A Pickle

In between other things, I've been working on spinning the Polypay fleece I got last year in Kentucky.  I thought it would be a nice touch to make a little something from that fleece as I go back this year.

The fleece was pretty dirty so I did a big wash to get the biggest part of it out and now I'm flicking each lock and washing a second time to get it properly cleaned.  Sounds time consuming and it is, sort of, but it's also very soothing work for me.  I've got a goodly bit washed, dried and combed and started spinning.  The reason I combed it, even though this is a pretty crimpy yarn, is that carding it just seemed to be too rough and I ended up with lots of neps.  With the beautifully clean locks, all I have to do is 2 passed through the combs and it's ready to go.

I had in my mind to spin a nice little 3-ply for some socks.  I would spin it and then dye the hank before knitting up a pair of socks.  But evidently there was something up with my memory banks because as I was plying along with a nice little Navajo ply and totally digging the yarn I was getting, fantasizing about how it would poof up once it was washed, I realized the singles had gotten very, very thin.

Evidently at some point in time my plans were clearly different because the singles got extremely thin and (for me) consistent.  It took me a while to realize that it wasn't a fluke and stop spinning.  Obviously some lace fairy came and spun a whole gob of lace weight singles while I wasn't looking.

I now, evidently have about 60 yards of lovely bouncy 3-ply sock yarn and I will have about 150 yards of beautiful bouncy lace weight 2-ply yarn.  I have small feet but 60 yards ain't going to crack it, no matter what level of delusion I go into.  Maybe I do lace tops for my socks and dk for the foot part?  A scarf and booties?  Spin more yarn?  Yeah, let's go with that one.