Maia Spins

C and C

We had a great time at Color!  The location was wonderful, classes were full, and folks came to spin and socialize.  We couldn't have asked for more.  Well, I wish I had taken pictures.  Thankfully others did.  Karrie created a Color Flickr group.  It was a particularly nice event because so many of the people who came were folks we know.

The only picture I took is from our after party.

From the left: Abby, Ted, Sara, Adrienne, Kristine, Karrie, and Kathleen.  A great group of folks!  I am lucky to know them all.

CNCH was fun too although it was very different.  The attendees are mostly weavers who may also spin and knit.  I liked seeing the beautiful handwoven garments they were wearing. 

Here is a picture of the Tactile/Verb booth (a couple more are on my Flickr).

I made a few purchases (how can I resist?).  In keeping with my current trend, I only seem to be attracted to naturally colored or naturally dyed fibers.

Our booth was next to California Cashmere.  Could we have had a more dangerous placement?  I got an ounce of their brown cashmere to spin (not pictured).  It is the softest, most delicious fiber!  I love that it is grown and processed here in northern California.  I plan to spin a very fine 2-ply yarn to knit another hat for Roger.

One of my favorite vendors was Shaggy Bear Farms from Oregon.  They have a variety of rare breed wools and mohair.  The owner had so many cute stories about her animals, I found myself finding excuses to return to her booth. 

Some soft mohair (white) and soft pin-drafted Icelandic wool.

Luscious pygora roving in shades of grey.  These two colors come from twin goats named Nancy Drew (love that name!) and Punky Brewster.  Pygoras are a breed of goats created by cross-breeding pygmy goats which have a soft downy fiber with angora (mohair) goats.  The resulting fiber is softer than mohair.  I got enough to make a large shawl.

Two skeins of Polwarth-silk (80/20) from Rovings.  Holy Moly this stuff is dreamy!  With 1600+ yards I have plenty for a shawl (yup, I am in full-tilt lace mode with 5 projects in the works).

I found one other vendor with naturally dyed fiber and this bundle of merino-silk (50/50) jumped out at me.  No website that I can find.

Our other booth neighbor was Spindlewood.  Oh my, do they make stunning spindles!  So beautifully crafted and finished.  I kept wandering over there to try them.  You know where this is going right?

Isn't it gorgeous?  Dark Brazilwood for the whorl and shaft.  It spins like a dream, smooth and long-spinning.  I love, love, love it!  My first fancy spindle has kindled a love of spindling.

Doesn't it look beautiful with the red merino-silk?  I have 2 ounces.  Think that will be enough for a little lacy scarf?

More from Colorado

Colorado is rich with fibery goodness!  On our last full day I got to visit Schacht Spindle Company in Boulder.  Besides being wonderful and friendly people, they make high quality spinning wheels and weaving looms.  I am happily owned by a Matchless double-treadle.  Since Tactile is a dealer, I thought it would be fun to take a tour of their facility.

Pictures kept small since there will be a lot in this post.  Click on any picture for a larger version.
A tall stack of wheels waiting to be sanded.

Partially built Matchless wheels.

Every spinning wheel is built by one of these two people. 

Hand cards waiting to be finished and have the carding cloth attached.

Gotta love a workshop with velvet Elvis painting!

I have a few more Schacht pictures on my Flickr.

We had a great time.  My inner nerd loves to see how things are made.  A big Thank you to Jane for showing Roger and I around.

Our next stop was Jefferson Ranch at the south end of Denver.  Jane has paco-vicuñas.  If you aren't familiar with these animals and their fiber, you should be.  Vicuñas are related to alpacas (and llamas).  They are endangered and not easily domesticated.  Paco-vicuñas (or P-V for short) are alpaca crosses that have many of the qualities of the vicuña while gaining a domesticated temperament and longer fiber length from the alpaca genes.  The fiber is very fine (can be 12-14 microns! which puts it in the same range as cashmere). 

The animals look very similar to alpaca, but with big soulful eyes.  Isn't she beautiful?

A P-V momma and her baby.

They are very curious animals and very tolerant of people walking among them.  In this picture you can get a better idea of their color range: white to fawn to chocolate brown.  All are beautiful.

Look at this fleece on one of her boys!  It is sooo soft, like a warm cloud.

Who can resist a cute baby? 

They have great personalities too.  Jane says they are smarter than dogs.  I believe her.  It is enough to make me move to the country and start a fiber farm. 

I took a lot of pictures.  More on my Fickr.

