When I visit the local yarn store, which is more often than I should, I've made a conscious effort to avoid buying anything green. I own enough green yarn to last a knitter 2 lifetimes. I think I've succeeded in this effort, but now it seems I'm stuck on red. I really do need to branch out on the color wheel, but not today.
This is Mountain Colors' Ruby River Targhee Top Plied 3 Ways. It sounds like a delicious dish they'd serve on Iron Chef, but it's just yarn with singles spun the same (don't ask me about ratios, I just put the yarn on the leader and let 'er rip), but plied differently.
The yarn at the bottom of the photo is my first attempt at Navajo plying. I love the way that the stripes of color are preserved and I think chain plying is incredibly clever. It may not have a whole lot of uses in everyday knitting because of weakness and breakage potential, but whoever dreamed this technique up was brilliant. The top yarn is fantabulous (even if I must say so myself). I bought the commercial mohair that Mountain Colors makes in the same colorway and plied them together. It's light, bouncy and wears a pretty halo. In a word, yummy. The center yarn was wrapped into an Andean bracelet and plied. Although it turned out well, this is not my favorite way to ply. I like it so little, this was only the second time I've used this method.
I'm pretty excited about the mohair blend. I've got a whopping 240 yards of a fairly bulky yarn. I don't have a dohickey to measure wraps per inch, but I'd say there's enough there for a really toasty hat and maybe some mittens.
I have a lot to show for having spent around 8 hours at my spinning wheel today. I wish every day was Saturday.
