A few months ago, Rayna picked up a massive stash of fiber from someone who had opted to get rid of, literally, a garbage bag full of the stuff. She was going through it and held up a braid and declared that she would likely never spin it up. I said ‘I would!’ and Rayna said ‘It’s yours then’ because Rayna is like that.

At the time, I’m not even sure why I piped up. Given that I only owned a drop spindle and a dysfunctional wheel, the odds that I would ever spin it up seemed slim to none.

But after my beautiful wheel acquisition I went through my fiber ‘stash’ (it consisted of 4 braids, all of which have now been spun, dearth of fiber to be remedied this Friday) and pulled it out.

It’s 4oz. of merino top called ‘Peggy’. I’m not sure if this is a characteristic of the fiber, or if it had felted slightly, because it was very hard to draft. I felt like I was manhandling it, and shamefully pre-drafted nigh to pencil roving thickness in order to get a consistent thread from it.

Drafting difficulty notwithstanding, I can definitely see some progress in the finished piece. There are fewer slubby bits and more yarn-y bits and it almost looks as though checking my wraps per inch could be a meaningful exercise instead of a mildly depressing amusing one. If Rayna’s niddy-noddy math is correct, there are about 288 yards of a passable DK weight yarn here–enough for a cowl!

After washing it, the fiber relaxed and became even more uniform in thickness. It is such a dramatic change, that I felt the need to wash, reshoot and re-blog my first skein as well because it looks so much better now.

Working on my last braid now; a 100% alpaca so soft it feels like spinning air compared to my last braid. Though I’ve been pouring at least a case of resin a day, and weaving up some scarves for sale at the show this weekend, I’m still finding time for my addictive new hobby :)