October Phat Fiber and an Abundance of Sparkles

So I previously mentioned I am now the happy owner of a drum carder. I bought a used Fancy Kitty "Kitten" in July. It hasn't made much of an appearance here because carding alpaca in summer heat and humidity is a misery, and I've been gradually building up enough of a fiber stash to really be able to make batts. Perhaps it seems odd that a closet full of fiber isn't enough to get started, but I have a lot of washed natural fleeces and hand-dyed roving and batts, and nothing in between. I want to spin the pretty roving I buy off Etsy and at festivals, not mash it through the carder.

The October Phat Fiber theme is "Masquerade". I was stumped for a minute and then thought of one of my favorite movies - "Labyrinth". Near the end, there's a scene where Jennifer Connelly and David Bowie are at a Masqerade ball. She's wearing a shimmering white gown that flashes green and blue when the light hits it and she's draped with silver and gold jewelry. He moves through the crowd in a stunning deep blue jacket crusted with gold and silver jewels. They were my inspiration for two different sets of batts.



The "Sarah" batts are white wool and grey Wensleydale X locks carded together with about six different dyed silk, bamboo and milk fibers and three colors of angelina. The result is a delicate, pale, ethereal batt that shimmers no matter how you look at it. I love these but I only had enough fiber to make 14oz. I ripped up some to make the samples and the rest already sold in a single order. I'm hoping to get more fiber and angelina to be able to make similar batts again soon because I would like to spin these myself! (click any photos to see them larger)



The "Jareth" batts are made with hand-dyed organic merino from ExtremeSpinning. I asked her for a custom order and she knew exactly what I was talking about since she loves the movie too. Before long, a box of goodies arrived on my doorstep and I was able to get to work. I blended the merino with a little bit of hand-dyed tussah silk, black carbonized bamboo and five colors of angelina. These shimmer so much, but it's more subtle. It's tough to call something that glitters really masculine, but I do feel these have a manly sparkle.

I ran them through the carder once. It's hard to believe such well-behaved rovings turned into this huge pile of batts.




(Note the soda can for scale. These were almost touching the cupboards above my kitchen counter - two whole pounds of bliss!)

I carded them one more time and the colors blended a little more and turned into these soft, squishable, gorgeous puffs of fiber. I have more of these since I ordered plenty of fiber, but it's still so difficult to put them up for sale. I keep reminding myself that my fiber addiction has to learn to pay for itself or else!



The Phat Fiber box videos are up and Ambrosia and Bliss is at 7:45 in the first one. Jessie made me blush with her description of my batts. I always thought I was alone in liking Labyrinth, but apparently there are a lot of us out there! I was giddy with delight and anticipation watching these videos. There is so much angelina in this month's box so my sparkle-loving heart is going to be happy with whatever surprises she sends. I think this is my favorite month yet based on the videos!

Long Overdue Update

This has been a busy month, and not all of it fiber related.

The biggest news is my handspun Mango Pomegranate Smoothie yarn took first place in the beginner class (spinning less than a year) at Wisconsin Sheep and Wool a couple weeks ago! I entered it on a whim so I could get feedback on my spinning. I knew I was going to lose points for some variation between thick and thin, but I felt like it was a pretty good skein otherwise. The judge agreed! When they put the ribbon on my skein, I was shaking so much I almost fell over. My friend asked me if I had to sit down. I've never entered anything in a fair and definitely never won first place before. If I enter next year, I think I have to enter the Advanced category because of the blue ribbon. It really made me feel better about my spinning and my decision to try to sell handspun. It was judged on presentation, skill, technique, use of wool and suitability for intended use. Because of the long color runs and short yardage, I said I wanted to use it for a self-striping scarf. It would have scored differently if I said I wanted to use it for something like socks because it wasn't spun tightly enough to stand up to that kind of abuse. (Click any photos to see them larger)






I also came home with a really good haul of fiber and yarn. I tried to behave and follow a budget, but the wool fumes got to me. I studiously avoided the fleece barn and kept to the regular vendors since I am still washing alpaca fleeces and I'm getting a few more breed samples for my fleece study soon. I can argue I need more wool to use with my drum carder, but I do need to behave. (Also, I had already planned to get at least one more Wensleydale cross fleece this fall!)



