Reasons for Changing The Way I Craft

I have read so many posts from my fellow bloggers revolving around "2015 Intentions/Resolutions" that I really didn't want to do my own post on this. I know you don't care what I intend to do this year, provided I talk about it and take pretty pictures. I also don't like tying myself to something at the start of the year, because I know I have a lousy track record of keeping up with goals. I could blame my health but I know it's not only that, I just have terrible self control.

One thing I've learnt about my lack of self control is that if I make a big pronouncement about what I'm going to do, I set myself up for failure. What I have to do is make a continuing set of decisions that behave in a certain way. I can't stick to a decision made months ago as though it is written in stone, because it isn't. What I have to do is think about the reasons I want to do something and keep remembering those reasons, every time I make a decision regarding it. It's hard to do, when you don't set it down somewhere, and think it all the way through, so I'm going to do it here. Sorry, you can all go now, this post is for me, not you ;-)

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Stash

My stash is pretty huge. I reached SABLE (Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy) a long time ago. Most things in my stash are things I love and really want to knit with. The Random Rummage CAL really helped me look at my stash again and it has already made me reach for more of my older stash. I want to continue using this lovely yarn. There are several things I have thought about to help me do this:

1. Stop being precious about my stash. It was bought to be used. USE IT!!!!
2. If I don't love an item anymore, mark it up for destash.
3. If I fall in love with a new pattern and I have stash that could use with this pattern, use the yarn in stash. Just because I have mentally matched it with a pattern does not mean I need to buy more yarn. If I haven't knit that pattern in the last 3 years with the yarn I bought, I'm probably not going to do so, any time soon. Use the yarn I have and knit the nice new pattern, OR, knit the original pattern with the yarn I have, THEN buy new yarn.
4. Set a reasonable budget each month to spend on craft - yarn, fibre, books, tools and stick to it. If I have a financial restriction I will think much harder about the things I buy and why I'm buying them.
5. Before hitting the "Pay Now" button, check the stash to see if there is anything already there that is remotely like it and ask myself "why are you buying this?" If I haven't used the yarn in stash yet, do I really need more like it, or I am having an"eyes bigger than my knitting needles" moment?

Blogging

I've already covered this in a previous post, I want to try and carry on with the way I laid things out, despite my missing presence over the end of December (if you haven't guessed already, I've had a hideous virus, as has, seemingly, everyone I know!).

Podcasting

I want to stop beating myself up whenever I think I miss a recording date. I have always said I won't record on a regular basis. I don't get paid to podcast, I do it because I enjoy it. Beating myself up about not recording, means I'm not having fun and, therefore, it is counteracting any enjoyment I actually do get from recording.

Projects

I want to work on things to go in my newly created "Gift Box". I've created a thread on the Ravelry Group about this idea, and set up a Page to gain inspiration. This Christmas I did NO gift crafting. It was lovely to have some breathing space this year but I missed giving hand crafted gifts. I have decided that deadline knitting is not for me, I hate it. I'm going to create a Gift Box (even if it's a mental one) and put completed projects in it for using for gifts on birthdays, at Christmas or as other random things occur. If I want to knit something that I know I won't use, but I have yarn in stash, I will go ahead and knit it, enjoy the knitting and then put it to one side to give to someone who will use it.

I want to use my handspun yarn more often. I'm going to try and find patterns that can be used with handspun yarn and match it up with what I have already in stash. Then I'm going to try and have one handspun project on the needles most of the time.

I want to start knitting more clothing. I have many sweater quantities of yarn in my stash, I need to use them. I need to make something for the size I currently am, and wear it now. If I change size (either up or down) I can always give the ill-fitted garment away, or even frog it and recycle the yarn. I need to remember that yarn is a very forgiving material that stretches and drapes.

As well as knitting socks, knit some mitts with existing sock yarn. It's a very similar style of knitting, that I can easily do whilst chatting or reading.

If I fall in love with a new pattern, and I have the yarn, I want to queue it and match the yarn and pattern in the queue.

I want to knit things in my queue, especially if it's been matched up with existing stash ;-)

I want to spin bigger quantities of yarn, so I can knit bigger projects with my handspun.

