Spring brings out my love of pastels and light neutrals. This trend is obvious in both my stash enhancement and my spinning of late. Remember the pretty Ginkgo Shawl I raved about for Inspiration Saturday? Well, last week, BMFA was having a crazy sale on Silkie STR (25% off!) and I saw these colors and how could I resist?

Blue Moon Fiber Arts Silkie Socks That Rock

The first and second skeins (Single Cell Dating Pool and What’saabi) will become the Ginkgo Shawl. The third skein, Siren Song, is destined to become a summery scarf, perhaps the Montego Bay Scarf (which I’ve had queued for pretty much my entire knitting life). If you haven’t knit with it before, Silkie STR is a blend of 81% superwash merino and 19% silk, which gives the skeins that fun barberpole effect that knits up with a gently heathered look. It’s going to be difficult not to wind these up and cast them on immediately!

Miss Babs destash dye skeins

And then my dear friend and knitterly-partner-in-crime Katy informed me of a truly astounding sale on the Miss Babs website: undyed Merino/yak/silk DK weight yarn at a crazy destash price. Miss Babs was destashing them because she had decided the yarn base didn’t really fit into her inventory and I just couldn’t resist such a luxury yarn. Amazing. It’s all gone now, which is for the best because actually feeling it made me want to stash even more. It’s a really interesting shade of natural grey with a slight tan undertone. It will become a sweater sometime in August, which is when Katy and I decided we’d force each other to finally knit some sweaters. Yay!

Miss Babs Merino/Tussah Silk top. Colorway Beachglass.

I didn’t want the yak blend to get lonely so a braid of Merino/Tussah silk fiber came along for the ride, as well. I wanted some fine fiber to mess around with on my supported spindle after I finish the angora I’m spinning. What angora, you say?

TexasJeans Tibetan spindle with angora fiber.

After I finished a little test skein on my new spindle I began using it to spin up an ounce of prime plucked angora (bunny fur) that I had gotten at the New England Fiber Festival in the fall. Angora is… interesting to spin. It is very light and fluffy and not grippy at all. The ends stick out everywhere. It doesn’t draft particularly easily… yet, I’m still enjoying it. It’s new to me and it’s an excellent candidate for supported spinning. I think it would probably be hellish on a drop spindle or wheel. It definitely requires patience and lots of park-and-draft. Depending on how much yardage I get out of my little ounce, I’d like to ply it with a few plies of pretty purple Shetland fiber dyed by Porpoise Fur. I think it will make a lovely yarn.

Jenkins Aegean with a Nunoco batt.

I’ve been slowly savoring my Nunoco batt spinning for the Jenkins “Just Batty” challenge. The deadline for this is in June but I’m not in a hurry. I like spinning batts and I’m getting the hang of neatly winding on to a Turkish spindle. It takes more time than I’d like to wind on neatly but it sure looks pretty.

So those are all the pastels in my life right now. What about you? Do you go through color phases?