Almost forgotten

It was spinning Tuesday morning, and during my show and tell,  FrazzledKnitter asked pointedly if I had blogged about my finished item.  I hadn't.  Nor would I have.  This was finished so long ago in my mind that I had almost forgotten it.

There was also that part where I wasn't sure if it was worth talking about.  I think I avoided it in every way till but for wanting to show it to Christine.  

Part of my trouble getting it out into the world was that when I finished plying it, I couldn't find my niddy noddy.  I took it off the bobbins using my hand and elbow.  This works fine in a pinch, but it makes for a stumpy little cluster of yarn that doesn't really show off what you have. It felt cushy and nice, but you really couldn't see much of it.  I took no pictures.  I posted it nowhere.  Or I don't think I did. This morning before I left, I put the yarn onto my swift to make longer hanks to show her better...

And I got the surprise of my life.

It's not what I was aiming for, but once it was freed from its small diameter, it fell so elegantly that I could have cried.

No unbalanced twisting on itself, no weirdness, other than what is without a doubt part of what makes me love it so well.  

My goal was a chunky yarn.  I wanted something pouffy and airy.  I missed airy by at least 50 miles, and pouffy is almost that far off too, but what I got was rather charming.

The skeins seem to have a life of their own.  They bounce.  They shake. They drape.  I did not get pouffy but I got the most marvelous skeins of art yarn that it will ever be my pleasure to spin.  

I had brake issues, flyer guide issues, and there was even a point where the footman connection came flying off the wheel, the bolt part, not the plastic connector.  I unplied some of it but was having wheel issues on my Julia and so I sort of chickened out and just started plying.  All did have some un-twisitng but only the longest of the bobbins was really untwisted completely.  The two shorter bobbins were just eased.  It was a big job and I just got bored. OK. Fine.  I got mad and just plied.  I'm glad now. Because lookkee at this.

Among this mess is something truly special.  It is thick and thin and coiled and soft and lightly spun all in the space of inches. For much of it, there is a softer ply around a really tightly coiled ply.  I suspect that this is where all the bounce comes from.  All that excess ease makes it lively!

  And that is my finished object.  Gosh darn ugly at first glance, but like all things, you have to look under the covers to feel the frivolity within.  I have absolutely no idea what to do with it, but whatever happens to it, I am going to remember when I unfurled it for the first time, for the rest of my life.

Someday, I might end up with a yarn I planned.  Today is not that day and I am glad.