Jan 05 2009
Spinning FO: Fruit Salad
Dark and lovely, no?
Fiber: “Fruit Salad” Black Faced Leicester from Gales Art
Wheel: Lendrum DT, 10:1 ratio whorl
Weight: 4 oz / 116g
Yardage: 684 yards
Diameter: Light fingering
Techniques: Spun semi-worsted
I bought this roving from the very nice lady who owns Gale’s Art, at SOAR 2008. She was an especially pleasant and helpful vendor, and I really enjoyed talking with her about the sister colorways she creates with the two different “BFLs”, black and blue faced. Sounds rather violent, eh? The difference between the same colorway was intense, on the Blue Faced it was almost shockingly bright, on the Black Faced it had depth and a dark jewel like quality.
This was a pleasant spin, the roving wasn’t overly compacted by the dyeing process. I split each length in half and then tugged each section into a nice loose rope easily. I let the yarn be what it wanted to be, and just sat back to relax while spinning up this bobbin. It ended up that I didn’t spin on it anywhere but at knit night, therefore it suffers from variable thickness. It’s hard to avoid that when you’re splitting up a bobbin into single sittings over the course of a month. I don’t mind though, I made a promise to myself that this year I’m just going to spin to spin, I’m not going to even think about competition. If something really nice jumps out of the crowd, then so be it.
Anyway, back to the roving. I adore the colors in this, all but the bronzey color. Not so much on the mustardy yellow. All in all though, it’s just stunning. I’m curious to see what it will look like knitted up. I’m considering another cowl, or maybe spinning up some black and making a stained glass project? Who knows? It has to sit and think for a while before it tells me what it wants to be.
Sorry for the blur, sunlight is in short supply and I'm not waiting till next weekend to rephotograph.
This was part of a Ravelry challenge by the Maggie Taught Me to Spin group, those of us who met at SOAR, to spin up something we bought there. I liked being challenged in this way, and I’m looking forward to checking back in to see what everyone else spun up.
January 5th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
Ohh, I LOVE that yarn! Your singles are always so nice–it’s what drew me to your blog in the first place.
So pretty!
January 5th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
Wow – it’s gorgeous! You left it as a single, right?
I have a dumb question, but I’ll ask it over on Ravelry so that everyone gets the benefit of the answer.
January 6th, 2009 at 3:03 am
Oh my goodness…it’s gorgeous! I just love the colors, you really have a good eye for fiber. Can’t wait to see it with my hands. How cool is it that you just enjoyed spinning this and yet look how great it came out. Love the ideas you have for it and excited to see what you choose to do.
January 6th, 2009 at 10:07 am
That is beautimous!!! I adore it. It is kind of amazing when you let the fiber decide what it wants to be. I’m glad you’ve decided to just enjoy the process of spinning just for the sake of spinning. So much less pressure!
January 6th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Simply gorgeous as always! Good luck with the new diggs!
January 6th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
OH YES!!! That’s gorgeous!!! I’m not one for mustard yellow myself, but I like that! Gale’s going to be at the Destin January Spin-In,, so I’ll look for some that roving for myself. Beautimous!
January 6th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
How beautiful. I like it as much as the Faerie Queen you spun a couple of years ago. I almost bought in on Etsy and waited too long. The thing I like about both yarns was the luminescence. I don’t know if both of them had the same sheen in real life, but on my monitor they looked like they emit a soft glow from the fibers. Well done!
January 8th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Love it! The purple combined with the yellow is amazing.