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Wow, what an awful lot of reasons for changing things up. I wonder if any of those reasons will stick in my head. I must bookmark this post and re-read it every week. Maybe it will stick in my head if I repeat it often enough.

If you've read this, I'm impressed! Thanks for sticking with me, please remind me when you sense me going off track with these reasons. I do really want to make all of these changes, but I'll be happy if I can manage one!

Fondant Fibre Organic Merino

I am so behind on my blog posts, I don't know if I'll ever catch up. I apologise for my disappearance over the last few weeks. My absence is because of changing the format of my podcast. I am moving over from audio to video and it has required a lot of my brain power and energy as there are many different things you need to set up in order to record, edit, process and upload a video podcast as opposed to an audio one. I think I'm nearly there on getting all my ducks in a row and that has left me a little more time and energy to get back to my beloved blogging. If you are interested in checking out my video exploits just click on the podcast button at the top of the website or check out my YouTube channel where you can subscribe to the videos. If you subscribed to my audio podcast you should be getting video updates in the same way.

Whilst on the subject of blogging in general, I'd just like to say thank you to everyone who messaged me about my 6th blogging anniversary. I still can't believe I reached this milestone and I wouldn't find it half as pleasurable if you didn't read and comment on the posts.

A piece of spinning, that I finished some time ago, used some gorgeous fibre from Fondant Fibre. It was organic merino fibre and the colourway was Inked.

I was really attracted to the colourway of this top and that is why I bought it, rather than buying it for the base. This was the first time I'd used this fibre and I have to say I am SOLD! It is gorgeously soft and bouncy the way all merino should be, BUT, it has more texture. If you are a beginner spinner this would be a great entry into spinning merino. Merino is not an easy fibre to spin because it is so slippery, but this fibre has more grip and therefore is a dream to spin.

As all the colours blended so well I decided just to spin the yarn end to end, worsted style, and not worry to much about colour management. I used my Enid Ashcroft Bocote Tibetan Spindle.

This spindle is a pleasure to use and has great balance. Combining the spindle with this fibre made this such a fun project. I cannot express how much of a pleasure it was to spin without much forethought and to go just end to end without any pre-drafting, because it wasn't needed.

As always, I made two plying balls with half the singles on each, and then created a plying ball with the the two singles held together. I don't mind this hand winding of a plying ball as it helps even out the tension and twist, which makes it easier to ply.

I often use my Wildcraft Support Spindles to ply on, as the carbon fibre shafts are long and thin which means you can pack a LOT of plied yarn on it. It means that I can get roughly 50g of finished yarn on the spindle, sometimes more and sometimes less.

I have to say that the video download The Gentle Art of Plying, has really helped to transform the way that I ply my yarn. The whole video is taught using a spinning wheel but nearly all the information was relevant to using a spindle. It really helped to see the close ups of what the yarn looks like when singles are put together and twist added. Seeing how all the singles look before and after plying really was informative.

I soaked the finished yarn for 20 mins, squeezed it out and then gave it a few quick "snaps" before hanging it up to dry. This yarn feels even and the plying is balanced. This means the yarn is bouncy and soft and I can't wait to knit it.

I got 289m/316yds of a sport weight yarn, which is a reasonable yardage. I like to try and find projects to match up with my handspun yarn when possible. I've been thinking that I could probably get something small out of this; a hat, mitts, cowl or small shawlette. I think a really basic hat that would show off the yarn would be Simple by Alicia Plummer. It's a lot like the Sockhead Hat (of which I have three!).

© AliciaPlum

I might just use this pattern as inspiration, and do something different with the brim, maybe a folded stocking stitch brim, as I have a bit more yarn than is required for this pattern.

© Caitlin Hendrick

In terms of mitts, I really like Loch Lomond by Kendra Hope. I think these simple and elegant mitts would really show the yarn off. My only worry is that a loosely spun, 2-ply merino yarn may not stand up to the rigors of being worn on the hands. They are very pretty mitts though, so I'm really tempted.

© 2012, Heidi Haywood

The Leaf Lace Neck Wrap by Heidi Haywood looks like a nice straight forward and fun little shawlette that is more like a scarf. It would be gorgeous to wear this yarn around my neck and this pattern would let me do it.

