It's Not All Vanilla

Two days ago, I dove into my meager roving stash (I don't count my Sheep Shed mill ends though - lots of prep work needed before spinning, so you can't exactly just "dive in" and come out with something that's all ready to spin) and brought out 4 oz of Shetland roving that Jamie gifted me a few weeks ago.

Tired of spinning on my Fricke single treadle (spinning and then plying can such be hard work on one leg!), I set out to spin the entire 4 oz and in two evenings, I got it done - and shortly after, set out to ply it.

Too lazy to turn on the light by me, I plied it in semi-darkness while Leo was enthralled by the amazing movie Mongol, which I rented from Netflix (highly recommend - the movie, I mean!).

I'd been avoiding spinning the shetland because it looked plain. I've been spinning all these fancy shmancy blends for novelty yarns, as well as hand dyed or hand painted roving, and so spinning a pencil roving in really brown/almost black colorway would seem boring.

However I was wrong! It was great to spin the shetland and although it felt rough at times, I knew it would ply great and look great in the end!

Right now it's hanging out on the deck to dry, and Jamie, guess what's coming to you next week?


I've missed spinning shetland. I almost forgot all the fun I had while spinning shetland roving I purchased from Shunklies (UK) on etsy. Jamie's sister sells them here, so drop by and check out their fantastic icelandic and shetland roving and yarn! I need to start knitting something with it, too, to see exactly how it behaves once it's knitted.

While photographing the shetland, I decided to do the same with the Ode to Summer yarn since the last time I photographed it, I did it in the late afternoon in poor light. Well, look what good lighting and white reflectors (in this case, a diy version using the white lid of one of my yarn storage bins) can do to handspun!


I need to build me a lightbox!