Lest you think it has all been about fiber, let me assure you that we sampled the local beverages.  I can strongly recommend the Milk Stout (on the nitrogen tap) from Left Hand Brewery.  Well crafted beers all around.  We sampled 6 (a sampler, not pints, we aren't total lushes) beers and didn't find a dud.

We can also recommend Redstone Meadery.  They make mead also known as honey wine.  These are also very well crafted.  The traditional is light, crisp, and very clean on the palate.  My personal favorite was the juniper.  I expected it to be like gin, but it was much more subtle with a bit of spiciness.

Finally, the best coffee in town is from Vic's.  Our favorite location was the one in Prospect.  Prospect is interesting too.  It is a housing development based on New Urbanist ideas.  The basic premise of New Urbanism is to integrate housing, retail, and a job base within the community.  Services and sometimes light rail are within walking distance and housing density is greatest near the town centers.  It makes for a very pleasant community.

Next stop is Austin, Texas!  Yee haw!!!

Fiber Fun in Boulder

The first leg of our vacation has had a lot of fiber.  Inspired by an article in Spin-Off Magazine (Fall 2007) by Anne Merrow, I have been exploring the Colorado Front Range area. 

I started with a stop at Woolen Treasures in Loveland.  It is a cute shop in a converted house.  My apologies for not having a picture of it to show you.  I did get a couple of skeins of Pagewood Farm's sock yarn.  I needed it for the Mystic Light shawl KAL. 
Here is my shawl after completing chart 1.  There will be five parts.  I am liking it so far, but now I need another project to work on until the next chart comes out on Wednesday.

It is hard to photograph without being able to pin out the lace.  It is a very pretty pattern edged with cables.  I love lace and cables together.

We went over to see Susan at Red Barn Fiber Processing.  She has yaks and llamas.  She processes her own fibers and those of other local farmers.  I had a hard time choosing from all the lovely fibers.
Soft mohair in a charcoal grey.  (I have a lot of pictures; I'm making them small.  Click on any image to see a larger version.)
Alpaca in a gorgeous, natural red brown color.
Yak!  I knew I had to have some.  It is not dehaired and has a bit of VM, but still pretty nice.
Llama in five colors.  I have a fun idea for this.

Her animals are so cute!

Llamas, these are her girls.

Sir Ocelot - one of her llama studs looking at the camera.  He has so much personality!

I love his coloring.

Yak!  They are big animals.  Not that you can really tell from this picture.  More pictures on my Flickr. 

Susan is moving to Nebraska very soon (within the month?).  I hope it goes smoothly!  She doesn't have a website, but you can reach her by email at redbarn1 @ juno.com (remove the spaces).

My next stop was the famous Shuttles, Spindles, & Skeins.  It is huge!  Knitting, spinning, weaving, whatever your fiber needs, they must have it.

They have a great selection of old issues of magazines.  I found a bunch of Spin-Offs that I wanted plus a few books.  (Don't remind me of the folly of traveling with so much paper.)  I am excited about the new book from Maggie Casey, Start Spinning.  A quick look at the book shows lots of pictures that show her methods clearly.

Then there was the Buffalo Gals Bison fiber.  Can you say delicious?

I hope you aren't sick of naturally colored fiber.  It seems to be my interest these days.  That and lace.  I haven't knit a sock in a while.  Call me streaky.

Still a bit more fiber fun from Colorado for the next post.

Madrona Report

Brooke and I left for the Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat on Tuesday morning with a cargo van full of Tactile fibery goodness.  It is approximately an 800 mile drive up to the Puget Sound area.

A few shots from the road:
Black Butte from just south of Weed, California.

Mount Shasta in all her glory.

It is a beautiful drive.  Long and tiring, but beautiful.  Wednesday we took a quick field trip to Earthues in Ballard (neighborhood in Seattle).  Earthues  is an amazing place.  I wish we had had more time to spend there.  (pictures of Earthues soon)

We set up in the marketplace on Wednesday afternoon.  I don't have pictures at the moment, they are in Brooke's camera.  More on that later.  For now, imagine a booth full to the brim with naturally dyed goodness.

The marketplace only had 34 venders, but there were some great ones.  You want to see what I got, right?

On the left is Sock Hop yarn from Crown Mountain Farms in the Ebony & Ivory colorway (now discontinued).  On the right is 8 oz of natural grey Gotland roving from Butternut Woolens.  Gotland is a mid-grade longwool that is great for socks.  I can't wait to spin it up!

