Finished the Claifornia Red

I finished spinning up the california red. It's much softer in 2 ply.

New Year, New Project

Yesterday I alluded to a new project I had just started. I'm going to give you a little background first. A year or two ago I joined a wool swap on the sheep-l list-serve. All the hand spinners sent in zip lock baggies of fibers from the animals they had (this was before I sold the girls), and the person organizing the swap reassembled the boxes to include one of every kind and sent them back to us (So I sent in 9 baggies of the same thing and got back 9 different baggies).

I put the box in the office and it got buried in toys and school projects and yarn and stuff. I've been watching the A&E TV show Hoarders and the prospect of becoming one literally scares the bejeezus out of me, so I've been taking steps (baby steps) to rid myself of some of the excess stuff I have around. So I was doing a little cleaning in my office the other day and found the box with the exchange baggies. I also got Abby Franquemont's Respect the Spindle book for Christmas, and having joined team Suck-Less on the Ravelympics, so spindle spinning is really appealing to me right now.

I have decided to spin up all the samples and knit them into one garment. I haven't decided what garment yet, and I haven't decided if I'll dye any of them (there are a whole lot more in the white family than the colored family). But at this point the intention is to ultimately have one garment with the whole story.

I started to spin the first baggie yesterday. It's a California Red from Apple Rose Farm in NJ.

Kind of hard to see from this picture, but it's mostly an off white fleece with red hairs incorporated throughout. The white is pretty soft, but the red is scratchier and though spun it makes a really interesting heather effect, it's probably not next-to-skin soft enough for most people (I have a high prickle tolerance). It will be a nice mid-color in a fair isle.

Happy New Year!