It's tough to decide, but I will try and narrow it down from these three choices. Who knows, I might end up adapting one of the ideas from these patterns and doing something similar, but not identical. I'll let you know, eventually, which direction I take with this yarn. Until it's knitted, however, it is definitely a squishable and pettable skein of yarn.

Lovely Post

I got some lovely post yesterday. It arrived with things I didn't have to pay for, which is always nice, but the things that came were also very lovely.

The first thing I got was from Nadia at Abso-Knitting-Lutely. She had a give away for a braid of Malabrigo Nube in the Arco Iris colourway - and I won! I was really happy about this because when Nube first came out I bought two braids in the - yes you've guessed it - Arco Iris colourway!

So I have this braid to add to my two existing ones. I should be able to spin a decent yardage.

The second photo is probably more accurate, but they are still different dye lots, so I shall have to be careful. I bought this colour because I made a Brickless in Malabrigo Rastita in this colourway. The yarn is a DK weight singles yarn in the same merino as the Nube.

I bought the fibre intending to make a hat and mitts to match the shawl, but now I have three braids I'm beginning to re-think what I should make.  I don't know whether to stick to my intention of trying to spin my first singles yarn, or whether to try something different.  Any ideas of how to spin this gorgeous fibre are very gratefully received.

The second parcel I received was a complete surprise, as I wasn't told it was coming. It gave me quite a giggle. For those who don't listen to my podcast, you are probably unaware that I recently decided to try doing a video version to try and cut down on the amount of time it took to edit and prepare. It worked out really well and I subsequently did another, and will probably continue in this format. If you are interested, it is available on YouTube, iTunes and on the website under the Podcast button at the top of the page. Anyway, in the first episode I shared some fibre that I bought from Fondant Fibre.

A: Organic Merino Silk & Baby Llama (Beach Huts) B: Silk Hankies (One Tequila, Two Tequila...) C: Polwarth & Mulberry Silk

When I shared these purchases with the podcast I said that none of these colourways are typical of my choices and that often Deb creates colours that I usually hate but absolutely adore in the way she does them.

So you can almost guess my reaction when I opened my package and saw the colourway label before unwrapping the contents. The name was Not Chrissy's Colours. I laughed out loud before I cooed over the contents.

They are made up of my favourite Polwarth, Falkland, Silk and Bamboo. Aren't they pretty and really NOT my colours!  I started straight away.

Sorry for the poor quality photo, it was an Instagram snap last night.  By the way if you are on Instagram, come and follow me so I can follow you back, as I am addicted to this form of social media. 

Spinning long draw from Deb's punis is always such a dream. It's so easy to draft these punis and once again I cannot say enough good things about the preparation and how easy and pleasurable it is to spin them. I am spinning without plan for the pure pleasure of it, as my other two spinning projects require a little more thought and control.

I can't decide yet whether the laugh, or the pleasure from spinning, I got I made me happier. Maybe it was a wonderful combination of the two! I do love it when the postman brings parcels!

Owl Punis from Fondant Fibre

As you know, I am quite partial to a spinning project that uses Fondant Fibre materials. Deb is an amazing artisan and the fibre she produces is second to none. I am particularly fond of her punis and rolags. Now I have a blending board I imagine I will buy rolags less often but I'm not sure my technique is good enough to make good punis yet. I think even if I could produce lovely punis I would still be buying them from Deb too, because I don't have her eye for blending colours and fibres.

The punis I'm going to talk about today are these, they were called Owl.

Aren't they pretty? The name is very appropriate with the light airiness of the fibre and gorgeou soft colours. I really seem to be gaining a much greater appreciation for natural colours since starting to spin.  I made a very big mistake with these punis, I forgot to put them on Ravelry when I bought them, and they were a one off, rather than a repeatable set that I could go and look up on the shop site. I think there was BFL and alpaca in it, but I expect there was also some merino and possibly silk or bamboo. Despite not knowing what was in these punis I loved every minute of spinning them.

I used my Bocote Tibetan Spindle from Enid Ashcroft and decided to spin for a 2-ply style yarn.

I thought it would make a beautiful shawl so thought a 2-ply yarn would be suitable as lace works well with a 2-ply. I really love this spindle, it's a nice weight and it is balanced perfectly. I cannot speak highly enough of Enid's support spindles and if you ever want to try this craft, her spindles are wonderful and quite reasonably priced for the skills and materials she uses to make these tools.

