Stash diving

When I sat down on Saturday, very last minute, to plan my Tour for the year, I knew that I had a few days off and then I would be very busy with work.  So I wanted to create a reasonable, achievable list.  Which I did, as follows:
1)  linen - to spin something new.  A gift from a secret santa last year.  This will be my challenge of the tour.
2) Merino/possum blend picked up at WW this year.
3) Elderflower BFL/silk combo (50g of each) for some fibre prep on a rest day.
4) Some batts from Hilltopcloud
5) Rainbow gradient dyed BFL, to finally master n-plying on the wheel, as I haven’t been 100% happy with my previous attempts.
6) Darling, also gradient dyed.
7) The shetland set of natural colours I got at WW. 200g, 4 shades, for a natural colourwork project.
8) Then finally, if I get the time and decide definitely that it’s a good idea, I’ve got 2 100g braids in green colourways - 1 is the euphorbia club (BFL) and some BFL/alpaca/silk in Copse Green. The later is paler and more muted. I’m not sure if using the two together (one ply of each) is too eclectic a blend to go well together.

So this morning as I sat down, I realised I most nearly halfway through that list! And several of the others, such as the linen and the BFL/silk are for later in the tour.  So, what better excuse to dive into the old stash bag and pull out something new.  Which is what I did, finding this UK merino in lovely calm shades of blue, which spun up and plied like a treat for a soft, squishy 2ply aran-ish weight.  I forgot to take photos of the plied yarn, so will just wait until it's finished.

Other jobs for the day included plying the rainbow gradient, which as it turns out is very hard to take a photo of which shows off all the colours.  It still needs to be soaked and have the twist set.:

It's just shy of 200m, and is lovely and soft in true BFL style, and I think it may bloom more when washed.  As to what I'd ever do with rainbow yarn... I really don't have a clue, but it's fun to look at and lovely to pet... which is about the same that can be said for the rest of my rather large stash.  I may have to start early again and do a handspun, handknit Christmas to clear some of it.

And finally, a shot to prove how lovely and balanced my merino/possum spinning was:

Very proud of this, and now I have three things to soak... really should get on with that!