Spinning Monsoon Sunset

I've been chugging away behind the scenes, dyeing up a storm of fiber for a shop update. There are plenty more braids coming, but the first is Monsoon Sunset. This is a handpainted braid available in my shop. It's inspired by those fiery sunsets full of saturated color after a thunderstorm, and moves in a subtle gradient from coral oranges, to pinks, to purple, to the inky color of a thundercloud still lingering on the horizon, and then reverses itself to go back through the sequence of colors a few more times.

This braid is comes as 6 ounces of Merino fiber (it's also available in BFL, merino/silk, and Falkland, you just have to ask!). I've always been a little frustrated that 4-ounce braids never seem to be quite enough for what I want to make, so I wanted to try a 6 ounce braid. Most of the bobbins on my spinning wheels can hold up to 4 ounces of fiber, but I have a few bobbins I use for plying that hold 6-8 ounces, so 6 ounces seemed like the perfect thing to try. 

You can see how the colors change in the loooong picture below - even braided it's a lot of fiber!

To spin this yarn, I separated the braid in the middle, between the two sections of gray. I spun two plies at about 40 wpi, then plied them together to get a skein that is pure magic.

This braid would also look really interesting spun end to end (it would have more color repeats), or as a fractal yarn. I can't wait to see what someone does with it!