Catchup, part 1: A Good Yarn

Yes, I know I've been gone a while. I promise I haven't forgotten about you guys, the thing is that we updated our camera software, but then for a while the camera wouldn't let us upload pictures onto the computer. My mom fixed it, though, and I'm back.

I've kind of been neglecting my knitting lately, because I've become so enchanted by spinning. I have a nice fat new skein of yarn to prove it, and a lot of pictures.

The fiber I'm using is an undyed merino top from Hello Yarn. My method of spinning thus far has been to just spin and spin and spin a pretty thin single until no more will fit comfortably on my spindle. I was going to try plying it using a method similar to Andean plying, but I realised quickly that I had way too much yarn to fit on my hand. Instead I wound it into a center-pull ball on my ball winder andjust plied from both ends.

When the plying was done, I let it soak in the bathroom sink with a little shampoo for about 45 minutes, then hung the skein out in the sunshine to dry.
The yarn fluffed up quite a bit, making the finished product a nice lofty DK-ish weight.
The yarn posing alongside Tita's gorgeous pink roses...
...and one bloom that was just too pretty and perfect not to have a closeup.

I'm really pleased with this yarn. I'm getting better about keeping an even twist and thickness, though I definitely need lots of practice.
I was right pleased with myself when I took my beautiful yarn inside, but I figured I should wind it into a wider skein. Since I have only one swift, I called the eager Thing 1 in to help. My instructions could not have been more simple: "Hold this," I said. And she did. For about 5 seconds.

After those five seconds of perfect skein-holding, she proceeded to drop the skein. This would not normally be a problem, as I clearly saw that the skein fell on the floor still in a perfect loop. I do not know how, as I dove to pick it up, that it was transformed into the horrific mess that took me a whole friggin hour to untangle.
But as they say, all's well that ends well.
And I think it ended pretty well.