Spinning Malabrigo

I've been spinning lately and really enjoying it.

I bought the following two braids at Red Purl a few weeks or months apart. I think I bought the second one with the gift certificate I got for Christmas from my boss. (We get to chose our own certificates. I think you're "supposed" to get a restaurant certificate, but I get yarn.)

 Both braids are merino from malabrigo.

I thought the colours had enough overlapping tones that I could maybe combine them.

So far I have spun half of the second braid pictured.

 With the supported spindle, I am much better at getting thinner yarn.

For those of you interested, I pulled the braid into two halves (the long way) and then spun the colour as it presented. Theoretically I will get two spools of yarn that have close to matching colour progressions.

The purples don't come through very well in the photograph, but I think you can see a little of how the colour progresses through the length of the yarn in the picture above.

After watching the Craftsy class "Ply to Knit: Spin the Yarn You Really Want", I really wanted to make some 3-ply yarn. So that was my goal with these two braids. But I haven't been able to think how to combine two colours into three plies. (If you have any ideas, please let me know.)

Hmm...I just thought of an easier solution. Buy one more braid that will coordinate. Good plan!