The judging for the Unity Bead Challenge in my last entry was on the 17th. I asked my mom to go check it out since I live a couple hours away. She's the one who picked out the beads for me and I mailed her my finished necklace to turn in. They scheduled a night of trolley tours to different galleries around town with refreshments and a silent auction. It sounds like she had a lot of fun with her friend. She called me, all excited, because my knitted handspun silk necklace took first place in the Necklace category. Again, I couldn't believe it! This was less than a week after WI Sheep and Wool and I had been looking at pictures of the other entries online. My mom said one of the judges was really enthusiastic about it because she knew about the extra work it took to spin and knit the silk. I admit, it was a lot more work than stringing beads on a cord, but some of the other entries were extensively wire wrapped and really gorgeous.

The September Phat Fiber box just came out. I made it in to this one, since I was so excited about the "Legends and Myths" theme. My two yarns look very similar, although one is mostly alpaca and the other is wool and mohair. They are both very sparkly, but subtle. I spun them from Dragonhair batts, which seems oddly appropriate. I called these two "Knight in Shining Armor" and "the Goblin King". It's really hard to show the sparkle in these photos, but the yard is loaded with angelina.






My box arrived in the mail yesterday and I love everything in it! I haven't had time to go through and make a list, but it's a gorgeous mix. It makes my little grey yarn seem so plain in comparison! I'm already beginning to think of options for the "Masquerade" theme for October.

Am I getting enough fiber?

You tell me.



This is the last of the Romney fleece spread out on my office floor for skirting. All of the bags contain four different alpaca fleeces. Each fleece came sorted into either two or three bags depending on the farm they came from. Since I took that photo, the Romney is totally scoured and I've finished washing the seconds from two of the alpacas. With the alpaca, I'm starting with the "worst" fiber first so I can fine tune my washing regime. All four fleeces are cria fleeces, so even the neck fiber is baby soft in many places. I'm discarding more for short staple length than because of coarseness. There are two schools of thought regarding washing alpaca, but all I know is I hate getting dirty black fingertips when I spin it raw. That dusty feeling gives me goosebumps and takes away from the sheer bliss that is spinning alpaca. Thus, I wash.

My June samples for Phat Fiber were sent out yesterday. The theme is "Oceanic". I spun up a merino/tencel roving from Frabjous Fibers into a yarn I called "Clearwater" after the beach in Florida. Then I spun a 4oz wool/mohair roving and plied it with a 4oz hand-dyed Finn roving, both from the Door County Shepherd's Market (see bottom of the previous post for a photo). I ended up with a huge skein I named "Mavericks" after a really wild surfing spot off the California coast. It's surrounded by cliffs and an underwater shelf creates huge waves. It's rocky and dangerous and somehow the dark ripples in that yarn made me think of it. (Click any of the pictures to see them larger)



Unfortunately, I had to cut them up into mini-skeins so they could go into the box. I love getting samples of my work out into the world, but it's always a little wrenching to cut up something I worked so hard on. That Mavericks skein was almost eight ounces of bliss and the Clearwater singles were so silky soft, I wanted to knit something with them right away. I plan to track down some more of that fiber since it was so wonderful to spin.



I did also manage to spin a couple things for the shop. It keeps getting harder to let these go, since I am learning to spin what I love. This is "Mango Pomegranate Smoothie" - merino 2-ply with long color runs. The colors are shockingly bright in person, but somehow, it's wonderful. If it doesn't sell, I'm going to knit a lace scarf with it.

Crabapples

May has been a busy month, between gardening, spinning for PhatFiber/my shop and the aftermath of several fiber festivals.

The May boxes have been sold and gone out and so far, I'm hearing good reviews of my handspun. I was really worried I would see a bunch of people on Ravelry trying to dump off my yarn for other samples they liked, but the only time mine has popped up in a trade situation was as "I want more of this". It really made my day to see that. Jessie was also kind enough to do a write-up of my shop on the Phat Fiber blog. It was enlightening to see what people really liked since it didn't match my favorites. The good news is, the top picks were all the colorways I sent in for the May box.

In my haste to send my samples in on time, I forgot to take photos of the finished mini-skeins. I had a mix of my "Sprinkles" yarn, some of the "Pastel Garden" from ArtemisArtemis, and then two of the three versions of "Crabapple" that Extreme Spinning hand-dyed and blended for me.

