NETA Spa

So, last Saturday I went to Portland Maine for the NETA Spa Weekend. I met up with friends, bought some fiber, tried a few wheels, and did NOT get lost in the drive there or back (although I think I went a longer router home, but whatever, I got back and somehow bypassed the toll bridge on the way.) I got an inch or so knit on my sweater. I missed the Spa fashion show and the mystery speaker. I did make a fiber sandwich and heard Wren Ross sing knitting songs. All in all a good time!

The fiber sandwich is being spun up. Slowly. And I'm pretty sure it'll end up in the novelty/designer yarn category. About a dozen ladies brought fiber and we spread it out on a table in the Doubletree Inn's pool room (swimming pool, not billiards). Then we ripped off pieces that weighed about the same as what we brought in. I'm not entirely sure what all the fiber I have is, but there's some black alpaca, white silk, dark-dark-purple merino(?), turquoise blue with firestar(?), white something carded with yarn pieces, yellow something (it might be some of the fiber I brought, I'm not sure), bright pink something, and a dark cinnamon something.

Most of the fiber was in roving. I spent some time last weekend spinning it as-is and no, it wasn't easy. It all needed some fluffing up and pre-drafting to spin easily. Since I had a lot of the purple merino and turquoise blue in roving strips, I separated out those pieces to spin separately. I took the rest (I have about 4oz total of fiber sandwich) and spent a few hours on Sunday fluffing and pre-drafting and now have a small basket full of fiber ready to spin. It's pre-drafted enough that it doesn't need to be drafted while spinning, although some of the thicker sections I've been drafting thinner while I spin.

What I'm thinking of is to spin this mix, then spin the purple and the turquoise as singles and ply the 3 together. I'm guessing it'll be a bit more than worsted weight, but who knows. I'm using a CD disk top-whorl to spin on.