I spent the day quilting, but forgot to take pictures before the quilt went out the door. I hate when I do that, as I usually really want to show you what I’ve done and this was no exception. Long rows of freehand feathers between pops of jewel colored squares, flowing curvy feathers on the opposite border corners. But this quilt is on a deadline to hang in a booth for the Charlotte Quilt Show this weekend, so my customer needed it back ASAP to bind it. Sigh, one day I’ll remember my camera in a quicker manner. In the meantime, check out the Quilters Loft booth at the show this weekend and look for Pop’n Jewels! And while you’re there, stop in the Goneaway Quilting booth and say HI!!!!!
But after I finished work, quilting and paperwork, and cleaned up from supper, I decided it was time to wash out all those yarns I’ve spun up that were just waiting to be washed.
My Merino fleece is still drying. Everything on the top rack is dry, but the few clumps still hanging on the rails aren’t quite dry yet. The yarns are all different wools and fibers.
The light colored wool at the top left is BFL (Blue Faced Leicester) that I purchased at SAFF last fall. My original intention was to ply it with the yarn next to it, a Merino/Silk blend from Fiber Optic in the Coffee colorway. But when I sampled the two colors together, I disliked the barber pole effect I was getting so much I decided to ply them each on themselves. My original thought was to use them together in a project, but now that they’ve been washed up, I don’t think I will. There’s so much of a difference between the two wools that I don’t think I’d like them in the same garment. And the BFL has so much crimp/twist in it after it was washed that it wasn’t exhibiting before it was washed! I’m not sure what happened there, but we’ll see how it looks when they’re both dry.
On the top row, right, the pink/purple yarn is a 2 ply that was both a challenge and a challenge! The pink was a Corriedale braid that was so hard to spin, it felt almost as if it was felted when it arrived in the mail, which was the first challenge. The second challenge was making it into something I liked, so I threw in bits of everything! Leftover white wool from a prior spin, strands of Angelina fibers, anything that was near and I wondered how it would spin in. Then when it was done it was just TOO pink for me! So I ordered a braid of purple from Funhouse Fibers that was custom dyed for me, spun it, and plied them together. I think it will make a great pair of fingerless mitts, if it dries as soft as I’m hoping it will. I really like soft yarns against my skin!
Of course I had leftover bits of the purple single, and I had leftover bits of the coffee single, so I spindle plied them together to make a small mini skein. Just because I could (and that’s a LOT of the fun of spinning!).
The last skein, the multi-colored on the lower right, is Milk Protein Fiber, again from Funhouse Fibers, and I love it! I was in love with it when I spun it as it was so soft, and I’m in love with it wet as it looks like it’s fulling beautifully, so I know I’ll love it when it’s dried. I just wish I had more of it to spin.