The punis spun up so quickly because they are spun using long draw, which is a fast technique. My skill in this particular field isn't vast, which means the singles tend to be a bit uneven, but I think with the airiness of this fibre, that isn't necessarily a bad thing. After I spun the singles I made my usual plying ball and plyed away.

This lofty and drapey yarn is gorgeous. It's soft and fluffy and the movement of the light and dark through the strand gives real interest and depth. I think when it's knit up it will be beautiful.

The yarn is full of bounce and warmth as well as drape. It's hard to explain how it can be both, but it is!

This yarn weighs 101g and it is approximately a light fingering/3ply gauge of yarn, but because of my uneven spinning it varies between lace weight and fingering/4ply, but it should be fine when it's knit up. I got 459m/500yds of length, which is more than enough for a decent sized shawlette. I've been trying to work out what to knit with this yarn and I'm thinking of something like Citron, or maybe making something like my Refraction Shawlette but adding an extra repeat into the body section to give a little extra coverage. As I want to knit this soon, do you have any other suggestions for patterns?

I have another 2 sets of punis from Fondant Fibre to get to, one set is Salsa and one set is Tusk which are coloured red and cream respectively. I really want to spin some of those soon!

Don't you think they would stripe nicely together? I will have to work at my consistency, in long draw, in order to make sure the skeins would be the same gauge, though!

Spinning Beautifully Bright Gradient Yarn

Sometimes I get so excited about a project that I want to tell you all about it, even if it's completion is "out of order", so to speak. I generally like to talk about finished objects in the order that they are completed, as it makes it easier for me to keep track of what needs blogging about. But when I get a bit giddy over a project some things can get skipped over and then they fall through the blogging cracks. Then when I go to a project page on Ravelry for some reason and click on the blog post tab I suddenly realise that I missed blogging about it. This was one such project and it really deserves to be blogged about.

The bright yarn in question was dyed by one of my favourite UK dyers, Countess Ablaze. The fibre was 100% Superwash Merino in the Geeks Like Rainbows Too colourway. It was a gradient of the most vibrant and lovely colours.

I knew when I bought the fibre that I wanted to maintain that glorious gradient. It would seem so wrong to mix it all up, when it worked so perfectly like that.  I put the fibre to one side whilst I finished some other projects and finally picked it up again, in order to take it on holiday with me to Suffolk. I knew I wanted to use my lovely Spanish Peacock spindle as it spins quickly and therefore makes it easier to spin a fine yarn.  I wanted to make sure I made the single fine enough, that when it was chain plied I would have enough to make a shawl to show off those lovely colours. As I was going to spin finely, following the precise gradient, I knew I would be spinning worsted style in order to smoothly transition colours and also to add strength to the singles.

The fibre spun beautifully fine and it drafted very easily. It was the perfect holiday spinning as it required almost no concentration from me at all. It felt like it almost spun itself! When I reached the maximum cop size I slid the cop off onto another spindle for storage. The upside down cop definitely looked odd but I knew I wanted to maintain the order of the colour transitions.

When I finished spinning the other half of the fibre, I placed the spindles in my cheap plastic basket with holes and started to wind off the singles into a chain ply plying ball. I wound off the second cop first, followed by the first cop which meant the colour transitions were in the same order as it was dyed.

I put the twist in the rested chained singles and got a fairly even yarn.

I managed to spin 390m/426yds of a sock weight to heavy lace weight yarn. The majority of the yarn is a fingering weight, so it should work out well in a shawl pattern. The thinner parts will get hidden in the pattern.

I am quite proud that there is only a small degree of variation in the thickness of the yarn, as obviously chain plying a yarn magnifies any flaws in gauge. In chain plying, very fine parts of the singles are only plied against very fine parts singles, because it is being plied against itself. There is no averaging out of variations that you get in a true 3-ply yarn, where thick parts get plied with thin parts and so get evened out along the length of the yarn. This yarn proves I am getting more consistent in my spinning.

