some nice spinning

I skipped knitting night last night to get some work done. I wasn't exactly happy about this, but decided to make the most of it by spinning a little before getting started. I still hadn't finished the rest of the brown mix roving that I dyed, and I was really eager to see how it would come out.
I spun it, and it went well, but when I plied it, I didn't like how it came out at all. It was all thick and thin and stupid, and instead of the glorious purple, wine, and suede colors it was as roving, it just looked kind of brown. Needless to say, this did not improve my already foul mood.
However, when I looked at it this morning in the sunlight, it looked a whole lot better.




I actually like it quite well now. I guess there's no accounting for taste.
It did inspire me to join the Tour de Fleece, though. When I first saw people writing about the Tour de Fleece, I thought "nice idea, but not for me." The thing about me and goals is that we usually make each other miserable. If I set a goal, it's usually some insane, impossible thing, and then I get mad if I don't accomplish it. For instance, you should have seen the list of things I planned to accomplish over the long weekend. It was about 20 things, most of them big. It was just as ridiculous as the Yarn Harlot's plan to spin almost three and a half pounds of fleece by the end of the month, and I don't want to do that to spinning. It's my treat, my relaxation method. Goals are not welcome in this arena!
But I do want to learn to Navajo ply so I can make one long color change out of the other roving I dyed. Being a roving I already have, it fits with the original challenge, and having watched other people learn Navajo plying, I'm fairly confident that it's something that will take about half an hour to initially get the technique and then the rest of my life to practice and keep getting better. And spinning two ounces of fiber in a month--I know I can do that! I was mad enough that it took me four or five days to spin the one I just finished, and that wasn't because it takes a long time, it was because I never got to it. Therefore, I set this as my goal: to Navajo ply the BFL roving I dyed a few weeks ago. This will give me a new skill, hopefully some beautiful yarn, and also the new experience of setting an achievable goal. Allons-y!