Playing with plying

When I was at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival last May, I fell in love with a giant ball of roving that had been dyed in shades of greens and browns and rusts...almost like a camouflage.  I started spinning it in a two ply worsted weight, thinking I'd make another pullover sweater for this winter.  Then...that sad moment we all face with some of our projects...I realized I didn't have enough of it to make an entire sweater.

I just put it on the shelf and didn't give it much more thought until October.  I was rifling through my rovings one day when I found two rovings I had purchased from my friend Ginny at Fat Cat Knits.  One was called Ode to Joy, and had white, rust, and various shades of lilac and purple.  The second was called Roger...mostly brown with some shades of rust and golds. 

Inspired by a conversation I had had a few weeks early with Lori Lawson of Capistrano Fiber Arts, I decided to get really zany (for me) and ply these two together.  Well, that opened the flood gates.  Before I knew it I had added some of our own hand painted rovings to the  mix and voila!  Enough to make my sweater.  The colors are subtle, but I took a photo to share the results with you.  I'll wash them this weekend and hopefully, start the sweater next week.

And now, I'm off to find more rovings to spin and mix together...