I couldn’t decide what to name this post because all three of the titles I had in mind fit perfectly, so I mashed them together and now you know where I am going with this one.

I started with this fiber.

Enablery “Wacky Inventions” on South African Fine

It was a braid that a friend bought for herself in an effort to (in her own words) “get out of my comfort zone”. But once she pulled it apart she discovered that there was far more pink than she was willing to deal with. So in stepped little ole me with an eager, “I’ll spin it for you!” Because I just love the colors in this one!

Unlike my dear friend and fellow spinner, I love the flashes of pink! But I also understand that she does not. So how could I spin this in a way that down played the pink? After giving it much thought, I came up with a plan.

First I separated the colors out so that I had strips of fiber with yellow and grey, and strips of fiber with pink and grey. Then I split the strips with yellow three times as many times as the pink ones. The first ply that I spun had long repeats of pink and grey, but the second ply was quick repeats of yellow and grey.

Plying these two lengths together affected the pink perfectly. Where pink met yellow, it took on an orangey hue, and where it met grey, an almost purpley effect took place. And no where along the length of the skein did pink ever ply with pink (this being the main goal).

The end result is a far less PINK yarn, and more a fun pink/purple/yellow/grey yarn that packs a punch in a squooshy, bulky weight yarn that makes me feel happy just looking at it.

And, most importantly, my friend likes it, too.

So I played with color and I plied with purpose. And I love the result!