FO: Spunky Eclectic Shetland

So I finally finished the shetland I was spinning. It took a while, but it came out totally awesome and I love it to pieces. Here’s what the fiber looked like:

(Side note: Someone pm’d me on Ravelry to tell me she thought this looked like a pile of ferrets at first glance)

And here’s what it looks like now:

Fiber: Spunky Eclectic Shetland top in Winnipeg
Weight: Fingering/sport (it’s a bit uneven)
Ply: 3 ply/Navajo plied
Yardage: Total of 460
Spindle: Schacht Hi-Lo, also ordered from Spunky Eclectic

With a coin for scale:

Okay, so I love this yarn to pieces. It’s the thinnest and most even thing I’ve ever spun, it’s reasonably soft, and I got an awesome yardage out of it (this is mostly because of the thin bits, but still). I love it. I’m planning to make socks with it, but regular size ones, not just the ankle socks I’ve been making. I’ll probably do a stockinette foot and ribbed leg, but I haven’t decided yet (but I’ll definitely be working them toe up). One of the skeins has a lot more pink than the others, and I expect that’ll show up in the socks too, but I don’t really have a problem with mismatching socks, so it’s alright.

I have a few projects on the needles currently (a shawl, that damned Featherweight, and some swap stuff), so it might be a bit before I actually start on the socks, but that’s what this yarn will eventually become. And they will be awesome.

I’ve decided, by the way, the Navajo plying is awesome. It’s fast, simple, and results in a lovely round yarn. I had heard that it was a little tricky, but I think because I crochet I picked it up rather quickly. There’s a yard or two of messy plying in the beginning of my sample skein (the tiny one in the first picture), but seeing as I’ll start my socks there, it’s alright since it’ll mostly be taken up in the figure 8 cast on anyway. Now I want to chain ply all of my yarn for socks, but the stash I have currently of fiber is mostly merino, which I wouldn’t want to use for socks. Clearly this means I need to buy more Romney/Jacob/Shetland/other fibers suitable for socks. I think my bank account just groaned in pain.