On Tuesday when the new Knitty went live, I spent some time perusing Knittyspin, like I always do. It seems that the past few issues have caught my eye more because of the spinning articles than because of the knitting patterns. And of course, reading about spinning stuff just made me itch to get on my wheel. It’s been over 2 months since I’ve had any time to spin, so finally on Tuesday night I made some time.

My goal recently is to try spinning different fibers. So far I’ve done merino, merino + firestar, alpaca + silk, and domestic wool. I was really excited to acquire some Bluefaced Leicester wool, Cotton + flax, and another type of wool that I can’t remember the name of now. I decided to spin up the Bluefaced Leicester, and this stuff is great! I can see why it’s commonly recommended for beginners, because it is very easy to spin. I don’t have to do any predrafting and it spins beautifully. It’s soft and has a little bit of lustre to it, so I can already tell from the singles that this is going to be a very beautiful yarn.

I’m fractal spinning this fiber (read this post for my first discussion about this technique), so I’m excited to see how the colors mix and match up once I ply. Unfortunately, it’s a Christmas present for someone, so I can’t reveal the colors. But I can say that the colors are deep, rich, vibrant ones that are going to make for a lovely yarn and a lovely knitted item.