Birch Bay is a very, very bright Layered Spinning Batt from Hanks in the Hood. I usually gravitate towards those cool, milky blues or soft, grassy greens like Hoquiam or Mercer Island. Not this time. Birch Bay was calling to me like a hot coal, fresh from the fireplace. Really, in the end I was mostly curious about how the colors would transition and how that fiery red would look plied with the icy blue further inside the batt.

I spent the weekend happily spinning away, moving from the orange-tinged center, to pink, shocking blue, blackberry purple, black ending with a charred orange on the outside. This was the first time I’ve used a batt where you start from the center and move outward around the batt. I loved how tidy this process was. I also loved watching as each color slowly shifted into the next surprising variation all the way through to the end.

I was able to fit all but two yards of roving on one of my medium sized bobbins and I think I’ll save the leftovers for needle felting. In the meantime, I need to ply what I’ve got! Because I filled the bobbin and don’t want to try my hand at Navajo Plying for the first time with this particular batch, I hunted up a ball winder and wound the whole thing into a sturdy little yarn cake. Now, I’ll be able to ply both ends together!

My favorite part of this project has been peeling back the layers on the bobbin as I wound it onto the ball winder. Oh how I love that blue!

I’ll post pictures after I finish plying, washing the yarn and (hopefully) of something knit with it too! Which Hanks in the Hood Layered Spinning Batt has been calling to you?