Grays

I completed Clue 2 for the Hole and Sons Tales of Purbeck MKAL (mystery knitalong) on Saturday. Don't get too excited.  It was a short clue ;-).  I'm approaching the end of my white yarn and enjoying the pattern so I know I'm going to finish the shawl and therefore need more yarn.  Since I'm ahead of schedule with the knitting, early Sunday morning was a perfect time to do some spinning.

I'd found a small bundle of light gray core roving in my stash.  Core roving is two colors, one wrapped around the other.  This particular batch was medium gray core with white wrapped around the outside.  When you spin it the yarn looks almost tweedy.  Hmmm, that might be a nice transition from the white yarn into the medium gray yarn.

Drop spindles are a perfect tool for samples like this.  I keep a spindle (or two, maybe three ;-) at the house for just such instant gratification.  Golding spindles are my favorite and this beautiful swan spindle (and sheep holder/stand - look closely) was a gift from a special friend.  I've been dying to give it a whirl.

Nothing says class like spinning with a fancy spindle...and then skeining your yarn around a cardboard box ;-).

The other option I found in my stash was a few ounces of dark gray Jacob roving.  I'm trying to remember when I did the three colors of roving - light, medium and dark gray.  It's been awhile.  If I had to guess, this would be Elizabeth, Jester, Joshua, Crazy Esther and maybe Emily and Annabelly.

Here are the two new color choices in tiny skeins.  The small ball of gray is the Jester yarn I already have picked out.  The light gray core roving on the right - now this is kind of odd - is a completely different gray from the other grays next to it.  Not that the other grays are brown exactly, but there is a hint of a muted color in there that is missing in the light gray.  Pretty, but not for this project.

So here is the color plan.  The gray mini skein is the same yarn from the ball above, just re-skeined. I'm going to switch over to the medium gray next, maybe with the next clue, and then finish with the dark gray. Actually, I'm toying with finishing the very end with a red/brown edge.  Any guesses as to why?

Eli, displaying his grays.

Some phone shots from later in the day.  Thanks to another good friend who had come over to pick up half of Woody's fleece and ended up giving me a spinning lesson (this is quite a racket I have going on here :-D) I have nearly a full bobbin of (hopefully) perfectly matching yarn to ply up today. I was planning on spreading mulch, but gee, it's raining ;-).

Liddy prefers driveway grass.  We don't have another sheep on this farm that we could pay to weed eat.  She's a keeper!

And when she gets tired, she sits down with the rest of the dogs ;-).