not the half of it

Besides a secret knitting project, which will be off to London soon, I have been spinning. A lot.

I have been working mostly on the big wheel, my fast one, for at least two hours daily.

I feel that I have finally mastered the long backward draw, a technique which I find quite challenging since it is not easy to produce a yarn with a uniform amount of twist. However, once you manage it the rewards are huge, - more yarn in a shorter time.

Here are some of the results.

A 2-ply merino, dyed as roving by myself:

Surprisingly I still have a hard time finding prepared fibers for spinning locally. I guess a lot of the artists sell their rovings at yarn stores, where it it ends up double the price, which I'm not willing to pay.

Taos Wool Festival was a good source for fibers and I purchased from Robin Pascal from Edgewood, NM, a blend of wool, mohair, alpaca and angora, spun up here:

Then there is Kai Mohair, located in Texas. Lisa offers roving and gorgeous dyed mohair locks combined with fabulous customer service. The locks are not easy to spin, they require quite some teasing and predrafting, but the result is a gorgeous one-of-a-kind yarn, that is not available in any yarnstore! I recommend investing in the highest available grade/softest and most expensive fibers and you will be rewarded with a mohair yarn, that is almost as soft as angora.

Can you see the little curls and locks peaking out? Gotta love it!

As I've mentioned before, I still have my fiber sources on the East Coast, and as this last big order is all spun up, my favorite remains this pound of loveliness:

Now there is still one big bag of shades of rose colors waiting next to the wheel, a previous purchase from Kid Hollow Farm, one sample spun and knitted, because I can't get this out of my head, the Tweedy Aran Cardigan by Norah Gaughan (here on Ravelry):

I adore the yarn with all the lovely variations, but I don't feel the color would work for me. Since the knitting will be a lot of work, - not to mention the spinning - the color HAS to be right.

I had no choice, people!

- - - - I ordered two more pounds of my blue!