Monday, April 21, 2008

Birthday Yarn for Jackie

Last year, for Jackie's birthday, I had the inspiration to spin her some handspun yarn as a gift. I'd just bought some beautiful alpaca/merino/angelina batts from Loop (in the Lavender Mint Tea colorway) and Jackie had mentioned how much she liked the color. So....I thought, since I had time, and Jackie is totally worth it, I'll spin it up for her.

Come to find out, it was the BEST spinning I'd ever done (probably because I was thinking such lovely, friendly thoughts at the time) and the finest yarn (in wpi - wraps per inch) that I'd ever made. It came out to a fingering weight, 2 ply yarn that was perfectly balanced (that only happens to me 1/3 of the time....I tend to overspin and underply) - it was a MIRACLE!

She loved the yarn (which made me soo happy), knit something almost immediately with it (The Montego Bay Scarf....which made me even happier) and then even wore the scarf a lot (which caused me to have gleeful, handspun-ery hallucinations)!!!

To see this yarn, go here to my Flickr account. It's the last pic in the left hand column.

Fast forward a year....

And Jackie's birthday was coming up quickly. Having recently purchased some Spritely Goods fiber - which was HIGHLY recommended by the Spinning Goddess Cayli - I thought....this is perfect for another Birthday Spin.

So, I frantically used all my spare time (that I wasn't cleaning, cooking, working or with the kids) to spin this yarn. I didn't knit all those days....eeek! The fiber (a luscious mix of soft merino, angelina and firestar) was a dream to spin and the color truly cheered me on....she calls it, "Globe Mallow"...and it's a limited edition colorway. I'm SO glad that I picked it up. It was wonderful.

So, here's what I did:

Step 1: Take pics of fiber BEFORE ripping open.




and a close up:




Step 2: Draft Fibers (30 minutes).




Step 3: Spin on my Ashford Joy (5 hours total...not all in one day)




Step 4: Take WPI gauge before Plying...28.




Step 5: Ply (3 hours), Soak (overnight), and Dry. Take Picture of Finished Yarn (over 300 yards).




And then, I decided to rename the yarn, since it had a different (but lovely) look and color after finishing. It was inspired by jokes I overheard Tim and Ben saying to each other while I was spinning:

"Cantaloupe-I'm Already Married!"

I can only hope that Jackie likes this yarn half as much as last year's. I'm dying to see what she'll knit up with it.

And I'm trying to decide (early) what I'll spin for her NEXT year!

Can I sleep now? (zzzzzzz..........)

10 comments:

KSee said...

Love the pictures as you moved through each step. The color and that name are the best.

yarnophiliac said...

absolutely fabulous yarn!

cayli said...

Looks beautiful! I reminds me of the yarn Stephanie dyed for me. Jackie is going to love it. What a great gift.

Jackie said...

What a lucky friend you have.

Of course I love it! Mwah!!!

Lora said...

It's such yummy yarn Gina!!! The name is too funny too

Gigi said...

It looks so yummy!

Sonya said...

That yarn is gorgeous! I love corny jokes. Puns are even better.

Stephanie said...

absolutely lovely yarns - I totally cracked up when I read the new yarn name :)

Kimberly said...

That is some serious yumminess!! :-)

talumirage said...

Om nom nom!

I just wanna chew on that batt!

OK, maybe not... fluffmouth is never good.