Bin spinning

When I went to Woolfest I took some wool/silk mix which I'd bought at Wingham ages ago to play with at the spin in. Since then I've been sporadically going back to it and spinning a bit more. This weekend I made a concerted effort and finally finished it off and plied it up.

I have to say that I'm really pleased with it, it's very soft and lovely and quite fine with occasional slubby bits. I'm thinking of a lacy scarf or something similar. There's 100g of it but I haven't measured the mileage yet. (Have now, it's 605 yards)

My second weekend project was finishing off some rainbow merino (also from Wingham) which I'd spun up and plied with some of the Manx Loghtan I'd had left on a bobbin. I spun the remains of the merino and plied it up with the remainder of the (already spun) Manx. It was almost a perfect match. Only a few yards of the merino left over which I used to practice my Navajo plying which is a bit crap.

There's not a lot of this (53 yards) but I really like the colour which is a greeny tan colour overall but has areas of other colours too. I've loads of the manx still but none of the merino left, may have to get some more and do enough for a project.

The Navajo plying was a lot better than previous efforts thanks to advice from some helpful Ravelers to the effect that I may do better if I slackened off the tension. Tried it and it worked. Hurrah for Ravelry.

Nice pic of both my finished efforts drying off.

On Friday I bought a book at the Oxfam second hand bookshop by Nicholas Crane (Coast, Mapman on the BBC) called "Clear Waters Rising: a mountain walk across Europe" ; an account of his seventeen month journey on foot from Finisterre to Istanbul. I have to say it's a fascinating read but the man is completely bonkers.