Here are two yarns from Toots LeBlanc.  The large grey hank is 1200 yards of fingering weight lace yarn made from Jacob wool, Alpaca, and Mohair.  I am itching to make a big rectangular shawl out of it.  The white hank is 250 yards of fingering weight yarn from Blue Faced Leicester and Pygora.  Just enough for a little lace scarf.  Toots LeBlanc will be at Stitches west this weekend and I may come home with more of their fibery goodness.  It is always a favorite Stitches destination.

On the right is three hanks of wonderous Alpaca-Bison from Judith MacKenzie McCuin.  As soon as I touched it, I KNEW I had to have it.  I can't begin to describe how delicious it is.  It is wow with a capital WOW.  There is no way a picture can do it justice.

The next picture is all from one booth.  It is all Kakishibu.  Never heard of it?  Me too.  It is traditional natural dyeing from Japan using persimmons.  Chris Conrad studied the art in Japan and is now doing it in Washington state.  The book is a self-published by Chris and is full of history and methodology.  I really hope to take an extensive workshop with her soon.

The dark hank is overdyed organic green cotton.  The other hank is 50/50 cotton/hemp.  Under everything is a fabulous cotton hankie.  I love this stuff!

Last, but certainly not least, is some homemade jam from Denise.  Not only do I love homemade jam, I adore raspberries.  The jam won't last long.  If there was toast to be had in the house, you would be looking at an empty jar. 

It was wonderful to meet her (and get a sneak peek at her new cards!).  Thank you Denise!

ETA: See Denise's new cards here.  They are beautiful!

Next time I will tell you about the class I took with Judith MacKenzie McCuin and more about our booth.

Rockin'

Anni has given me a great honor by picking me as a

I love Anni's blog.  If she hadn't picked me, I totally would have picked her.  She dyes with plants, spins, plays with energized singles, and explores color in ways that make me think.  You rock Anni!

Now I get to pick 5 Rockin' Girl Bloggers.  What a tough choice.  There are so many fabulous and rockin' bloggers to choose from. 

In no particular order:

Leah of Homework does amazing things with felting.  Many of her projects include the work of her kids or are designed to be fun to do with children.  I always leave her blog amazed and inspired.  Read her archives, you won't be sorry.

Judy of Persistent Illusion is an adventurous sock knitter.  She is just as likely to show you a fabulous idea as an idea that seemed great but fizzled.  It is a window into her design process and what a process it is.  Her posts are smart and her blog is gorgeous (I dream of a blog so clean and orderly).  Did I mention that she invented the best toe-up cast on evah?

Jessie of What Housework? has a heart as large as Vermont.  Jessie's family includes a few humans and a menagerie of creatures.  Her stories are like a big warm hug and a mini vacation on the farm.  Grab a cuppa and sit down for a visit.  If fabulous fiber is your desire, Jessie can provide you with A Piece of Vermont.  She is one of my favorite indie dyers.

Rachael of Yarn A Go-Go is a bright light in the knitting blogosphere.  She is one of those bloggers that can make me laugh and cry in the same post.  Warm, real, and so cute!  You feel like you are hanging with a good friend.  And, she knits fearlessly. Rachael is the definition of a Rockin' Girl Blogger (why is Pirates of Penzance stuck in my head now?).  Go Rachael Go.

Janine of Feral Knitter is my sage of stranded knitting.  Watching her work makes me want to expand my knitting horizons.  She is original, smart, and funny.  There is a strength a surety to Janine that I admire very much.

Brooke of Missy B is a wealth of information.  I think there is a fiber catalog in her brain.   Whenever I need a bit of  advice on spinning, dyeing, or fiber preparation, I turn to Brooke.  She has also developed the ability to knit while doing just about anything.  If someone told me she could knit in her sleep, I'd believe them.  (Haha Brooke, now you HAVE to up date your blog.)

Marcy of Habetrot reminds us of what spinners and knitters of yore did.  Each post is a postcard from another time or place.  She is our historian, reminding us of spinning history so we CAN repeat it.  And she is celebrating her blogiversary.  Go give her some love.

Did I exceed my five Rockin' Girl Bloggers limit?  Ooops!

We are off for a family weekend at the lake.  I can't leave you without a few pictures.  Here's what is growing in the back yard.

I planted yellow nasturtiums the first year we had our raised vegetable beds.  It has been seven or eight years of sweet little volunteered faces.  The young flowers and leaves sometimes make it into the salad bowl.

Several tomato plants volunteered themselves this year.  I think they arrived via the compost.  The farmer's market supplies us with heirloom tomatoes until our kick-in.  We have never grown this variety (until now!).