Before:







After:







My May box has arrived, but I've barely had time to go through it yet. Instead, I've been cleaning fleeces. The Door County Shepherd's Market was a big success this year. My mom and I got there before it opened on Saturday and split up to hunt for fleeces. She found them first and sent me upstairs to stake my claim. I found three amazing gems. They are all from Homestead Sheep and Fiber Products (no website). I bought the yarn for the Purple Bliss Baby Surprise Jacket from them last year. This year, I went wild for the fleeces.

Two are from Romney/Wensleydale/Cotswold crosses and the third is Romney. All are shades of grey, although two of them are closer to white than the third. The smallest is a darker grey that looks like blued steel. I've scoured the two cross fleeces already and will be working on the Romney for a while tonight. They require no skirting since they all have almost no VM or second cuts. Honestly, on the larger of the two cross fleeces, I found enough VM to fit in a teaspoon. I think these sheep live inside the house.







From the same booth, I also picked up about six ounces of Wensleydale locks. I've been looking for Wensleydale fiber since I'd like to work with the lustrous longwools and those locks are what drew me in. The fact that I now have three longwool fleeces makes me really happy. I also bought some gorgeous batts, some "Ocean" Finn roving, a wool/mohair mix roving and a beautiful lilac wood nostepinne. It was a great day, full of fiber-related goodies. We followed up with beer and brats at Shipwrecked in Egg Harbor, dishes of ice cream and browsing through gift shops and a few antique stores. I don't think a spring road-trip can get any better than that.

April Phat Fiber!

I'm a little late posting this, but I've been busy spinning up my May samples. My April Phat Fiber box arrived about two weeks ago and it was a little different than the previous ones. A few of the contributors got boxes with all fiber and no yarn, probably because of the ratio of samples that were sent in. I don't mind, since I've been on a fiber bender and haven't bought yarn in ages. Those yarn samples belong in homes that will love and cherish them.

Here's the entire box (click to see larger):



From left to right, top to bottom:

* "Spinning Fixins" from Farmgirl Chic - This is a little handful of various fiber and fabric scraps in blue and white to add to make an art yarn. I was really excited to get this sample!
* Gift tags with wildflower seeds embedded in the paper from Winemaker's Sister - These came in a cute little box too. She's a special contributor after nominating me for a Sneak Attack.
* Very deep teal yearling mohair roving from WC Mercantile - this is silky soft and such a pretty color!
* Hand-sewn notions bag from Phat Fiber - Jessie commissioned a local artist who is legally blind to sew these for the box. Everyone got different colors and styles and they are all lovely!
* Stamped knitting stationary from Becky's Paper Creations
* Very richly colored hand-dyed merino roving in color "Autumn" from Abstract Fiber.
* A luscious silky purple and green batt in a muslin bag from Zebisis Designs - this is bamboo, merino, silk, cashmere and glitz and it was packaged like a little gift inside the bag. I wasn't the lucky recipient of one of her spindles, but I'm sure they went to great homes.
* Cream de Mint Biscotti from Matilda's Italian Cookies - Her online cookie menu is to die for!
* Hand-dyed green and yellow Border Leicester locks from Altered Visions - There's a great thread on Ravelry showing spinning ideas for locks that has really inspired me.
* A "Greener Pastures" bumpy spinning batt from Moonwood Farm - This has a really nice rustic texture and should be fun to spin.
* Handpainted merino roving "Calypso" from Greenwood Fiber Works - The color progression in this is really pretty from browns, to blues, to purples.
* Gorgeous amber bamboo roving from Polyartgirl - I thought this was silk when I first pulled it out. It's heavy, dense and has a beautiful shimmer to it.
* "Earth Day" dark blue, green and natural Jacob wool and firestar batt from Desert Garden Farms - This also came with a very yummy smelling sample of "Oh My Aching Salve".
* "Daffodils" wool, mohair, alpaca, and bamboo batt from Silver Sun Alpacas - I seriously coveted this batt when I saw it on the April YouTube video and I was so happy to see one in my box.
* Bright yellow hand-dyed silk hankies from Serendipity Fiber Arts - silk hankies are one of those fibers I've been wanting to try but haven't bought yet. I'm looking forward to giving these a try, but my hands are a bit rough from gardening.
* "Ofelia" merino from Maude & Me - This wins the prize for the biggest sample at over an ounce! I absolutely love this colorway too (and all the other ones in the shop!). I keep petting this one and I'm trying to decide how I'd like to spin it.
* Natural Icelandic wool from Cedarland Farm - I haven't spun Icelandic yet and the natural colors in this sample are lovely.



