Regardless of spiritual, political or social affiliation, I doubt that there is anyone who will forget the year 2020. In addition to worldwide social and political change, COVID changed our lives in ways that we never imagined and I hope once it’s been contained that we will never have to experience anything like it again.

In addition to dealing with all the pandemic brought, I moved, transitioned the group I work for currently to fully remote operations and I had to deal with (initially mysterious) life threatening health issues (thank God I’m okay now but still being monitored). So 2020 is definitely NOT a year I’ll ever forget.

I did not knit or crochet a stitch. The only thing I had energy for was spinning and even that was not on a consistent basis. I love knit socks but haven’t even finished my first pair, so I thought, while the chaos of 2020 was going on, that maybe the thing to get me knitting socks was if I spun sock yarn. I think maybe the day I thought to do this I might have been loopy from meds because your girl here thought spinning 3-ply sock yarn WAS the thing she should do. Silly, silly me! LOL!

Clearly I didn’t think of fiber properties, the blend I used has bamboo in it and while that would actually make for some cool socks on hot summer days, the fiber combo — Targhee, silk and bamboo — has more drape and less elasticity that socks need. At the time, I wasn’t sure if I would even hit the mark, I just picked a braid I liked from my stash and went at it.

The evolution of this spin in pictures:

Project Details:

• Fiber weight: braid was 5.7 ozs.
• Dyer: Inglenook Fibers
• Colorway: Lion’s Mane from the 2020 Narnia series
• Fiber Composition: Targhee, silk, bamboo
• Fiber Attributes: top with use of commercial dyes
• Spun and plied on Lendrum DT
• Single Spun: with Z twist
• Plied: with S twist
• First Pass:1683 yds of singles
• Skein Finish: 3- plied
• Skein weight: light fingering
• Wraps per inch (WPI): 18
• Final Skein Total: 561 yds of 3 ply yarn
• Finished Object: for Tour De Fleece 2021

The singles for this project were spun at thread size so plying took longer than i expected it to. It felt like no matter how much I plied, the bobbins looked the same size. LOL! Altogether, plying took about 9 hours before I got to the end of the first bobbin. Once that happened, I joined the remaining yarn from the other two bobbins and chain plied them together to make a three ply mini. I haven’t calculated grist and all that yet, not even sure I will. The only thing I’ve thought of now is that I should find a shawl pattern to show off this spin brilliantly instead of using it for socks.

To say that I am immensely proud of this spin is an understatement. Spinning, and even plying it forced me to slow down. It helped me focus on making my joins as neat as possible, I had a number of breaks during plying, I aced that too, you can’t tell from looking at the skein where any of them are. The project itself has made me aware that I *can* be a more intentional spinner. I set a goal and even though I was winging it on this first pass, I met my goal and am now equipped to do this again.

This skein also represents being able to do hard things during really tough circumstances and I can’t think of a better takeaway from the year that was 2020.