A zebra tomato we did plant.  One of my favorites!  Tangy and acidic, it is a great contrast to the usual varieties.  Ripen, ripen, ripen!

A morning glory hanging over the fence from the neighbor's yard.

Round up!

I have a bunch of bits and pieces today.

First is a picture of a recent family gathering.

My brother Ben, and his wife Deb, were in town.  From the left is my father Paul, my grandmother Do (pronounced like doe), hubby Roger, Deb, and Ben.  We had lunch at our favorite joint, the Bay Wolf in Oakland.

I apologize for the craptastically back-lit picture.  Better pictures of Ben and Deb are at their farm blog, Eggs & Tea.  They live on the big island (Hawaii) and raise organic eggs and tea.

Deb is a great addition to the family.  She is my favorite sister-in-law (okay, she is my only sister-in-law, but still, she's my favorite).  She is into origami.  They came over for dinner and this is what she made.

The foil wrapper from a tiny chocolate bar (the size of a quarter) became an origami flower.  She just sat there are folded like she was doodling (origamoodle?).  I wish they were closer so I could learn more from her.

The Mail is Good

Yesterday I came home to find a package in my mail box.   And, it had my name on it.  Best of all it contained a fiberish gift!  Yay!  The bestest kind of mail.

There is 4 oz of a merino tencel blend in a saffron color (my favorite color!), a set of knitting coasters (who doesn't want that?), and some tiny skull stitch markers (Day of the Dead knitting everyday!).

Thank you Ronni!  What a great gift.  All I knew was that she asked for my address because she had something to send to me.  I promptly forgot about it, so it was like a bit of Christmas in June.  Love that!  If anyone else needs my address . . .

Big Bag Goes Green
Hakucho made a version of my Big Bag pattern from plastic shopping bags.  It is the latest entry in my You Did It gallery.  In this post she shows you how she prepared the bags for knitting and in this post she shows a smaller version of the bag.  Check it out.  It is a great idea. 

Speaking of Photo Galleries
I created a new one for my handspun yarn.  I gave it the oh so clever name of Spinning.  It is in my side bar near my FO galleries.  So far it is just my early (pre-blog) handspun. 

I went through a long phase when I wanted to play with all kinds of techniques.  I put no limits on myself.  It was very free and fun.  When you don't have a particular project or colorway in mind, anything is possible.  You will see novelty yarn, glitter, sequins, and beads along side yarn spun from naturally dyed roving.  Most of it was sold, so it was a lot of fun to go through the pictures.  It was like seeing old friends.

It is about time I created a spinning gallery.  You would think that a blog titled Maia Spins would have more spinning in it.

Here is a montage to tempt you. 

Click for big (as always with my pictures) or go straight to the Spinning gallery for more information.

This and that

This:

The Debi Socks are done and I love them!  Debi tells me that the yarn will bloom with washing.  I can't wait!  I am wearing them today for the first time.

Here you can see the fit at the ankle.  Debi's heel is very nice.  You can also see the inverted chevrons from the pattern stitch.

Here is the back of the heel (with my patented blurry-cam technology).  I brought the patterning down onto the mini-flap.  It is flat enough to not be a problem inside shoes.

Yarn: Trekking XXL, color #28, a wonderful gift from Debi.
Pattern: I made up the pattern using Debi's favorite cast-on (German Twisted) and Debi's Mini Flap and Gusset Yarnover Short-Row Heel (say that ten times fast) and the Yarnover Short-Row Heel instructions from Purlwise.
Started on April 22, finished on April 29, 2007

That:

A bit of housekeeping on the blog.  I moved my Free Patterns to a photo gallery.  This allows you to see a picture of the garment before you open the pdf document (which can be time consuming).  One thing I like is that I can link to relevant posts which may be helpful to the person knitting the pattern.  The only drawback is that it takes an extra step to click on the gallery (no direct link from the main blog).  The link to the gallery is in the same spot as before.  What do you think?  Is it better this way or the old way? 

The other housekeeping is that I have made pdf versions of my tutorials.  I got a couple of requests for this.  I know how annoying it can be to print out html.  The links will work in the electronic pdf files.  I hope y'all find them useful.  They are linked directly below the links to the html versions.  ETA: Oops I forgot that I still need to turn them into pdfs and upload them.  They'll be up very soon. ETAA: They are up.