After plying I soaked the yarn, before squeezing with a towel and then snapping it to help align the fibres. I then hung it to dry.  The finished yarn isn't very bouncy but it does have nice drape. It's not too rigid, which has happened before with my finer yarns.

I wanted to choose a shawl pattern that would show off the colour changes to the best of my ability, so I've paired this yarn up with a pattern from my queue, Antarktis by Janina Kallio. This pattern is knit on the bias starting at a point and working to a long edge, and it is customisable for the amount of yarn you have. I think it will make the gradient look gorgeous. I do like having patterns matched up with yarn. It makes it easier when I am looking for inspiration of what to knit next, especially with handspun yarn.

Tour de Fleece 2014 - Spun Right Round Rambouillet

I have just realised that I didn't show you my second skein from Tour de Fleece! What an omission, because it's gorgeous!  My second spinning project was very enjoyable, from start to finish. I used a braid of fibre from Spun Right Round. This is a US dyer and I've followed Renee on Instagram for some time, and made lots of "oooo" noises at her photos. I finally caved and decided to pay the International postage and bought some Rambouillet fibre. I've never tried this fibre but lots of other podcasters have spoken fondly of it and I really wanted to give it a go. I am SO glad I did. This stuff is so much fun!

I couldn't resist the name of this colourway, though it was the actual colours that drew me in the first place. It's called Darkside of the Room, and who doesn't enjoy a good pun? The fibre itself is very spongy. It's like super crimped merino.

One of the things that attracted me to this dyer is the way she uses white space in her dying. This means that there will be strong colours that fade into paler ones, and create interesting transitions. It's a type of dying I see more of in US dyers that UK ones, though Fondant Fibre also does it well.

I decided to have a go at doing something akin to "Fractal" spinning. I split the braid in half lengthways and marked the top and then split one half in half again lengthways, making sure I knew which was the top of each section. I then wound the first half into a ball and wound the other two sections into a ball, ensuring that they followed the same "direction" as the first half. The two halves of the yarn were then spun into 2 plies that would barber pole nicely, as one ply would have long repeats of the colour and the second ply would have half the length of the repeats of colour, but there would be twice as many repeats.

I spun the fibre worsted in, what would be on a wheel, a short forward draw fashion. I used my gorgeous Spanish Peacock Tibetan spindle, but really had to work on flicking it slowly enough to ensure the singles didn't get too fine. I wanted to really emphasise the bouncy and warm nature of the fibre. I think it would have been easier to keep the single more even if I'd used a slower and heavier spindle.

In this project, I also used my Spanish Peacock spindle bowl. I have wanted one of these since I saw them all over Instagram after Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival. I was amazed when I actually managed to score one on an actual update! The bowl is on the top of a long stem, which makes it easier to hold stable between my thighs. It's got a tiny hollow in the centre of the bowl that the tip of a spindle sits in nicely as it spins, which stops it dancing all over the bowl.  In the above photo you can also see a very cheap purchase I made to help with my spinning. I found a great little plastic basket on Amazon, Premier Housewares Plastic Storage Basket with Double Handle - 20 x 32 x 18 cm - White. It was cheap as chips, but it is perfect to rest my spindles in whilst I wind off the singles or plied yarn. As it is plastic, it is sturdy and stable and because it is oval, different places in the basket give different lengths of gap for the spindles to rest in. It also holds my fibre nicely while I'm spinning too. I've used it so much more than I thought I would.

After spinning my singles I wound them into a plying ball and let them rest for a couple of days.

I plyed it together, using my Wildcraft Support spindle, which is nice and tall and slower than my other spindles, it's perfect for plying. After plying I would it on to my niddy-noddy, soaked it for a while, before squeezing the water out in a towel, and then snapping my two hands at either ends of the looped skein a couple of times to pull the yarn into alignment. I then hung it to dry on my airing rack.

The finished yarn is lovely.  A really bouncy DK weight yarn is the result of my labour, and it is so squishy!!

I love how the colours look. I really like this technique for mixing up the colours. I think because there is a limited palette of colours used for this yarn, having them barber pole works really well. If there were more colours it could get muddy. As it is, the colours are still bright and clear and should make a really interesting knitted fabric.

I got 225m of this DK weight yarn. There are a couple of thinner and thicker spots because of having to keep on top of my spinning speed, but on the whole it is relatively even and should even out in the knitting further.

