Bit the Bullet

Well- i did it... I bit the proverbial bullet and did it- I plied my singles together. OM! It took much longer than I thought it would.....first time I have done the singles together...... and I had more meters/yards on there than I thought! It worked out in the end that I had spun only about 20 m more on one ball than the other- and that was all done by guesstimation- no pre-weighing (which I WILL do in the future ). But I just took that extra and plied it upon itself (with help from DH). Note to self: in future be sure to wind off the spindle into rounder balls. Either I wasn't winding them right onto the spindle or I am just still too inept- but the last 20m or so of plying was a nightmare!!!!!!! It was coming unspun (z-twist) before I could (s-twist) ply the blobs that were remaining. There has to be a better way........ I will figure it out or else learn to ply on the spinning wheel- as that was very time consuming. I didnt' measure it yet- but have wound it on/off the niddynoddy and have it neatly tied and ready to 'wash' and set the twist on it. I am almost as nervous about that as the plying. I have taken much better photos today of both the singles and my poncho so will post those tomorrow. It's after 11 pm- watched (an Australian tv Drama about Drs/hospital) "All Saints" tonight. Don't watch much tv- but this one we both enjoy- except i am mad at them for killing off the ONE person on the show with the most lovely accent ( English/UK)- Sean Everliegh- can't think of his real name right now- but will look it up and add it in later(added later: Chris Vance).... handsome and everything he was! Got hit by a car! Man! These things are not supposed to happen! OK ok- off my tv soapbox now! lol
Here is a pic of Chris from the "All Saints" cast page. By the way- he is quite a good actor too! :)


I recvd. some LOVELY med. fawn alpaca fleece from Tasmania today- all I opened and felt was the neck fleece and oooooohhhhhh - i just loooooooove alpaca. I even sat and carded some- it is quite short-most of it.... so it might be a challenge to spin but I am going to anyway. I love it. ( Have I maybe mentioned it before- how much I love Alpaca fleece?? ;) )
That will be my next thing to try now- spinning some more alpaca. I did do some black awhile ago and even plied it with thread ( thanks again for the encouragement Mandie) - but haven't washed it or even really looked hard at it to see if i think it is a sound yarn. (Mental games we play with ourselves.........very sad! lol) It doesn't look too bad from what I have seen from others with plied w/thread yarns. But am unsure I spun tightly enough to begin with........ so once it is washed and dried I will give it a good tugging so make sure it is sound. I can see a future in this making yarn thing......... I really *do* like it.
I am (terrible to admit) proud of myself with this raspberry merino and how well it turned out for me. We'll see once it's all ready to work with how proud i really am though- as it is a chunky yarn and I know there are places it is too loosely spun....but for a first- it was really neat to sit on the couch tonight and look at it and know I MADE THIS. Well- me and the sheep and whomever dyed the wool....and made the spindle......and......and....... LOL! You knew what I meant- didn't you?? :)

Hope all is well.