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Dear Jan,

I believe that sometimes the body just takes over and tells you to slow down.  I woke up this morning feeling a bit of malaise which grew to a lot of malaise, coupled with some minor chills and lack of interest in food.  Coupled with a dank and rainy day, no real agenda, and a companionable cat, I had no choice but to go back to bed, from which I’ve just gotten up at 5:30 pm.

If this wave of minor illness had hit me during the week I likely would have muscled through it.  If it had hit next weekend, your visit and all the yarny activities would not have been as much fun.  And if it had been beautiful outside, I would have felt a bit more guilty at burrowing under the covers.  It certainly could have been worsted worse.

The brown merino from the Wool Gatherings sampler pack not only could have been (and, in fact, was) worsted, it could have been (and, indeed, also was) woolen.  I spun it up both ways, directly from the top for true worsted and after carding some rolags for true woolen.

Here is the top on the left and the rolags on the right.  The fiber was nicely prepared and spun easily, but I was surprised to find dark and light kemp fibers in a merino.  You can spot one of the dark fibers in the picture of the top.  Perhaps the natural colored merinos are not as uniform as the white ones.

And the resulting yarn from left to right - woolen 3-ply, worsted 3-ply, woolen 2-ply, and worsted 2-ply.  Note how the fluffy woolen yarn actually looks lighter in color because it is so airy.

I won’t move on to another breed from this set until you catch up with Jocelyn and me.  Maybe you want to select the next one?  I’m skipping the Lincoln Longwool, which Joce has already done, as I gifted that fiber to a friend.

More later,

Ellen