Sooooooo…

You’re thinking that I’ve been rather quiet on the TdF front.

You’d be right.

Not that I haven’t been spinning – far from it. BUT. I haven’t FINISHED anything. Not from lack of trying! I swear! I’m just in the middle of two projects that require me to spin in a manner most un-Xiane-like; in other words, folks, I’m spinning THIN. *gasp!*

The beautiful blue yarn that I posted last? Oh, it wants to be plied. So that’s in the works. And I’m doing a commission for a friend that requires the end product to be fingering weight, and obviously this is a foreign concept to ol’ Xiane, so it’s taking a while. Art yarns spin up fast! Fingering weight, not so much! It’s a good thing, because it is testing my skills and my patience, both of which can always use honing, but because of that, I have little to show for my work.

However! I do have BATTS I can show you! [and a bit of fleece!]

Stories about these things: the blue/green/yellow/brown batt is made almost entirely of wool that I processed, dyed, picked, and carded. It did something that I’ve never had happen with a carded batt before – when I removed it from the drum, it expended in a way that I can only compare to one of those sponge animals that grow when you place them in water. So weird! It will be an amazing spin, though, with the Corriedale and Romney puffiness playing with Merino and Firestar smoothness.
The two batts shot on the drum went to a swap partner – I had a blast putting these together! The multi-colored one is a base of deep brown Merino wool and black Alpaca, then there’s a riot of color from Firestar and sari silk scraps, and then Alpaca to seal the deal over the top. The green/gold is made up of more of my puffy Corriedale in lime green, mixed with lemony & icy Merino wools, Banana fiber, and… shoot, I forget the rest. Firestar? Maybe. Doesn’t matter, it was pretty!
The wool on my kitchen floor is Scotch Mule, in one big fleecy hunk, waiting for a bath. I’ll post pics once it is fully dry, but I can’t wait to see what the curly long locks have done with a good cleaning!

So that’s what I’ve been up to this week. It’s not the TdF success that I’d hoped for, but hey, I’m getting things accomplished! Goooo me!