Knocturnal Knitter: Fiber Friends

I had a wonderful visit recently from my fiber friend Mary. I've known Mary for several years and I suspect most of you that read my blog know her too. She was a student of mine with a desire for challenges. She's managed to tackle every challenge I've thrown her way and I hope she's enjoyed it as much as I've enjoyed sharing that with her. I have to say she is the cause of my interest in spinning. Watching her spin and seeing the beautiful yarn she produced so fascinated me that the desire to spin began. It turned out to be a challenge for me. Several years later, I am now spinning and LOVING it! (Thank you, ~~enabler,~~ eh, Mary.)
Well, we finally got together for catch-up, show and tell of what we are up to, exchange of fibery goodness and some playtime on my minispinner for her and her mini turkish spindle for me. She brought along 2 new to me fibers, wensleydale (on her spindle) and NZ romney (to play with on my spinner) I think she really liked my Hansen minispinner. She took right to it. I really liked the romney, how easily it drafted and the hairy appearance of it. It looks like it will have a nice halo when finished. The wensleydale was yummy too and I liked how the turkish spindle behaved. It was a thing of beauty to look at. Beautiful different colored woods. We were both able to spin a nice, fine single with the romney on my minispinner. Then, she surprised me and asked if I knew how to navajo ply! No, I did not and couldn't figure out from pictures quite how to do it. Well, I know now, thanks to Mary. How fun, how fun. I got to be the student this time! We didn't quite get through spinning all the romney so I fished out one of the Phat Fiber samples I'd spindle spun and we used that for practice. Here is how it turned out before I've washed and fulled it.

Mary also brought along a huge pile of roving for me of a lovely blend she forgets what it is. I think it might be merino/silk or merino/tencel or bamboo. It is lovely shades of pink/raspberry with a little olive thrown in here and there and streaks of white (which is either the silk, tencel or bamboo)

This is the fiber:

and here is what I have started to spin:

There is tons here so if I continue to spin this fine and make a two ply, I'm thinking - lovely shawl. Estonian lace perhaps.

This is the romney, finished spinning, ready to ply:

I just love the deep merlot color of this romney. It has to be included in something special, I tell you. And now I begin my quest for sellers who carry NZ romney.............................
While browsing the Knit Picks site (always a dangerous pasttime) I was thrilled to see they are carrying roving of their Wool of the Andes peruvian wool. They only have a few colors so far but having just spun the romney above, merlot was in my mind and lo and behold, they had the Merlot Heather colorway in the roving. Had to have it and this is what it looks like:

It is buttery soft and I'm restraining myself from spinning a bit to try it.

I'd like to put a shout out for a fun, (new to me) podcast and Etsy shop indie dyer of yarn and fiber. The podcast is Just One More Row. Don't we all utter those words from time to time? (Like every night?) I really enjoy this podcast and the two friends, Dana and Brittany, who created it. They live in Tennessee, but not in the same town so they get together on skype; you'd never know it. It is as if they are in the same room chatting together. You'll just love their accent too. (Of course, people say WE have an accent here in NH!) Just listening to them makes me feel I am one of their fiber friends.
Dana is a wonderfully talented dyer and I've recently purchased some lovlies from her Etsy shop Unwind Yarn Company. You know I love polwarth and a stunning green wreath of polwarth caught my eye. I know you are not surprised. Just look at the olive tones. It is even more beautiful than the pictures do justice to. Oh so soft. She had one wreath, actually, and I saw it was in polwarth and after my heart went all a-flutter, immediately requested if there was more and she dyed these two for me, special.

She also included a little sachet of lavender flowers in my box (you all know my love of laaaaavender). How perfect is that? and she didn't even know my fondness for lavender.
While I was browsing the shop, a sparkly BFL batt caught my eye and I decided to try it. This is really pretty.

I plan to use this as one ply in a planned 3 ply of another 2 wreaths of Falkland I recently purchased from Purple Fleece that match the lighter limey shade of green.