Kneek
Wow!  There are some great and creative ideas on this blog.  She has fabulous tutorials for felting, clothing embellishment, and general craftiness.  There are many projects for and with her kids too.  I am inspired every time I go there.  She makes me want to try new things and stretch my boundaries.  I would link to individual posts, but there are too many good ones and I can't decide.  Just go and see for yourself.

Kiva
Kiva allows you to be a micro-lender.  You look through listings of people looking for funds to start a business and then loan them part (as little as $25!) or all of what they need to start the business and get on the path to self-sufficiency.  The loan will be repaid and you can then choose to re-loan the money or withdraw it.  What a great idea!  Like my favorite charity, Heifer, this gives people a way to improve their own lives.  Big rewards at a very low cost.  Love that!

Forecast for Fun

I think I mentioned that I joined Amy Boogie's Spunky Club.  I am getting the fiber.  Last month's offering was a lovely merino roving called Forecast.  A couple of bloggers have spun it into Navajo plied sock yarn and knit beautiful socks.  Margene made these socks and Mya (ETA: Yikes! her name is Amy, my apologies) made these socks.  Lovely! 

I'm not one to pass by a great idea and the Navajo plied BFL socks I made from Amy's "Chocolate Covered Cherries" roving are some of my favorites.  So, I have started spinning my forecast roving for Navajo plied socks.  This picture doesn't show much of the blue.  I looked at the spindle and it was mostly blue.  I thought I should spin a little more to show the color more balanced and got this.  SIGH.

Last night my FIL, Roy, and his girlfriend Marcela came over and brought their dog Pancho.  Sammie and Pancho are great friends.  Lots of wrestling and cuteness ensued.
Bite me! No, bite me!

All that makes for two happy and tired dogs.  Sammie could barely drag his butt out of bed this morning.

Other Bits & Pieces
Nanette has published her Glove Knitting booklet.  Mine has shipped; I hope it arrives soon.  There is a KAL and you are encouraged to make any glove pattern, not just one of hers.  I have joined but not posted yet.  It should be a great way to finally get some gloves that fit my hands.

Speaking of new books, Terri Shea's book on Selbuvotter, a style of black & white knitting from Norway, is available for pre-order.  In this post you can see it being printed.  That must be very exciting for an author.  If you pre-order by March 31, the shipping is free.

Speaking of Scandinavian knitting, this October the Nordic Heritage Museum in Seattle is sponsoring a Nordic Knitting Conference.  Check out the line-up of people scheduled to teach!  I plan to go and keep checking to see if registration has started yet.

Pippi pointed out this great project of knitting comfort dolls for AIDS orphans in Africa.  There is still time to whip out one or two to contribute.  Check out Big Yarn Mama's blog for more info.

Speaking of charity knitting, I am off to Rachael's house for a Dulaan knit-in.  It was scheduled today to celebrate Janine being in town.  I hope she brings the acorn sweater, a stunning stranded sweater she designed for her husband.

Joiner Maia

Lolly is at it again.  Project Spectrum for 2007 starts February 1st.  I couldn't resist.  February/March colors are blue, white, and gray.  Sounds like a Nordic hat to me.

And, then while wandering around the knitting blogosphere (and why do you folks have to be so darn interesting?  My bloglines is over subscribed as it is and I keep finding new interesting blogs.), I found this:
The Green Sock KAL.  Or is it an unKAL?  There are no sign-ups required and no single blog to follow along with.  Save the graphic (fabulous isn't it?) to your server (hotlinking is evil) and start knitting.  Sounds like my speed. 

I have the perfect yarn too.  A couple of months ago I got some Real Vermonter yarn from Jessie of A Piece of Vermont.  It is 440 yards of 3-ply fingering weight yumminess made from 70% mohair and 30% Romney & Corriedale wools.  She called it Franenstein's Monster (yikes, that means I bought it just before Halloween!).  The picture doesn't come close to accurately representing how nice the yarn is.  Jessie has a way of making gorgeous yarns with subtle color vaiations.

 

Spinning Fiber Review

Recently, I have acquired some beautiful hand-dyed roving.  I thought it would be fun to show you what I did with it and to write reviews on the vendors.  Warning, this is a picture heavy post.

Inspirations Yarns
Romney wool from Inspirations Yarn.  I forgot to take a picture of the roving before spinning it so I snagged a picture from their website (I hope that is okay).  This is their Mean Reds colorway.  My label says I got colorway #1004, lot #9.  Mine seems more on the red/pink side but in the same colors.  I think it is the same though; it is very hard to compare spun fiber to unspun.

