Christmas Day, in case you didn't notice, was rather warm. In these parts it was forecast for 30 and exceeded that. Luckily I was in Hobart which kept its cool and was closer to 24. It was still 29 in the bedroom at bed time which I had deferred as long as possible. And yesterday was rather warm too, if cooler overnight.

I do hope you all had as good a day as I had sharing food and friendship.

Meanwhile back at the spinning wheel I have been beavering away with my various dyed locks which, as I watched the Dr Who Christmas Special turned into laceweight spinning. A bit disconcerting when the bobbin started off with a yarn that would have plied nicely into an 8ply equivalent. This caused something of a conundrum as I would hate to have to start knitting up such fine yarn.

Fortunately Rowena loaned me some holiday reading in the form of Sarah Anderson's The Spinners Book of Yarn Designs (hoping to wean me from my obsession with Jacey Boggs' Spin Art), and after some consideration I have decided to try for a crepe yarn. This involves plying the yarn together, then adding a third yarn and re-plying. Fortunately I read the instructions before heading into the History Room today so I now have a bobbin of s-twist merino-alpaca to serve that purpose.

This is the yarn I have been spinning and dying

And this is the s-twist yarn I spun today at the history Room. As it contains alpaca it will shoosh up a bit when plyed, which will provide some nice texture over all (it's the same stuff as the orange stuff I  spun a few days ago).

Since it will take me forever to fill the bobbin at the rate I am going, the idea of spinning another for the plying process is too horrible to contemplate, so I will just fill this one up and then ply it end to end. For that purpose I have ordered a yarn winder on ebay which will create centre-pull balls of yarn so I can draw from the outside and inside for my two yarns required to ply.

On the subject of books - while I agree the Sarah Anderson book contains a broader information base and greater selection of art yarns, the Jacey Boggs book contains instructions that are easier to follow and which seem to suit my logic processes better, being laid out as a logical progression that builds skills as you go. So I will probably get both. Sarah is coming to the Bothwell Spin In in March, so I will get hers there and save on postage.

The next few days will be warm and humid, so I am not looking forward to my increased work load at the cottages, but I expect I will survive.