5 hours

Here's what about five hours at the spinning wheel with the scarf fiber gets me:

I'm thinking I'll make a 3-ply yarn.  It's spinning up fairly fine, but a little fuzzy.  It looks like this fiber is made up of a couple of different kinds of wool.  One wool has long shiny fibers, and the other has shorter, fuzzier ones.  The shorter fibers have taken the dye more than the longer ones have.  You may be able to see some of the shiny bits (lurex?? I dunno what it is, but it's shiny gold) that show up here and there in the yarn.  Ok, I admit I'm fairly conservative when it comes to yarn and fiber.  I don't care for lots of foofy things.  And these metallic little bits just say "scratchy sections in the yarn" to me.  Especially as one of the shiny bits that was carded into the wool is a metallic yarn wrapped over a core of something else.  The only problem with a core-spun yarn like that is that it doesn't hold up real well when you cut it into 2 or 3 inch lengths and card it in with some wool.  The metallic outside bit tends to separate from the core.

This is probably about 1/4 of the fiber.  I'm doing a lot of pre-drafting before I spin.  That way I can get a little ahead of the curve on the metallic bits and can pull out the worst of the neps and the little bit of grass and vegetable matter that's in the fiber.  The occasional long wool fibers that come along are going to stick out a bit though.  I'm afraid this wool may be a little scratchy.  And that's odd, because one of the criteria for this exchange was to use high-quality wools, like merino or merino-silk blends or something equally soft and interesting. 

Oh well.  It's a good learning experience to spin something that I wouldn't have chosen for myself, and to try to make the best yarn I can out of it.  That's part of the reason I signed up for this, isn't it?

In other news:

We had a good time at the Atlanta Knitting Guild meeting last night.  Chris Bylsma was there to show her designs and tell us about her journey into knitting designer-hood.  She was pleasant and entertaining.  And it's always good to see folks there that I don't see elsewhere.  Elizabeth, a newcomer to our Tuesday SnB group, rode over with Marilyn and me, and we had a good time.

I watched Hidalgo on DVD last night, and enjoyed it.  Not a great movie, but a good one, and it's always nice to see Viggo Mortensen in other roles.

I also finished listening to the audiobook version of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (or the link in Amazon, in case the audible.com link doesn't work) today. 

Holy cow.  I loved that book. Loved, loved, LOVED, LOVED it.  Last night I was torn between listening to the last section right away (to find out how it would end) and waiting a bit (because I didn't want it to be over yet).  Susanna Clarke did a wonderful job in this book.  The narration on the audio book was wonderful too, except that, surprisingly, the narrator didn't seem to know the correct pronunciation of the term "Sidhe."  As far as I can tell, it should be "shee" not "sid-he."  That's an odd miss in a book where fairies (real Celtic kinds of fairies, not the tiny precious Tinkerbell-type fairies) are pretty important characters.  Not all fairies or elves are benign.  Ask Terry Pratchett.

And my tailbone is better today, but my neck is stiffer.  I've got sore muscles on both sides.  But I am no stranger to neck pain, and I bear it with as much dignity as I can muster.

Comments

[Anita]

Gorgeous yarn! When I saw the fiber yesterday, I knew I was in for a visual treat!

I've been reading (slowly) Jonathan Strange...--love the book, but I need to give myself a couple of indulgence reading days. Maybe during spring break...