poke berry yarn update

poke plyed111307 002
Originally uploaded by soapquiltknit

I have plyed the darker yarn from the first week's poke berries with the lighter yarn from the second week's poke berries. It's pretty and I think it will knit up tweedy. But, and I guess I shouldn't be surprised, it's chunky. Two singles, that both looked like fingering or light fingering, ply together to make chunky. It's not over-plyed so that is progress. I looks a tad under-plyed to my untrained eye but hangs without twisting as pretty as you please. I understand that means it's balanced.

I mixed together the saved poke berry juice from both batches (there were no mold or off-scents). There were about three pints total and stewed up (that's a techical term) another couple of yards of roving. One yard of targhee, marked with a green thread, and one yard of rambouillet. I wanted to test whether it was likely the roving source that was responsible for the color difference. It wasn't. Both rovings are very similar in color. So the difference is likely due the the berry ripeness difference between week 1 and week 2 or some processing difference. After the rovings came out, there was still plenty of juice so I dyed some of my early spun yarn (ok, all my spun yarns are early, as I've just been spinning for a couple of months...)

I haven't decided what all this yarn in various shades of poke berries wants to be. Nominations are open.

p.s. there's still a pint and a half
Are you asking yourself, will this saga every end?

p.p.s. I've read that carrot tops make a nice green. I've never had a lot of gardening success with carrots. Maybe it's time for another try?