Hithlain

I’ve decided I’ve got to come up with names for some of these yarns or I end up referrring to them as “that pinky-green one” and “the bluey silver one.”  The pinky one down below is either going to be dubbed “Carnation” because it reminds me of those sweet flowers, or “Harriet’s Posies” because as I mentioned below, I’m listening to Emma while I spin it and it seems as though Harriet Smith would take great joy in such a bright, cheery array.  I’ll let you know.

Before I started work on Carnation/Harriet’s Posies yesterday, I finished spinning and plying this:

This is Twisted’s “Firefly.” I have to admit that I got this for reasons of sentiment and curiosity.  These are so not my colors.  But the name is in honor of a great television show that was cancelled despite quite the cult following.  Sean and I discovered it recently and apart from some rated-R scenes, it’s just a great show.  “Firefly” is the name of a class of spaceship, so named because of its shape and the glowy backside when it kicks in its…whatever it is that gets kicked in when you’re flying a spaceship. So the roving has the glowy backside color and the steely silver gray of the hull, and she made it with merino and tencel, which makes it all very slippery soft and drapey.  The slippery nature of the stuff made it a new challenge for this beginning spinner, but I enjoyed it very much. Twisted makes good stuff.

Anyway, my 12 year old son walked by as I was spinning the singles and said, “That looks elvish.”

(We’ve got colds here, as evidenced by the other stuff on the table 😉 )

As a fellow member of this very LOTR-happy family, I had to agree with the boy.  The more I spun I thought of The Golden Wood, the starlight under the trees, the gold of Galadriel’s hair, the color of the sea, the elanor flowers, the gray elvish cloaks, the dappled sunlight on the forest floor…and Sam’s elvish rope.  I plied it, and it was decided.  This one will be called Hithlain, the name the elves gave to the material they used to make their rope.

Still, so not my colors, but I am learning to appreciate the very great changes that happen during the spinning process.  There’s no way for me to tell exactly what I’ll end up with just by looking at the roving. Even the singles by themselves don’t give enough of a hint as to how the colors will play against one another in the final product.  It’s truly a wonder-full process, and I am loving it more every time I get the chance to slip more fiber through my fingers.

I think Hithlain is destined to become a head ornament of some kind. The drape and the sheen are really quite pretty.  It will take an Elf-Friend to wear it well.