I did begin some more spinning for TdF yesterday even though I thought I might not after the epic 1225 yard 2 ply yarn was complete. I took out a 4 oz. batt and got it started. I’ll take photos tonight I think. But, I don’t want to talk spinning today, I want to take a break.

I decided to pull out a skein of handspun and see what could be done with it. It’s this skein:

It’s from a fat cat knits batt, and I do think it’s quite lovely. I settled on the spectra scarf, as I’ve wanted to knit that for a long while and I thought it might be the perfect pattern to knit on vacation. Relatively easy to memorize, the colors make it not boring, I thought it might be Just Enough.

I decided to pair it with a skein of sock yarn I’ve had in my stash for absolutely ever. 10 years.

And it looked ok. But, I thought maybe the sock yarn was a little bit subtle for my taste. I wasn’t sure it framed the handspun well enough to show it off. I went to my stash, pulled out a few more skeins of contrasting yarn, and pulled Mr. Ink in for his opinions. He’s got a great artistic eye, and so sometimes I use him to confirm what I think might be the best option. I let him make the choice, subtle or bold, and if bold, which bold. He picked what I had already chosen in my head, confirming the next step.

It’s a win! It’s bold, and it’s far more interesting than the subtle option.

I can tell I am going to get a ton of use out of this pattern. After all, I couldn’t resist finding yet another bold color contrast to pair with handspun. I started another!

This one is rather watermelon like. The handspun part is Miss Marja’s yarn, the green is an almost full skein of dyeabolical’s strong arm skinny leftover from a sweater I made ages ago.

I tucked the red one in the bag I’ll be taking on vacation, along with the very beginning of a sock for the most mindless knitting moments and kept the green one out to work on in spare moments. I’ll probably throw it in my suitcase as a back up knitting, JUST IN CASE the strangest thing happens and I have so much knitting time I barrel through the red option.

I still cannot decide if I am going to take a little fiber and a support spindle or not. My thoughts are that I am unlikely to use it much. But, doing so would mean I could continue on in TdF, even if it’s at a limited capacity. Maybe I will throw it in there, can’t hurt.

That’s about it from here for me. Had a great weekend, made all the more fantastic by being longer than normal, and I feel pretty refreshed and ready for the busy start to the week. Hope everyone else has been as fortunate!