/silk that I'd spun up.  It was some of the KnitPicks fiber that I'd gotten to test out and there it was just waiting.  I wasn't sure which direction it had been spun but I was sure to be able to use it with one of the bobbins!  Ha!!  Sure enough, it worked and I navajo plied the other bobbin, giving me 2 more skeins!

It's adding up but I still have to figure out how I'm going to put them together.  Hmmm....