Pleasant Surprise
This is a skein of yarn that I spun on my wheel last year. It was an experiment on my part, rooted in a desire to have some fun with color during a dreary Seattle winter. I had recently purchased a bag full of several different colors of pre-dyed commercial wool roving and a set of hand cards. I wanted to see what would happen if I carded random bits and pieces of the roving together and spun it with no apparent plan in mind. The resulting singles were two-plied and ended up as the chunky-weight yarn you see above. My plan for this yarn was to make a baby jacket using the Minnowknits "Button Button" pattern -- a standby favorite of mine for babies and toddlers. I was all set to start knitting for a certain newborn when another pattern caught my eye and I decided to save this yarn for another day.
After a recent stash dive I rediscovered the yarn and could not stop thinking about it. I had to see what this stuff looked like knitted up. With only 230 yards total I decided to stick with the original plan, and cast on for Button Button.
This is where the pleasant surprise came in. Stripes!
I certainly hadn't expected stripes, but I like them...