more fluffy stuff, and then the Sun came out

And now, it feels like summer! Maybe I should have mentioned the weather sooner? I bet it won't be long before I'm missing those cool, overcast days.

Evan is in Japan now, I received a brief update from one of the teachers. I don't expect to hear from Evan, I do hope he takes lots of pictures! I finished 4 dishcloths for him to take along to the host family, it was really kind of fun working on them. I already had some Lily Sugar n Cream in hot blue

and I wanted something fancier so I stopped by my LYS and got some of this;

Ty-Dy cotton in Tropical

and some of this but didn't use any yet;

Ty-Dy in Magenta Moss

really great yardage and I can make many more dishcloths out of what I have left. And I made these for the host family; I hope they like them! I used a Bee stitch pattern I found here.

Meanwhile, the same day I left Evan at the airport headed for Japan, a box showed up at my house. The box was expected, as I'd ordered these items, but the timing was perfect because the Japan trip deadline had passed.  Inside the box were; 4 oz. of Gotland roving (the same type of wool used to make the Elven cloaks in LOTR movie),

8 oz. of de-haired baby Suri alpaca roving,

3 oz. of New Zealand Merino/Cashmere/Possum blend roving (see those dark hairs? that's the possum fur),

2 oz. of Yak down,

and 4 oz. of baby camel down.

I tend to spin mostly woolen style, so I'm curious to see how the camel fluff and the yak fluff spin. I've already done some a handful of each of the above, and I'll make each into a 2-ply just to see what happens. I was hoping the suri roving would be more like a sample that I'd spun up earlier, but is very different. I don't know if its because being baby suri these fibers are shorter, or its just one of those things, since they didn't come from the same source. I've wanted to try spinning something with possum in it since last summer, when I saw knitted items made with possum silk. This isn't the same blend, but its a place to start. The Gotland roving, well, that was purely impulse (right, like the rest of it wasn't) and bought because of the Lord of the Rings tie in. It has a lovely steely gray color, and has a harder feel than anything I've spun before. I think it might make a better woven fabric than knitted, and will be good for practicing worsted style spinning.

Oh, and a few weeks ago, I purchase 4 oz. a 50/50 silk and Cashmere blend to play with. Thanks to my spinning, my yarn stash is growing faster than I can keep up with. I love playing with all these fibers, but have no idea what I will knit them into. I really don't need that many berets...