From Roving to Yarns.....

In keeping with the earlier post this week on habits, I pulled a roving from my shop and decided to spin it up. The first colorway I pulled was the Portulaca colorway of handpainted Superwash BFL.
I decided since I am going to be refeshing the shop with new fibers soon, I was going to play with the various techniques of spinning the rovings.
For this one, I divided the roving in half length - wise and weighed it. Then I divided each half into 4 smaller lengths.
I spun trying to keep the color stripes in order, but there was some variation in each length. The resulting yarn is soft, lofty and has some thick and thin sections that vary from sport to worsted weight in spots.

The colors softened nicely once spun and plyed giving me a wonderful marled effect.

The variations and flow is so nice, I can see this being used in scarfs, hats, or even a very nice pair of thick fair isle mittens. Especially if paired with a solid cream color to allow this yarn to take center stage.
I almost decided to keep it for myself, but decided to offer it instead. Its listed here and here. Another beauty shot:











So now I have pulled another colorway, this time I chose Firecracker, another Superwash BFL roving.




Once again I split it length wise and weighed it.




Then divided each half into two sections. I am going to try to keep the colors a bit more defined.


The first bobbin is done:


This yarn should turn out about fingering, but it really puffed up when washed, so since the last skein did that, I am spinning it thinner.


I hope to finish the 2nd bobbin and ply it tonight.


Its turning out really cool, don't you think?

Half Way There

Today I spent most of the morning out on the deck. That sounds like a nice relaxing way to spend the morning does it not?

While a morning spent out on the deck relaxing would be a great thing, that was not the case this morning. Not even close.

This morning the first thing on my agenda was to dye up 11 - 4ounce sections of Superwash BFL Roving. So bright and early I was out playing with the dyes. A few hours later I had some beautiful colored rovings ready to get photographed and placed into my shop for everyone to see.

So I will give you a sample of them to drool at here:
The first colorway is in honor of the Blockheadradio.com Morning BrewHaHa, aptly named Brewhaha
The next is Lilac:


Carnation:
Yankee Doodle:
Field of Sunflowers:
I do hope you noticed a difference in the pictures, as I also spent some time creating a light box to use when I take pictures.
I have to say that it was not a hard thing to make and the difference it makes in getting good light in the photographs is amazing.
So Tomorrow will be the day I dye up the Superwash Merino rovings, stay tuned for more eye candy, and check the shop for the other new ones!