While I'm Cleaning

I haven't been entirely unproductive with my spinning/knitting while cleaning out The House; just mostly unproductive.

Anyway, I started spinning Malicious Salad a while back but never posted any updates on it.

Look, Jocelyn - I put it on a SALAD plate. I am so clever!

The color is a little darker and richer in both real life and in this actual photograph (why is it so washed out when I post it?), but otherwise pretty accurate. I have about 3 full skeins of it ready to knit, and about 487 skeins left to spin. Originally, this was meant to be sweater yarn, but the way the colors are working out, it's going to be divvied up for smaller projects; Scott has already requested a hat, I'd like some socks out of it, and I think the skein with the bright yellow in it might make a lovely baby cardigan. The merino is so soft, it's really perfect for garments worn next to the skin. I also might throw some of it up on Etsy someday and see if I can make some money for my Remodel The Kitchen fund.Also, it's a #$#%#$# #$#%#$# to prep for spinning; it's not felty, but the roving is very thick, so I have to tear it into many strips and then loosen it all up, inch by inch, and there's so much of it. It's the same wool I dyed for Nuclear Pumpkin, which also was tedious to prep, but I could do less of it in one sitting. With Malicious Salad, I'm trying to keep the colors stripey, so that means I have to prep one whole length of the roving at once and it's reeeeeeeeally long.

Jennifer recently dyed a batch of shetland and she doesn't have to prep it at all; she just grabbed it off the drying rack (read: shower rod) and started spinning. Can you imagine how pissed I was, after all my dyeing experience and the ordeal of pre-drafting this merino wool, when the very first wool Jennifer dyed for spinning on her new wheel required NO PREP AT ALL? I blame the merino. I don't care if merino is supposed to be extra soft - next time I'm getting a slightly less spongy wool to work with.

Okay, yeah, so "next time" is four days ago, when I ordered a wool-silk blend. Okay, so the wool IS merino, but blended with the silk, it should be a whole different experience. Right?