Fiber Trade Off

Unfortunately I did not finish even one skein of yarn during the month of January. Throughout the month I kept intending to spin yarn, but it seemed like something kept coming up. I recently realized what the real issue was. I decided to run in the 5/3 River Bank Run this spring. Since making that decision, I have made a concerted effort to run more. This means instead of using barn chores as exercise and getting on the treadmill maybe once a week for a good solid workout, I am now getting on the treadmill 3 or 4 times a week. Not only am I on the treadmill for about an hour, but there is time getting ready before, the cool down, and the shower afterward - by the time I add all that time up we are talking close to 8 hours each week that I *could* be spinning yarn. This is only going to increase as we get closer to race day. I will run further each day, and run more days of the week.

I decided it is a trade off. I can't do everything and right now getting in shape and running this 10K is important to me. So I am going to give myself a break and not worry about yarn spinning for now. My goal of a skein a week will be on hold for now. If I am able to spin a few skeins here and there that is great, but it's ok if I don't.

I did manage to complete these this weekend:



It's a large skein of Greyt's fiber, and a small skein of a twist of Greyt and Tucker (a perfect size for an accent yarn). These are my first skeins for 2011.

All I had to do this weekend was ply two strands of Greyt's fiber, I had already spun two strands. Greyt is a beautiful Rose Grey. His color doesn't show up great in there pictures. You'll have to trust me, it's even more wonderful in person. Plying Greyt:



This was a very large skein, I could barely fit the entire plyed skein on my wheel (and my Louet is known to hold more yarn than most spinning wheels). I measured it as 180 yards and 11.5 ounces.



I had a little left over of one strand of Greyt. I love it when this happens, because I will ply that left over with some other left over, making a multi-color small skein as an accent yarn. I happened to have a strand of Tucker's fiber (Tucker is a beautiful light silver grey). The mix of these two greys was fun to ply:



I ended up with 19 yards, 1.5 ounces, of this contrasting accent yarn (again these pictures do not do justice to the true beauty of this yarn):