The last of the Tour de Fleece yarns
Fiber: merino/alpaca/camel/silk from Krafty Koala
Spun/plied: 12:1
Stats: 278 yds/4.5 oz, about sport weight
Comments: I was drawn to two things about this fiber - the blend and the dark, gloomy colors. Maybe it was the fact that it was grey and rainy and cold during Knit Nation...in any event, I was excited to spin this up, and jumped right in during the Tour de Fleece.
I split the top in half across the length and then split each half into four strips - this seems to have become my standard fiber prep these days. I used to do a lot more spinning from the full width of top from one end going straight through to the other end, but I've been trying to mix up and blend the colors in a lot of the stuff I've been spinning recently, to move away from dramatic stripey-ness. It remains to be seen if that approach has been actually successful.
Back to the fiber: I had a tough time spinning this, largely due to the difference in staple length between the various fibers. The merino and alpaca and silk were all ok, but I kept ending up with little puffs of short, fuzzy, presumably camel fibers that wouldn't stay integrated in the top. The silk was also pretty obvious in the blend and not terribly well mixed in. To be perfectly honest, I should have expected this problem ahead of time, just given the composition of the top, but I don't think I'll try a similar combination again.
I was hoping to end up with enough yardage for a Bitterroot shawl, but fell well short. The yarn is lovely and drapey and has gorgeous sheen, so maybe this should be my yarn for a little shawlette design. I can do Bitterroot with last year's TdF laceweight instead.