And now for something completely different

For April Fool’s day the topic is wide open and I’ve just got a couple of things to tell you about.

First, thanks to the folks who bought my patterns in March. Remember how I said I’d donate 100% of the profts in March after what happened in Japan? After deducting fees paid in March and rounding up to get a nice number, I donated $180 to MSF/DWB Canada. Fantastic stuff! I’ll still continue to donate a smaller percentage each month.

Secondly, because tomorrow’s topic isn’t spinning and because I’m already done a skein this week, I thought I’d show it to you all.

A while back I won a Twitter contest from @knititup. Check out Kate’s Etsy store, which has apparently been recently stocked up this week. I chose the Hot Lava Superwash Merino. Here’s what it looked like when it got to me:

You can’t really see it, but it’s a lovely reddish-orange colour with yellowish bits throughout. When I finally got it out to spin I was thrilled to find that there was a lavender sachet tucked in with it. I *LOVE* lavender (more on that later this month). The whole time I was spinning this fiber I enjoyed the smell.

I spun this on my 0.75 oz Golding (as usual), but I went a little bit thicker than I’ve been doing lately. The fiber was very very easy to work with and I spun all 4 oz. up in 3 days. Then I chained it into a 3-ply ball and plied it up. I’ve ended up with about 180 yards in about 113 grams. I think it’s fairly tightly plied and it feels robust to me.

I knew all along that I wanted to turn this into a 3-ply yarn. I wish the yarn I started yesterday would tell me what it wants to be when it’s spun up.

I’m loving the singles so much I just hope I like the final product as much. I’m leaning towards 2-ply & letting it randomly do whatever it wants.