Batts in the Belfry...

I have not been able to get these batts off my mind.  Apparently, this state of affairs gives me corny post titles.  I'm going to run with it. 

I'm hoping to participate in this years Tour de Fleece on Ravelry.  The basic premise is to set a spinning goal for yourself, and spin towards it every day that the tour rides - ostensibly watching the tour now and again.  There are teams to join.  I'm on Team Rookie and Team Monkey Farts, which is the Spunky Eclectic team, named after a favorite colorway.  The entire endeavor is basically a loosely organized, free for all, with prizes.  

In any case, I would like to try my hand at laceweight yarn, having never spun it on purpose.  I have big plans for a ginormous circular shawl, on which I can knit all summer, that will be light enough knitting for when it is 100 degrees outside.  We all know what they say about good intentions, so let's just watch this particular project out of the corners of our eyes, shall we?

The idea for this shawl was born of the most spectacularly blue fiber ever, dyed onto one of the scratchiest fibers ever.  So, I purchased a much softer blue fiber to go with it, hoping to end up with a heathered yarn that wouldn't tone down that magnificent cobalt too much.

Yes, intrepid readers, we're back to night-time photography!  The big twist of fiber in the foreground is the beloved blue.  The mess in the background is my concession to wearability.  In more technical terms, the cobalt fiber is 8oz of Norwegian Wool in "Violet Beauregard" by Spunky Eclectic, and the lighter fiber is 4oz. of Corriepaca (corriedale/alpaca blend) in "Blue Moon"  

I hated to tone down the brilliance of "violet" too much so I split up the fiber into 2:1 ratio and prepped it for the carder.  Each batt is two layers of "blue moon" alternated with 3 layers of "violet."  Nevermind the seemingly incompatible math, the fiber ratios are the same, I promise.  The "blue moon" layers are just thinner than the "violet" layers.  See?  My brain isn't completely gone.  

For a truly heathered batt, I'd need to run these through a couple more times, but now I'm looking forward to a bit of striping.  We'll just have to see.  

Don't check back for updates, just let them flow.  We don't want to jinx it.  Y'all know you're just here for my fabulous photography anyway.