I have already planned out what to do with this yarn. The softness needs to be on my neck, so I can't wait to knit it up into The Long and Winding Row by Susan Ashcroft. I really like Susan's patterns as they offer interesting shapes and textures that can really show off a yarn without getting lost or being too simple. I think it will be a fun knit and can't wait to cast it on.

Rambouillet is a really fun fibre to spin and the prep and dye work on this particular braid was excellent. I love spinning this so much, I bought another braid of the stuff in another colourway from Renee. Maybe if love this next braid as much I may sign up for my first fibre club!

Tour de Fleece 2014 - Skein 1

You know how when I went on holiday in June, I wrote blog posts in advance so you wouldn't even notice I was gone? Well I should have done the same for the last week. I didn't think I needed to, because I wasn't going anywhere. However, as it turns out when my Other Half is on holiday and we don't plan to go anywhere, I still don't blog! After having such a lovely time in Suffolk, we decided that this week at home could be much more fun if we actually went somewhere! So we went places we wouldn't normally go to and I got as tired and sore as if we had gone on an actual holiday. But it was worth it because we had a lovely time. He's got another week's stay at home holiday planned for August. I need to plan in advance for that one so I can have at least one blog post scheduled for the week he is at home! I'm pretty sure none of you mind when I don't post for 10 days, but it does get me behind in my crafting updates!

One of my main occupations of the last 10 days has been my spinning for the Tour de Fleece 2014. If you've never heard of this marvellous event, you weren't reading my blog this time last year! Essentially, it's an event for spinners to follow along with the Tour de France and challenge themselves to try and push themselves a little further than they would usually go. It's our small tribute to the incredible feats of the cyclists in the Tour de France. This year I decided I wanted to make sock yarn, that I could actually be made into socks. I chose some fibre from Hilltop Cloud, that was designed to make good sock yarn, 70% Superwash Blue Faced Leicester (BFL) and 30% nylon. It was dyed in the Hipster Rainbow colour and I was really hopeful that with my Spanish Peacock Tibetan spindle I could achieve sock weight in a three ply without too many problems.

As the nylon content is 30% I was surprised that I couldn't really feel it in the fibre. I think it was slightly more sticky than it would be spin to BFL alone, but it was still really smooth. I'm not surprised as all of Katie's fibre is beautifully prepared for spinners.

With such a jumble of colours, I knew that unless I wanted to spend a very long time sorting fibre I would just spin a mixed variegated yarn. I decided to make it easier on myself and spent some time making little strips of pre-drafted fibre into small nests, before weighing out three separate bags of the nests to form equal amounts for each ply. I tried to make the colour distribution as even as possible.

I then proceeded to spin up three singles and wind them into three plying balls over the course of the week.

I loved spinning this fibre, as the colours were like jewels and the pre-drafted nests made the process much quicker than if it had been spun from the end of the braid. The singles were worsted spun, in what, if it were spun on a wheel, would be a short forward draw. I put quite a lot of twist into the singles as I wanted the yarn to be for knitting socks, so I wanted the yarn to have no chance of fibre escaping to pill!

When I had three plying balls I wound them into one large plying ball by winding all three singles together onto the ball. I then plyed the singles, again adding a decent amount of twist. This means that the fibre is dense, but I think very sturdy, and balanced.

I really love how the finished skein looks. I think it will knit into really lovely socks, provided I have enough meterage.  I only managed to spin this 120g braid into 272m, and whilst it is a heavy sock weight yarn, I'm not sure if I'll have enough to knit my usual 5" leg and 2" cuff. The last socks I knit used 317m, but the ones before that only used 249m, so I could be ok, especially if I do a shorter leg. I shall have to swatch and see what gauge I get.

I was a bit scared that my tight spinning was going to make the yarn too dense and that the socks would probably stand up on their own, but I think there is enough softness in it, from the BFL, to make the socks ok to wear.

I think knitting with this yarn will be a real pleasure and an education. I love the subtle shifting of the colours through the yarn and I think it will knit up to create a lovely effect.

