Well, one of the things I’ve been meaning to get to has been to give a shout out to a few of the folks who’ve sent me pictures or links to show me how their projects are coming working with my fibers. And remember, if you send me photos for use in my customer gallery and on abbysyarns.com in general, I’ll thank you with 15% off one future order.

Moonrose has been spinning up a few of the Spring Rain Sock Tweed from a month or so ago. Her first batch is plied with a purple silk.

Sarah in the UK spun up a few luxury sock batts in Tulip, and made some fabulous socks:

She says…

I spun up the fibre in 2 ways. I split each 2oz amount in half so I had eight matching pieces of fibre approx 1 oz. With the first 2 I spun the purple then pink then yellow and plied into 2 ply. I did the same with the next 2, ending with 2 mini skeins 40 yards each, graduating purple to pink to yellow. With the other 4 pieces, I broke off staple lengths and spun purple, then pink then yellow and repeated. I did the same onto another bobbin, and plied, ending up with more of a marl, with some parity of colours. The skeins are approximately 38 yards each. I thought this gave a good impression of how the fibre looked using 2 methods of spinning. The sock is started using an Estonian cast-on.

To be fair to my former co-worker Helen, she probably had no way of imagining what sort of slippery slope she was stepping onto the day 6 or 7 years ago when she walked into the cubicle area I shared with a few other people, and said “So do any of you guys like yarn?” A veteran knitter, extremely accomplished, Helen resisted learning to spin at first, but now, just look at her:

Customer Photo Gallery: Helen
OMG What Is That?

She bought “OMG What Is That?” — a custom blend which I said was guaranteed to make people who touched any finished object made from it utter those words. It was superfine merino, cashmere, angora, and I can’t even remember what all else right now other than soft.

Helen took to spinning immediately and has to be one of the most rewarding students I’ve taught to date. I can wholeheartedly vouch for the quality of her work!

Divine Bird, the Yarnivore, has been busy! In addition to being an accomplished spinner, incidentally, she takes woodworking rather for granted, and is capable of making a wide range of tools, repairing her spinning wheel neatly, recreating bobbins, all sorts of things. And she makes some pretty good yarn porn!

Customer Gallery for Divine Bird

Tiger Lily Sock Yarn:

Limonata Tussah Silk:

Sheepwreck, by Ellen, is a terrific and informative blog dealing with specific, real information about fiber animals and breeds, uses, history, properties… great site. And I know Ellen’s sent me more photos than this too… but for starters, here’s what she did with some Tea Rose sock batts:

Natalie has a marked tendency to pick out the stuff I halfway hope nobody’s going to buy, like these guys:

C’mon, spin ’em up! I wanna see, especially after…

…how “Sunrise” worked out for you!

And there are LOTS more of you to thank, and highlight pictures for, and link to! A few quick links of thanks:

• I blame Elizabeth at Trailing Yarn for my recent chain-plying binge. Also, when she snagged that October Woods tussah silk, I knew I was in for fun seeing what she did with it, and that particular colourway was a happy accident I had a hard time deciding to part with.
• Theresa, also known as The Keyboard Biologist, said of some of my blends that “My hair isn’t usually this well combed!” First I blushed… but you know, the truth is, neither is mine. I actually spend more time on each batt than I do on brushing my hair — and I take good care of my three feet of hair! I can’t wait to see Theresa’s socks.

There are so many more of you I want to thank, but this is all the time I have this morning — I’ve simply got to get my butt back into the studio, or there aren’t going to be enough new batts tomorrow and you’ll all hate me in different ways (HI PEGGY! I love you too!)