Here are bundles of border leister/alpaca rescue roving. Quebracho red, fustic, madder in two concentrations. They were pretty together-the fustic really comes out looking greenish from afar-here its in the bottom right pretending to be yellow. So, it looks alright so far, yes?

Well, wait till you start spinning. Its felt super compressed and difficult to draft, really it was almost yucky to spin. I didn't get very far before I gave up,

And moved on! To the drumcardermobile! Now this is a different story, its lofty and airy again. At first, I worried that I partially felted this fiber but it really just needed to be pulled apart a little. Wow-I loved carding this. It was so easy and such a thick, bouncy batt to pull off. I carded these through only once (it was already a well carded roving) and I didn't want to blend the colors too much. I know this will be a muted yarn color wise, first it has brown to begin with as a natural color in it and i'm spinning it fairly thin so I can ply it as a 2 ply. So, muted yes. If I carded twice through I think it would have turned brown before my eyes.

Sometimes yarn itself feels like an FO to me. But an FO that still is utter possibility. Batts are starting to be that way now too. This was a simple one but I'm starting to enjoy the mixing of texture/colors more and more. Some folks have little bowls and hooks for their art yarns, but lately I'm often ready to take it back further and just pet the batt.

These dyed samples were from a class at the University of California's Botanical Garden. They have a fiber and dye exhibit going on now if you are in the bay area. And if you are reading this you must be, ok, or Minneapolis. The fabric is all peace silk and the blue is cabbage (red or purple I don't quite remember.), yellow is turmeric, the washed out looking one is hennah but with some resist squares so a lot of it was white, and the pink/orange is madder. IRL it looks orange, I took this outside but the color did not photograph true. The yarns are wool and the purple is alkanet and the orange is madder and yellow turmeric again. I can't remember what that red one was. It was a very basic intro class and used mostly vegetables and spices, etc. but I saw some Deep Color folks there! Yay!

Finally, some random knitting I began. This is going to be the Vested Interests vest (scroll down) by Little Turtle Knits. Its Blue Sky cotton and just a lot of left over balls from other baby projects past. All apart of the grand de-stashing project I pay lip service to once in a while. Seriously, I've got to stop starting new projects and just finish something. In all fairness, I have finished somethings and I'm in progress on others. I've got to put down the wheel and spindle and pick up the needles.