Keeping on with the red theme. This lot is hand dyed by Gnomespun Yarn.
I wanted something that would give me some tonal variation in colour in the finished item, like a semi-solid hand dyed yarn would. I could spin these for texture (like cable or crepe) and the colour would not detract from it. I learned that I like maximum of two colours in those two textures during TdF this year.
BFL combed top in Rose Red colourway. I have no definite plans for this one. Yet. BFL is such a versatile breed that it could become anything wearable. Gloves, hats, mittens, socks, sweaters, scarves... Anything.
Texel carded roving in Brickwork colourway.
Texel carded roving in Dark Marble colourway.
These two are my first roving. The most common prep available from hand dyers is combed top, and I have plenty of that. Roving is different. The fibres are all jumbled up in a roving as opposed to being aligned in a top, and is mostly recommended to spin long draw.
I am really looking forward to spinning these two for sock yarn. On one hand spinning roving short draw sort of negates some of that jumbled up airiness, but one the other hand, I want the smoothness of the worsted draw to give this yarn abrasion resistance. Even spinning short draw, roving still gives more airiness to the final yarn, and this is what I want.
By spinning roving and top with short draw (with the same yarn structure) I will be able to compare which holds up better. Both cheviot and texel are reportedly good for socks, so the breed should not make too much of a difference. If I were to compare merino and texel, I would have to take into account merino being a finewool and not as strong as texel which is a meat breed with medium wool.
The three braids of red fibre intended for sock yarn bring up the tally to 10 pairs, plus 2 more from leftovers. This is quite enough to last me for a while.