The magic of spinning

"Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."

--Forrest Gump

"It would be terrific if life were like a box of chocolates. You'd know that you'd always get ... chocolate."

--Me

One of the things I love the most about spinning is that I never know quite what I'm going to get. In this picture, you can see the original fibers (left), then the singles as spun (center), and then the final product (right), Navajo-plied yarn. I really wasn't sure what the final product was going to look like. Was it going to be orange-y? Was it going to be dominated by that rather drab tan? Was the burgundy going to overwhelm everything else?

Who knows? Not me, that's for sure.

As is usual for me, I spun a very fine single. Don't ask me why -- it may be my anal-retentive nature to squeeze every last inch of fiber out of the original roving. (Sorry about that analogy. Moving right along ...)

Edited to add: This roving was from Louet, but this particular colorway (Thunderstorms) is no longer available, apparently.

So I thought about making a two-ply yarn but realized that if I did, it would be fairly "meh." Then I decided to try Navajo plying. It would give me a three-ply yarn, which would be nice and sturdy. However, I was a bit nervous about what the final product would look like.

No worries, it turns out. The yarn is a wonderful earthy blend of green, brown, red, and blue. I don't know if the photo really does it justice. (That's natural light, folks, but I guess way too much of it.)

I'm now working on spinning up some pin-drafted roving I received back from Fibers4Ewe on Christmas Eve, appropriately enough.

And even though I don't know what I'll get, it'll all be chocolate for me!