As I'm wiritng this it is actively snowing outside, on April 15. I am very much in the mood for some color spinning!

Our four yarns for this #samplealong are:

Minnies plied together.
Minnies drafted together, then plied together.
Minnies plied together with a braid
Minnies drafted then plied together with a braid.

Each yarn will use one ounce of minnies, and there will be half of a braid leftover. If you bought more than four ounces of minnies, or plan to make more, you can spin bigger, more colorful yarns, using more than one ounce of minnies per yarn.

Making Minnies Minnies are about .25 ounce. I do not weigh each minnie. I divide a four ounce braid into 16 pieces. Here's how I do it:

Divide braid into four chunks horizontally (the short way).
Divide each chunk into four strips vertically.
Wind each strip into a little ball.

Use a variety The more braids you use ifn different colorways the more varied your color selection wil be. I approach this in the opposite way of a Combo Spin - where braids that are similar colors are selected. I want lots of different colors.

When ITW makes up their Odds and Ends they use as many as 16 differnt colorways. That's 8 pounds of minnies - I don't really need that right now. I use lots of leftovers from other projects and samples. When I make minnies from whole braids, I use a minimum of four braids in four different colorways. I can always find a use for a pound of minnies.

Before you ask, the braids for minnies do not have to be the same fiber or blend. I might not toss a Wensleydale braid in the mix with mostly fine wools, but Romney and BFL would work just fine.

Solids/semi-solids/naturals I've had several people ask about using solid, semi solid, and naturals as minnies and braids for this #samplealong. You can, but you won't get the same type of colorful yarn that the folks using painted minnies will. You will get long stretches of not-as-many colors, instead of sprinklings of lots of colors.

I do know that most everyone is working out of their stashes right now. So what I will do, is add in some photos of samples that use solid/semi solid and naturals.

I'll be checking here and on Insta for questions. Don't forget to post your photos and tag them #samplealong.