Well, here it is. My 50/50 silk/cashmere. All spun up.

Isn’t it pretty??

I’ve got about 200 yards of it . . . I think. As usual, I can’t remember if my niddy-noddy measures in yards or in meters, although I’m almost positive it measures two fo them, whatever they are . . . and I also lost count right around 100 turns. There may have been 101 or 102 turns around the niddy-noddy . . . but, whatever. I’ve got my yarn and it’s beautiful.

Despite my care in spinning the singles, it’s still not quite as fine as I had hoped . . . not that I care. I love it anyway. And it IS the finest plied yarn I’ve spun. Just not quite as lace-weight as I’d hoped.

On the plus side, though, it’s pretty balanced . . . see?

The interesting part? Though it hangs nice and straight as a skein, there are individual pieces that curl up on themselves. Why? I’m not sure. I mean, obviously those spots are under- or over-plied (though I can never remember how to tell which is which), but overall, the skein is balanced, so . . . no complaints there, either.

Or here. In this little picture, you can see exactly what I had left when I was done plying. One piece is the sample that I took off the singles as I was spinning. The other is the amount left on the second bobbin when the first one ran out. I’d say I got that just about right, wouldn’t you??

I was working on my sock today, while I was getting my gas tank filled ($2.75 a gallon–the lowest it’s been in months). When it was done, I stuffed everything back in my purse as usual. No big deal.

But. When I got home, somehow the working yarn (of course) had managed to get itself tangled in the zipper. Not the teeth of the zipper, like you’d expect. No, but somehow threaded through the mechanism, as if I’d cast on that way. I have no earthly idea how that happened. I even slid the zipper pull all the way to the end of the zipper, so I could easily see both the top and bottom and . . . where the “entrance” was, I have no idea. There was nothing to do but to . . . cut the yarn. So, as of 4:15 this afternoon, this little beginning sock was an orphan. Nothing but loose ends, poor thing.

Now, my new yarn is drying in the bathroom, after I soaked it in Soak (thanks to the little samples Shelley gave me last month). I can’t say, exactly, how well it cleaned since I don’t know how “dirty” my roving might have been (not very, is my guess), but I will say that I liked the way it smelled. Not overpowering–which is a huge plus. My nose is very sensitive to smells–too strong and they’ll trigger a sinus headache. I abhor room sprays, and I like my scents light. So . . . this was nice. And I can’t wait to feel this yarn when it’s all soft and dry!

And then–the next decision. What does one do with approximately 200 yards of fingering weight yarn?? It would actually probably make great socks (the cashmere and silk . . . makes my feet happy just thinking about it) and yet I can’t help but think that something lacy to wear around my neck would be much nicer, don’t you?

Tags: Finished Spinning, General, Knitting/Spinning // 13 Comments »