Newest Yarns

I decided it's time to start sharing pictures of some of the yarn that I spin. I spent the past week plying, plying, and plying some more. Here is the end product from all that spinning. :)


The top picture features the following yarns: the light colored skein (looks white, but is really a creamy white) is Cheviot. The one under it, the one that appears to be light tan in color (which it actually is), is North Ronaldsay. The two gray skeins are Gotland. All are wool.....just different breeds of sheep, that's all. I purchased the roving (washed locks in the case of the Gotland) from a supplier in England. Was not disappointed at all either. I thoroughly enjoyed spinning each type of wool. They all made some very lovely yarn. Now to find the perfect projects for all of them.

The bottom picture is of hand-painted Polypay/Romanov X yarn. It was hand-painted last summer and spun up into a very lovely sport weight yarn. I have the perfect lace shawl pattern for this yarn. Just need to finish my Heather sweater first. I would rather not have more than one knitting project going at a time......although it can be rather tempting!! Especially when I finish spinning a lovely yarn.

Wonderful story behind the Polypay/Romanov yarn. About 3 years ago I saw an ad in a local paper for raw wool. It had the shearing date and price per fleece. I think they were asking something like $10 per fleece. Keep in mind that raw fleece (straight off the sheep) is usually sold per pound. So to be able to pay per fleece was an incredible deal. So I called ahead and had them put four fleeces aside for me. Told them that I was a spinner and was looking for "spinning fleeces". Went up on shearing day to pick up my fleeces. What an amazing sight!! There was something like 200 sheep being sheared that day. The pile of fleeces was simply astounding! Thankfully there was someone there who was familiar with spinning and had been kind enough to hand pick my fleeces herself. I was more than happy to hand over my $40 and take my new acquisitions home. I had originally planned on having these fleeces blended with the fiber from the latest shearing of my angora goats at the local fiber mill. For reasons I can't remember now, the mohair ended up being given away ( I think there was something like 9 pounds of it). The Polypay/Romanov fleeces were taken to the mill and processed by themselves. Turns out the fleeces were large ones and I ended up with about 20 pounds of sliver roving when it was all said and done.d That's a lot of roving!! At first I did try to sell some of it.....but there wasn't any interest. So I've been slowly making my way through it over the years. I think I have about 2 pounds or so of it left. It has been tons of fun to dye and hand-paint. Plus it spins up beautifully. Drafts very nicely (and very evenly). Knits up wonderfully and felts very easily. The funny thing is that while I will be very happy once it is finally all spun up....a small part of me will miss having it around. It's just been here for such a long time.