I've been spinning again. And no, I don't have a thing for purple and green together, I just happen to have a coleus the same colors as my yarn.
This time, it's faux cashmere from KnittinK (Alan Scott colorway, 4.3 oz). Isn't it great, there's a web site for everything.
I picked up this braid of fiber and another in blue and brown at a handmade fair down the street a few weeks ago. I'm a particuarly bad shopper at handmade festivals--I tend to go for inspiration only. I have enough of my own handmade "treasures", thanks. But good job, I morally support your own handmade efforts entirely.
Faux cashmere is predictably soft, and the fibers are quite slick but have a great staple length. To keep it all together I overspun the single quite a bit more than usual to keep the fibers from sliding past each other and pulling apart.
It didn't take long for me to decide that this single would lead to my first attempt navajo plying. The colors were just too great the finished yarn would loose the great hand-painted effect if I plied two singles for a muddy, variegated 2-ply.
A hand-painted yarn such as this, with such high contrast complementary colors, needed the colors to stay separate. It just did. So I did it. My first-ever navajo ply (it was about time).
It's a little bumpy here and there and the twist is a bit random. But it's yarn and I'll be able to knit with it. And that's all it takes.
Go me. Now I need to go knit something.
