fiber exchange project

Our local Tall Pines Spinners and Weavers has been doing a rolling fiber exchange during which each participant supplied 1-2 ounces of roving which was given to a second person to spin and a third person to make something off before being returned to us at the Christmas party. The only rules were that the finished project had to be primarily out of the spun fiber, and that although we could add to the fiber for spinning, the original fiber had to consitute the majority of the spun thread.

It's been and interesting experience. For my own fiber I bagged up 2 1/2 ounces of merino batt in various colors of blues, green, purples and golds. For spinning I received 2 ounces of rose pink merino. I do not like pink as a color so it was a challenge to make myself spin this nicely and not hurl it or hurl on it. I finally ended up spinning it quite fine and then Navajo plied the resulting yarn with some Jaeger Zephyr Merino Silk in shades of a matching pink, coral, cranberry, and hot pink. I was going for the same shading effect as the Trekking sock yarn but didn't have quite enough colors to do it properly. Nevertheless, I used up a bunch of left overs from a "knit for the cure" project and extended the spun merino amount of 250 yards to almost 600 which is enough for somebody to do something with.

I guess this not knowing the amount could be considered part of the challenge as was the concept of 1-2 ounces. The bags of fiber ranged from snack pack size ziplocks to full gallon sized ziplocks full of fiber. Adding to the challenge is that Phil is also a member of the guild and so whoever spun his fiber and made his project was not going to be able to doing somethig fruffy.

I turned the completed spun yarn in at the November meeting and received a hank of 280 yards of a black yarn garnetted with some white fiber, possibly silk, and tufts of red roving. There's not much I know how to do in my limited vocabulary with 280 yards except wristlets, a scarf (possibly depending on the style),or a cap. "Ho Hum" thought I, "it rarely gets cold enough here in Houston for caps or scarves, and even wristlets seem a bit passe."

In between times we went up to Spring to get our yearly supply of chocolate letters to give out to the kids at Sinterklas, and while in the Dutch store I came across some Dutch Christmas tea. Voila, not a cap but a tea cozy. So the photo above shows the results, a tassled tea cozy, a mat for underneath the tea pot, and two diamond shaped tea cup mats. I packaged some tea in a cheery red tea pot (can one ever have too many teapots or too much tea?) and now am waiting for the Christmas party to see how the results are received.

Phil has turned the 250 yards (which really turned out to be more like 200 yards) into a lovely woven bag similar to the square bags he makes on his mini Navajo loom. I hope whoever receives the bag appreciates the fact that they are getting a Phil bag while I am still waiting for the one promised and started two Chistmases ago. Ain't life fun when you're making plans?