I'm itching to wind this into a cake of yarn and start knitting straight away, but as I already have two pairs of socks on my needles already, I think this will have to wait until I've finished at least one pair! Spinning the yarn has excited me about knitting lots of handspun socks, but I think I should wait until I've finished the first pair before I decide to carry on with that excitement! I might find I need to put less twist in next time!

Countess Ablaze Fibre Spun Up

There is no secret about my love of all things Countess Ablaze. Lyndsey is one of my favourite yarn dyers and she's a lovely person. She also creates lovely hand dyed fibre.

This braid of fibre is the Baby It's Cold Outside colourway and is made up of 48% Merino, 26% Bluefaced Leicester (BFL),  12% Alpaca and 12% Bamboo. This blend of fibre is soft and warm with an interesting variation in the way the dye is taken by the bamboo.

For this spin I decided to use my new Spanish Peacock Tibetan spindle. The long shaft of the spindle means that more singles can be loaded up onto it, before they have to be wound off and stored. This meant I could do a true 3-ply construction, easily fitting a third of the fibre onto the shaft each time.

As you can see in the above photo, I did pre-draft the fibre a little, because I had the fibre in storage for six months (at the bottom of my fibre bag). It probably didn't need pre-drafting, but I find it quite satisfying anyway, so nothing was lost by doing so.

I spun the fibre worsted style and when it was plied together I got a round and bouncy DK weight yarn. I do love how a 3-ply construction evens out the variations in the singles.

There is an incredibly subtle barber-pole effect in this yarn. The colours of the fibre are so close in value and hue that from a distance there is no difference in the colours on each ply of the yarn.

The different colours will give a lovely depth to whatever is knit from this delicious yarn.  It feels soft and silky to the touch, but still has plenty of bounce. I think it would probably make an ideal hat, smooth on the skin, and warm on the head!

This skein measures 154m/168yds in length, so I'm sure most hats will be achievable with this yarn. Do you have any suggestions for a pattern, because once again, my fingers itch to cast on.

Improving My Rolag Construction on A Blending Board

I have finally finished spinning up the first rolags I made on my birthday blending board.

These rolags were scruffy and far too dense. I made around 10 rolags out of fibre weighing 120g. Rolags really should be more light and airy. These were more like very very fat punis! Despite the messiness of my rolags I really enjoyed spinning them. The blend was lovely, using light grey baby alpaca, purple bamboo, teal merino and white kid mohair from World of Wool, and teal Bluefaced Leicester (BFL) from Sara's Texture Crafts. I have no idea of the proportions of this fibre, I just wrote down the contents! I spun it on my Enid Ashcroft compact Tibetan spindle with an ebony shaft and thuja burl. It's a very short spindle and it required singles to be wound off fairly frequently.

I plied the singles into a true 3-ply to try and even out the very wonky singles and I think it worked. Looking closely at the yarn, the thickness seems more uniform than I expected.

I got 189m/207yds of a DK/worsted weight yarn, that is fairly lofty and soft. I think it would make a pretty warm hat or set of mitts.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed spinning these rolags as they weren't very well constructed, but it wasn't a bad experience at all. I have plenty of "bits" of fibre left to play with in my "big bag o'fluff" so I know I'll be playing with it more often.

I already decided to try and practice with a single braid of dyed fibre so I could get better at layering fibre and creating rolags from it. I used 100g of Babylonglegs (who sadly no longer dyes fibre) BFL roving that had been sat around for a long time and got quite compressed. Loosening the fibre and then applying it to the board broke up any sticky bits and created nice lofty rolags.

With each pass, I only placed one layer of fibre on the board before carding it. I filled in any thin pieces and carded that in too. I made 3-4 rolags from each board I filled. I tore the long rolags in half lengthways to make it easier for storage. As you can see, I got a lot more rolags out of my 100g of fibre than I did from the 120g of the first batch I tried. I may have had to load the board more often, but I love how lofty these rolags are in comparison.

It's much less physical to draft out thinner layers of fibre, which is a plus for someone like me. It might take longer, but I will hurt less at the end of it. I think I will really enjoy spinning these rolags, and I'm itching to grab a spindle and have a go, but I already have two spinning projects on the go at the moment, so these will have to wait another week to be played with. If it works as well as I think it will, I may be employing this technique often, when I get some fibre I want to woollen spin.