I’m not sure if spinning counts for my UFO challenge, but this fiber is at least one UFO off my list. I started spinning this merino the moment I walked in the door from Rhinebeck last year. It’s Blue Moon Fiber Arts Sheep 2 Shoe kit (super wash merino), and my first attempt at 3-ply sock yarn.

This stuff is so nice to spin and the yarn is the softest stuff I’ve had off my wheel yet. I did finally get a good skinny single but was not consistent with it until the third bobbin, and you can so see the transition between bobbins and how with each one I improved with attaining the skinny. The WPI are 10-14 depending on where in the skein you pick from :)

Also because of this inconsistency the length of the singles were very different even though they were all the same weight. So not only did I get some 3-ply, I got a bit of 2-ply and even did a bit of Navajo plying to see how it played the colors different.

I love how the color transition is totally different with the Navajo ply, but boy do I need to work on this technique. Some of the knots are huge and others you don’t feel at all. I would absolutely love this technique if I could get the no-feel knots consistently through out. Also the tension is not consistent, some areas are spot on, but many are all loosey-goosey.

Over all I have slightly over 200 yards of three-ply (these will be some small socks) about 50 yards of two-ply, and just 30 yards of the Navajo-ply.

I know there is some more super wash merino in my fiber stash and after this stuff it will not be long before I dig it out.

Now on to some real WIP’s for my UFO challenge. These are some of my more recent little ones. February is such a short month so I’m hoping to get some of these smaller ones out of the way.

The black and white ear flap hat (with the color work copied from a knitty.com pattern) was to be a Christmas hat for Zachary. With the color work of mine being slightly on the tight side it was coming out small, so I figured it would instead work for Roy. So I started decreasing like a mad women to get it to fit. Well I went to far with the mad decreasing, when done, it will be the newest hat for Nathan. Good thing I have such an eclectic size of heads to choose from. I was thinking about lining the ear flaps, but all that really needs to be done is the crochet around the edges. Underneath that hat (although it’s hard to see) is the hat started again with the proper stitch count for a Zach sized head. Since he has once again changed his mind about colors it will be ripped out.

The blue in the back (again hard to see) is a color work hat I started for Chris. The two blues I had picked out were to close together in color and you could not really see the pattern. This also is going to be completely ripped.

The multi-colored blue hat is Nicole’s long awaited super long ear flap hat. She saw a hat like this last winter in Colorful Stitches and has been wanting one ever since. All that is needed is some seaming in the back and some monster sized pom-poms for the ends. This was an intended Christmas gift that never quite made it.

The purple cotton is another wash cloth. Started during the Christmas rush but never finished. I made four of these, and was starting some more as just in case last minute gifts. I will finish this because I like having gifts at the ready, and it was really a well received gift for being so simple. It’s the wash cloth from the Mason-Dixon book that ties up. I gave these away with some hand made soap that I got from Rhinebeck and everyone loved them.

All little, but hopefully I get through most of these with the couple of weeks I have left. We shall see. Some where around here is another bag of hats that just need some finishing details. If it shows up there may be more added to this mix.

Posted in Spinning, UFO Challenge on Feb 15th, 2007