Like Lucy (shown snorgling the new samples), I've discovered there really isn't a fiber I don't like. I'll happily go from a glittery dyed batt to natural, raw, unwashed wool. I am looking forward to spinning all of these samples, just as soon as I finish spinning my May samples. They need to be shipped out this week so I'm on a deadline. Right now I have fuzzies and pink sparkling angelina all over my apartment and my clothes. It looks like spring!

What happened to April?

I swear I had no idea I went so long without an update. I did have a vacation somewhere in there, but it's been a busy month.

My April PhatFiber box arrived last week! I still have to do a write-up of all the goodies, but here's a preview. This month I got all fiber and no yarn. A few of the contributors got boxes like this instead of the usual mixed yarn/fiber style. I suppose it all depends on how many of each kind of sample show up. I don't mind since I've been a spinning maniac lately and haven't been knitting at all. I'd rather see the pretty yarn samples end up with people that may actually go on to purchase more from those talented sellers.



I haven't touched my box since opening it because I've been busy working on my May samples. I worked again with CJ at Extreme Spinning to develop a custom colorway for the "Flowers and Showers" theme. It's called "Crabapple" and is a lovely blend of pinks, green and brown inspired by spring-blooming crabapple trees. I'm getting it in several fibers, but the Suffolk/Hampshire sock roving arrived first. I've written before about how much I love this fiber. It's a dream to spin, especially with my new Jumbo Sliding Hook Flyer. I can get a LOT of yarn on a jumbo bobbin. They'll handle 4oz no problem and I'm working on filling one bobbin with as much as it will hold.

This fiber looks very bright in the roving, but it's more subtle when spun. I can't wait to see how it looks once it's plied. Green and pink is one of my favorite combinations.





I also had a wild, fiber-filled weekend. I went to the Great Midwest Alpaca Festival and volunteered to demonstrate drop spindle spinning. My cousin's wife and my new fiber co-addict came along to demonstrate needle felting. I met a bunch of women from the local spinning group and recruited several vendors to hopefully become future Phat Fiber contributors. I also fell in love with an alpaca and am keeping my fingers crossed that I can buy her fleece. After she's shorn in a couple of weeks, I should get notification on the weight and price of her fiber. It's lovely stuff and I hope I'll have some swoon-worthy pictures to share by late May. I LOVED being around alpacas again. I used to work with them as a vet tech and the first time I heard one hum yesterday, it brought it all back. I've also volunteered to help with a shearing day in May. I'm not sure yet if I'll be needed, but if I am, I'll get to see first hand how shearing works and I'll be able to refresh my alpaca handling skills.

Please Mister Postman, look and see if there's some fiber in your bag for me

This was a really good day for mail. First, I ordered some fiber from Extreme Spinning. (Click pictures to see them bigger)

On the left are two "Fairy Dust" batts totaling 5 oz. They're merino, alpaca and angelina in pale pink and lavender. The angelina is the same color as the fiber, so the whole thing twinkles like a princess dress. Each one is about as big as my head and I can't wait to spin them. They're begging to be made into something for a lucky little girl.

On the right are two custom batts also totaling 5 oz. I sent a convo explaining that I wanted fiber that looked like the bishop's robes in the Princess Bride. I've bought some of her other fibers in the Princess Bride theme already and they gave me the idea. The "wuv.. twooo wuv" (love, true love) line is my favorite in the whole movie. His robes are pale brocade with deeper burgundy scrollwork patterns sewn in. She came up with this amazing blend of plum custom-dyed organic wool, creme brulee BFL, yellow top, ivory merino/seacell and pink alpaca. There's also pale angelina and big streaks of gold angelina to accent the purple and bring to mind metallic threadwork. It's exactly what I asked for and she gave it to me on the first attempt. I'm so impressed and it was a lot of fun working together to find the colors I was envisioning. I want to use these somehow in the Phat Fiber Spring Competition, but right now I keep petting them and admiring the sparkles.

As a fun bonus, there's a generous sample of icelandic/angora roving in a green that makes me think of spring grass. I love getting surprise fibers when I place orders. This one is so soft and green is my favorite color.





My March Phat Fiber box also came today! This month's theme was "Celtic", so there's a lot of green.