It is local fiber (to them that is - New England) that they have processed especially for them.  The wool is soft for a Romney wool and the fibers are long.  The colorway is beautiful.  The colors are rich and saturated.  The individual lengths of color in the roving were fairly short (3-6 inches or so).  The fiber was $10 for 2oz which I think is reasonable for locally processed wool.  On my scale it weighed 58g or just slightly over 2oz.  There was a tiny bit of veggie matter that came out in the spinning.  No problem, I don't mind a bit of VM.  It did not bleed in a tub of tepid water.  My only problem was that the roving felted some during their dyeing process.  I had to tease the fibers apart and pre-draft them a fair amount.

I split the roving lengthwise and spun it worsted, joining end A of the second strip to end B of the first strip.  I plied it from a center-pull ball.  Before washing, my 2-ply yarn is 138 yards of sport weight.  The colors in real life are brighter than this picture shows them.

Overall, I like the fiber, but I would probably not buy it again.

Pippi Knee Socks
First, I will admit that I consider Symeon (the genius behind Pippi) to be a cyber friend.  I have never met her in person though I would love to.  My review is not influenced by personal feelings, just my admiration of her work. 

Falklands wool from Pippi Knee Socks.  This is my first experience with Flaklands wool.  I believe Falklands wool is a blend of wool fibers.  I would love to hear more about it.  My google-fu didn't turn up what I wanted to know.  This is her Amelia colorway.  The wool is soft and extremely lofty.  Huge sproing factor with this wool.  The colorway is beautiful.  The colors are rich and saturated.  The individual lengths of color in the roving were fairly long (6-12 inches maybe).  The fiber was $12 for 3oz which actually weighed close to 4 oz on my scale.  There was no veggie matter at all and it spins like a dream.  I really enjoyed this wool a lot.  I didn't need to do much prep except for a wee bit of pre-drafting to loosen it up.  It did not bleed in a tub of tepid water.  My only problem was that the wool has so much loft that it ws very dificult to fit it onto one bobbin.  Yeah, not really a problem at all is it.

I split the roving lengthwise into 3 strips and spun the worsted, placing end A of the new strip on end B like above.  I plied it from a center-pull ball.  Before washing, my 2-ply yarn is 268 yards of worsted to DK weight.  The colors in real life are a little darker than this picture shows them.  I think it will become a scarf.

I would definitely spin this wool again and I would definitely spin roving from Pippi again.  I love her color sense and style.  I wonder if she could be persuaded to make roving in the Strange Days colorway.  Hint, hint, hint.

Spunky Eclectic
Romney wool in the Tundra colorway (trimmed from a group shot) from Spunky Eclectic.  The wool is quite soft.  I was really surprised as it is considered to be a mid-grade wool.   The colors are rich and saturated mixed with undyed areas.  The individual lengths of color in the roving were mixed but on the shorter side.  The fiber was $9 for a generous 4oz.   A great bargain!  The colorway is gorgeous.  I looks like blue, turquoise, and tan, but there are bits of green and burnt orange in there too. There was no veggie matter at all and it spins like a dream.  I really enjoyed this wool a lot.  I didn't need to do any prep at all.  Amy did a wonderful job of dyeing it without felting the fibers.  It did not bleed in a tub of tepid water.  I have no complaints.  Romney is a fairly dense wool and I managed to cram the finished yarn onto one bobbin, just barely.

I split the roving lengthwise into 4 strips and spun it worsted, placing end A of the new strip on end B like above.  As I was spinning I noticed how the white sections gave a delightful tweediness to the singles.  So this time I decide to try a 3-ply to enhance tweediness and downplay the barberpole effect.  I took the 4 strips and used one and a third strips per ply.  I used my scale to try to get better accuracy.  The added benefit is that each ply starts at a different point on the roving (ply A at the beginning, ply B at the first third point, and ply 3 at the two-thirds point).

I was too lazy to make find 4 empty bobbins.  I used 3 center-pull balls instead.  Before washing, my 3-ply yarn is 203 yards of worsted weight.  The colors in real life are darker than this picture shows them. 

I am now a big fan of roving with white areas.  All the rovings I've dyed have been thoroughly colored by my anal-compulsive self.  Little did I know the joys of the tweediness.  I especially liked the areas where a dark color and white blended.

I would definitely spin roving from Spunky Eclectic again.  I love her color sense and style.  Luckily I have two more rovings from her, a superwash merino and some BFL.

Please let me know if you have a favorite painted roving vendor.  I am thinking about doing a quasi-regular review of hand-dyed roving.