"Almost" August Challenge - making progress

For this spinning project, I’m using what is becoming my go-to spindle, my Dragonfly cherry top-whorl. I originally thought I would aim for a 3-ply sock weight yarn, but the fiber told me that wasn't its true destiny. It is drafting so smoothly and thinly that the yarn is becoming a self-striping 2-ply yarn and will likely be more of a lace weight. The finished yarn will have heathered stripes, gradually transitioning between the colors, with the stripes mirroring each other over the length of the yarn. Instead of socks, I predict that I will eventually treasure a rectangular Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore shawl. I predict the shawl will be gorgeous… and I know it will take much, much longer to make than a pair of socks. It would seem my 2011 New Year’s resolution & project list is starting earlier than usual.

Even though I didn’t post about this spinning project at the beginning of the month, I did start spinning the fiber on August 1st. On that day I was under the delirious notion it would be possible to start & finish this yarn in a mere 31 days… nevermind the high priority & overlapping work deadlines, medical appointments, family reunions & road trips, houseguests, and oh yeah, regular life & housework. So 23 days later, I’ve managed to spin about half the fiber:



There are a couple of awesome side benefits of knowingly missing the August Challenge deadline… I do not have to follow the rules and therefore I will use my wheel to ply this yarn, rather than using a spindle for the entire project. Also, because I know I am getting a lot of yardage out of this fiber, and I wasn’t very jazzed about the time it would take to wind each single into a neat plying ball, I justified the purchase of a Schacht bobbin winder, which just arrived this past weekend in the mail!