yarn so soft

The yarn for my february lady sweater arrived a while back and then a week or so later I ordered the right needles. Now the sweater is well under way and I'd say I'm about halfway done. I'm in love with the yarn -malabrigo, merino worsted. It is so soft and fluffy, like a cloud (or what I would imagine a cloud should feel like). It is also a single and I love knitting with singles. Before I knew much about the construction of yarn I knew that I loved singles and didn't really stop to think about what made them so special and fun to knit with. For the yarn novice (aka me a few months back) a single is just one spun piece of yarn not plied with anything at all.

Last Sunday a group of us guild members went on a fiber buying trip to a farm south of here with more fleece on shelves than I could have imagined! It was beautiful. All the natural colours! Here are some pics of the combed corridale and merino.Then in the shearing shed there were boxes upon boxes of raw fleece and the lighting was lovely and diffuse. I opted for a few houndred grams of prepared merino (in brown, silver, and silvery brown). I am planning on plying it with hand dyed merino.The raw fleece was so nice and soft. This box was calling my name. But I'm not really into fiber prep at the moment and I don't have room to spare in my house (you buy one sheep's worth of fleece at a time - that's a lot of fiber!). Maybe next time I go I'll be ready to tackle washing and carding the whole sheep's worth of fleece.