Delicious silk/camel blend from Kristine at A Verb For Keeping Warm (naturally dyed, beautiful things, made mindfully - a lovely store).  A little sample enclosed with my (amazingly pretty) Polwarth.

Small sample + new spindle: a Golding Ringspindle - 0.45 ounces - cherrywood - tsunami design.  A righteous little spinner.

Swatching the finished yarn; it knits up at 30 stitches/4" on a size 1 needle.  I am getting, I think, about 19 WPI with the yarn.  (Not exactly convinced that I'm measuring WPI right... I feel like I get a different result each time, which is why I was eager to swatch - I'm more confident getting information from needles and swatches, I guess.)  The fabric is nice - elastic, soft, and with a slight pretty halo.  While plying, I was a little sad that similar colors were meeting up so often (I thought I wanted a more barberpole look), but I really love the way that it stripes in the sample swatch.  I'm not sure if I'll be able to get all 4 oz. of fiber to turn out like that when plied, but if I happen to luck out, I might jump for joy!  Now to start the spinning in earnest.  I have a little more yarn from my sample skein in case I get a vibe about a stitch pattern and want to try it.

I do want to say a huge hello, and a heartfelt thanks to everyone who has welcomed me so warmly on Ravelry, commented here, sent me emails or Ravelry messages - it's just so nice I don't have the words... and that's rare for me.  I'm smiling a lot, I'm learning a lot, and I'm having a wonderful time diving in to work, and loving Ravelry more every day.  Thank you!!

Plied, washed, dried, and cuddled up in a bowl of depression glass (another Tulsa thrift store score).  Pretty little yarn ball.  Slow project.  I have a fiber bracelet around my wrist when I'm at home these days; sitting, walking around, wandering and tidying up and spindling all the while.  I like the freedom of my Little Si.  I used an official wool wash (Meadows Wool Wash) for the first time (I've always been a lavender Johnson's Baby Shampoo fan for my knitblocking needs) and I love it - the Penny Royal scent smells fresh and - this really is the best word - pleasant.  I notice online that it comes in Patchouli too, which I find very tempting.  But isn't there a saying, "if you wore a trend the first time around, you shouldn't wear it again?"  I'm not much of a rule-follower (or -carer) when it comes to things like that, although Patchouli, specifically, makes me worry a smidge.  I guess it begs asking:  if I spent some of my formative years spinning (um, dancing, not yarn) at Dead shows and hung out in Phish concert parking lots making hemp necklaces, quite possibly wearing as much Patchouli as my mom would let me out the door in, do you think perhaps I should pass the baton and let someone else wash their handcrafts with Patchouli?  I'm conflicted.

12 ounces of 15.5 micron natural merino combed top; big ideas.  Just over 130 yards of finished 2-ply so far.  The softest and most delicate yarn I've spun yet.  Simple, clean, pretty.

The ivory lines criss-cross on the spindle, building up slowly.  I'm taking my time; breathing; thinking.  Smiling a lot. 

The other night I gathered my little mini-hanks of handspun singles and decided to give plying a whirl (sorry, I had to say it).  Armed with an easy-to-understand (cartoons!) Andean plying tutorial I found in Julia's spinning archives, I wound the yarn around my hand, remembered at the last minute to twirl the spindle counter-clockwise, and begun.  It was a little rough at first (I may or may not have muttered "feed easily off my wrist, my ass") but I eventually made some yarn:

Oooh!  Now that's fun.  The colors swimming next to each other look like a mossy brick.  Surely there is enough yardage to get a stripe in a hat, right?  I don't know many spinning terms but one of the few things I've read about so far and know enough to strive toward is "balance" in my plied yarn.  And it seemed to me that the first skein of yarn I plied is balanced; I haven't yet washed it, but it is so nice and calm and not twisting as it hangs.  Ditto for skein number two:

The rest of the singles I plied, however... not so balanced.  Not so balanced at all.  Until I figured out a solution:

Ah.  Balanced yarn.