My fiber samples were a fun mix this month. Clockwise from left:

* Romney locks from Marajane Creations - a very nice pastel mix of loose locks. I pulled one out to feel it and it just kept coming. I looked it up in In Sheep's Clothing and the staple length is 5-7 inches! These should be fun to add some texture while spinning another yarn. I haven't tried spinning with locks yet, but it's on my list
* Merino roving from Nerdclub 2000 - "Elinor Dashwood" colorway is a really pretty mix of pinks and purples with a little olive green at one end. It makes me think of tulips.
* Border Leicester locks from Altered Visions - a nice half ounce sample about the size of a double-handful and the locks are space dyed within each individual lock. For example, one is bright pink with pale blue tips. These are really cool.
* 25% merino and 75% alpaca from NorthStarAlpacas - This is a really big 0.4oz sample and it's a gorgeous chocolate color. It's called "Sonata", because the alpaca portion came from a beautiful brown female alpaca named Sonata. The fiber listings from this shop show the animal the fiber came from and there's even a picture on the tag. It feels like adopting an alpaca. The fiber is so soft and the color is really rich. I got a blended alpaca batt I had last month, so it'll be interesting to spin this one and see how the two preps differ.
* (center) 100% silk with noil "Peacock" roving from Mad Angel Creations - This is really scrumptious teal kettle-dyed silk with a dry, papery feel and an amazing shine. The photo is taken without a flash and it's reflecting ambient light. The color is very saturated.



The yarn samples from left to right:

* (top row) 100% undyed black Shetland handspun from Haley Studio - This is a really nice sample and gives me an idea of how the Shetland fiber I recently ordered might spin up. It's not a super soft wool, but it reminds me of the sock roving in that it feels durable and elastic. We live in the same city and I never would have known without the box.
* "Eire" Fireweed Worsted Merino wool from Aurora Fiber Arts - I got a January sample from Aurora and loved it. This is a great colorway with the little pops of orange among the green.
* "Horned God" merino yarn from the Yarn Side - This is a 75% SW merino, 25% nylon fine sock yarn in a nice mix of greens and browns.
* "Cordelia" merino yarn from Knit It Up - This is hand-dyed yarn in their "curvy" collection and it's a nice bulky, bumpy fun yarn in my favorite colors. It's really pretty and one of the ones I keep coming back to squish.
* (bottom row) three yarn samples from Sheeps of Egyptian Cotton - There's "Isis" (lighter green) cotton 2 ply fingering weight, "Nile" (wrapped around the card) 3 ply mercerized cotton and "Ankh" (brighter green) 4 ply merino. She also included an Irish Breakfast Tea packet and a lesson on celtic knitting terminology.
* Hand-dyed merino laceweight from Jen Hintz - This is a lovely mix of various shades of pale green that has a lot of depth and interest. It's subtle, but on closer look, this is one of my favorites because of the blend of colors.
* "Ireland" Hand-spun yarn from Cool Climates - This is a bulky singles yarn of mixed wool, mohair, angora and merino. It's a very pretty deep rich color.
* (not pictured) "Fjord" worsted singles yarn from Katsara Luxury Yarns - This is a really pretty pale pink, purple and green singles yarn that missed the photo op because I carried it around with me before I started taking pictures and accidentally left it in another room. I have a weakness for singles yarns.



The various other loot in my box includes:

* "Stargyle" by Michelle Miller the Fickleknitter - This is a pattern for a stockinette scarf with argyle details. This could actually be really fun with handspun.
* Purple beaded stitch marker from Vickie's Knitted Things
* Silver shamrock stitch markers from Princess Emma's
* Green bubble magnet and a cute pompom from Bananamigraine Designs - I love this shop name! Since my kitchen is painted green, this magnet is going right on my fridge.
* Two green and gold stitch markers from Winemakers Sister - This shop also makes rubber stamps!
* A KIP bag from Ruddawg - I got one of these in February too and they're such a nice size for trucking smaller projects around. I don't know how she does it, but both have colors that are perfect for me.
* A needlefelted Alpaca from My Fair Bag Lady! She made Knickolas the Knitting Gnome for Phat Fiber. He rides around and ends up in a lucky box every month. Whoever finds him gets a free box the next month, as long as they have an adventure with him and send him back. Now I have some of her handiwork of my own. It's tiny (like the size of my thumb) and I can't even imagine having the patience to do this.



