In Which the Pirate Plies.

This week I signed up for the Tour de Fleece, an annual spinning challenge that parallels the Tour de France. In preparation, I’ve been working on finishing spinning projects. Especially ones that have been languishing forever, like this “Starry Night” wool/mohair/angelina blend.

It’s now spun and plied into a soft and lofty two-ply yarn. I think I might offer it for sale.

This Baba Black Sheep merino that I started in April at the Centreville meetup…

…is now a squooshy two-ply. I don’t know what I’m going to knit with it, but I definitely want to keep this one for myself!

And this merino pencil roving from Pucker Brush Farm…

…is finally finished. Over 500 yards of chain-ply. The black strand over the left of the penny is the commercial 4-ply sock yarn that I used to tie the skein off, and the lighter strand is my yarn. Looks pretty close! I haven’t decided if I want to keep this or put it up for sale.

In addition to those, there’s a full bobbin of Rambouillet singles about which I’m still indecisive. Do I want to skein it off as-is, full it a bit, and have a lot of laceweight singles? If I want to ply it, I’ll probably have to run it back through the wheel to add more twist, and that seems like it would be really boring.

I’ve started a new braid of a merino-silk blend that is just perfect fibre. It’s practically drafting itself. I was smart this time and split it into three equal sections before I started spinning, and this way I can make a true three-ply with it instead of ending up with one very full bobbin again. I thought I might offer that yarn for sale as well, but the more of it I spin, the more I want to keep it for myself…