The bonfire and the hamster wheel

Last night I packed up my wheel in the lovely bag my Mom made, got on the Tube, and trekked over to Tricolette for an evening of spinning. When I proposed this excursion to my other half, I said "Guess where I might go with my wheel next week?" His response was "A bonfire?" Ha, ha, bloody ha mate. Just for that, I won't make you any more socks...

The trip on the Tube was actually fine, although I kept waiting for someone to ask me what was in the bag. It helped a great deal that I was going in to town when most people were coming out and the trains were largely empty. I made it there without too many problems, after a trek from the Tube station, and had a lovely evening. A lovely bunch of people, a gorgeous shop (!), and best of all, this is what I was spinning.

I was able to start on the Falklands for my mom because this past weekend, I finished up this:

Six skeins, ~2100 yds, of 2-ply fingering weight Falklands for the River Run pullover (aka March's sweater). I had an interesting experience with this stuff - the first four skeins I spun over the period of about 2 weeks, and they were in the neighborhood of 1600-1800 ypp. The last two, I did in the last week, and when I finished the first one of the two, it came in at 2100 ypp (435 yds/3.4 oz).

Gulp. Whaaaaa? whimpers

So I plied up the next skein and, instead of soaking it in cold water, soaked it in hot water, with a tiny bit of mussing around. It came out at 1847 ypp. Hmmmmmm, said the curious porpoise, perhaps I can utilize the Falklands-puffball effect to fix that darned first skein. Skein skinny got unwound, thrown in some hot water, and jiggled around a bit. After drying:

400 yds/3.4 oz, 1820 ypp. Done.

I checked the schematics for the pattern, and I fully expect to have to spin up some more yarn somewhere along the line, as the intended recepient of the finished item is both skinny and long*. So I will need to do some veeery scientific dyeing to minimize any dye lot issues with future skeins. But I think it's time to get started with the dye jars. Black, white, three shades of grey, three shades of blue and teal.

Now I need to see if I have enough dye...

* Must remember to find out how long the sleeves have to be...