I realized I never posted this, but my samples for the March box were hand-painted and stamped lavender sachets. I'll have these up in my shop eventually but I ran out of bags and had to order more. I really love the smell of lavender and I have similar sachets hidden all over my house. I've been seeing photos of them today as people blog about their boxes and it's really surreal seeing them out in the wild.



Now, I have some spinning to do. I'm going to my first ever Spinning Guild meeting tomorrow morning and I have some singles to get off of my spindle. Don't ask me how spinning more will help. This isn't a rational hobby.

Phat Fiber March Box Videos

Every month, Phat Fiber posts a video of the goodies that were sent in for the boxes. Each box gets 20 or so samples, and there are many more contributors, so it's such a tease. In fact, there are so many contributors now that she had to split it into two videos to show all the loot. I'm craving one of everything and I have my fingers crossed that I get a few extra desirable (to me) samples.

Ambrosia and Bliss is featured partway through the first video. I sent in pendants and lavender sachets, and she shows one of my pendants in a little organza bag. Suddenly it all feels real, or perhaps surreal. I sent in samples over a month ago, but they won't be coming out until April. Now, my little efforts are going to be in those boxes full of gorgeous yarn and fiber that go on sale SUNDAY and I'm feeling a bit nervous. I hope the recipients like what they get. Personally, I'm thrilled to be included in such a wonderful group of artists. I've enjoyed every bit of yarn, fiber and other goodies from my boxes, which is why I include links to all of their shops. They're small, independent artisans doing what they love through the demands of work, school, parenting and/or farming, and the quality and variety of their work is exceptional.

Spinning before and after

Spinning the Phat Fiber samples and the little half ounce balls of fiber from Sweet Pea Fiber is like digging into a box of Valentine's chocolates. There are so many different flavors and only enough for a bite of each one. I spent the evening spinning and plying a variety of different samples and I'm having so much fun playing with color. I honestly didn't think I'd like spinning this much, but there's something about the feel of all the different fibers - wool, silk, mohair - and the interplay of colors. The batts and rovings change when they are spun, and change again when they are plied and it's always a surprise to see what happens.

(Click any photos to see them larger)

The February Phat Fiber box included a bunch of pink and brown fiber samples based on the "Romance and Chocolate" Theme.

I spun up the 0.2oz Corriedale Pencil Roving Duet in “Raspberry Truffle” from Aurora Fiber Arts. The duet is made of two complementary strands of roving that can be plied together to make a fun yarn. I spun one continuous strand from both halves of the duet.



Then I spun up a special batt that came in my order from Sweet Pea Fibers. It’s hand-dyed wool, tussah silk, sparkle and angelina.



Then I plied the two together on my wheel. The end result is 10 yards of worsted-to-bulky bright pink yarn with bursts of brown.




Silver Sun Alpacas sent a batt of alpaca, merino and mohair in a lovely blend of chocolate brown, wine red and white aptly named "Wine and Chocolate".



I spun it up on the drop spindle.



Then I spun a January box sample of white 70% mohair and 30% wool from Natchwoolie. It spun like butter into fuzzy, white singles.



Then I plied the two together on my spindle (first time) to get 16 yards of worsted-to-bulky two-ply with a nice halo.





I still had some of the Wine and Chocolate singles left, so I spun a little Mini Bon Bon in color "Cherry Chakka Latte" from Natchwoolie. It was chocolate merino lamb wool with pale pink plant-dyed mohair.



I plied it with the Wine and Chocolate on the drop spindle. It made 6 yds of worsted two-ply. The difference in appearance between this and when it was plied with the white is really interesting.




I also spun up two samples from the January box. I put together Moonlight and Laughter’s BFL in “Deep Lake” with Enchanted’s hand-dyed merino. They were in the same blue/teal color family, except Enchanted’s was lighter. I ended with a good 18 yds of worsted-to-bulky two-ply and only had 12 inches of leftover Deep Lake singles. They were a perfect match!













This is a batt from Extreme Spinning. It's 1 oz of purple and pale yellow superwash wool, layered with silver angelina. This was soft and silky and spun easily. The angelina is nearly invisible in the fiber, but the yarn glitters in the light like newly fallen snow. The colorway is "Prince Humperdink", based on the movie The Princess Bride. He's dressed in royal purple, with a yellow belly.



I spun this on my drop spindle and then wound it into a center pull ball. I plied it into a bulky two-ply from the inside and outside of the ball again on my drop spindle. It made 11 yards of very fun, soft yarn.