in a spin

I have two finished yarns to show off today.

Before I do though, people who know me should be prepared as neither of them are duck egg blue, or even blue green. Yikes!

The first was originally meant to be 3 separate colours striped. I had it in my mind that I needed a yellow, grey and cream shawl or cowl or something and I had 3 Shetland tops in exactly those colours.

 

I started to spin the yellow and to me it just looked flat. So I got my hackles out and blended the 3 Shetland tops together to make something more pleasing to my eye. The finished yarn is about a  10-12ply.

 

The next yarn was a custom blend top from World of Wool. A gorgeous burnished orange BFL. Both BFL and Shetland have to be my two absolute favourite fibres to spin though they are quite different in character. But I could no more chose between them than chose between chocolate or salted caramels.

Both please!

 

 

 

 

 

I don’t know what either of these yarns will become as yet but I think I need to spin a dark grey yarn to stripe with the orange.

Disappointing

They say that pride comes before a fall and irritatingly, They are usually right. Alfresco is a beautiful yarn and I remain very proud of it. Meringue however, not so much. It was the fibre that I blended and spun for the Spunout shawl SAL/KAL. However, I decided not to use a control card to help me maintain a relatively consistent thickness instead spinning to what I thought was my “default” thickness. I’d heard so much of spinners having a “default yarn” that I thought I should try to find mine. Turns out I don’t have one!

Whilst the thickness of the singles isn’t dramatically variable it is definitely inconsistent, in a very bad way, though this wasn’t immediately noticeable as singles on the bobbin.

I plied 2 bobbins of singles together and when they were finished and I slipped them off the noddy-noddy and astonishingly, the yarn was really balanced and I mean REALLY balanced! Before it’s bath and thwacking balanced!

Still, it looked like this…

 

…and that’s before we even mention that the yarn turned out the colour of ancient bra! Not the desired effect at all. For those who don’t know me IRL, ancient bra is on a par with baby poo and insipid apricot as my worst colours ever!

As the yarn was balanced, I didn’t think that passing it through the Hansen in a clockwise direction was going to improve matters, though perhaps I am wrong in that. One thing that I could do to improve the yarn was to dye it a prettier colour than “ancient bra”.

Fortunately, I’d planned a crafty meet up with Ursula and Bee. Ursula has a spectacular talent for dyeing so off I went in the hope of redeeming my fugly yarn.

So, we did a randomised uncontrolled  dyeing experiment in immersion dyeing, adding a bit of this colour and that colour and waiting to see what the end result is. To be completely honest I really didn’t care so long as it wasn’t one of the aforementioned colours in the end.

This is the result of that experiment.

 

I told you she was talented! I love the way it turned out even though it didn’t magically restore the yarn’s consistency problems or even hide them very much.

Anyway the proof will be in the knitting and I just have to figure out what to knit with it. I shall knit it very soon because let’s face it, I have no desire to have it hanging around in the skein so I can admire my spinning skills. I do however, want to knit it up to see how the colours behave.

Anyhoo, more positive news is on the horizon.

ttfn x

Alfresco

Well, Summer is nearly upon us here in the Southern Hemisphere and though I’m not a huge fan of the hot weather (British understatement) I do enjoy an alfresco lunch with friends, preferably under the dappled shade of a tree or two. I love warmer days when you can throw open the windows and patio door to let some fresh air in. Gotta love fly screens though 😉

Anyway to the point!

I created a delicious double blended colour way for my Etsy store that makes me think of alfresco lunches with friends. It’s called, Alfresco! Ha, fancy that!

 

Alfresco on the hackles 2nd blending.

 

A dreamy cloud…

 

…or 2

 

I spun up a sample because I needed to see it in the yarn so to speak. Obviously I’ve kept some back for myself. I’m not totally selfless! I see it as a shawl but then all I want to knit at the moment is shawls.

Oh, it’s a blend of BFL, English 56’s, Merino and a bit of Bamboo. There are only 2 x 130g boxes for sale for now so better be quick!

double blended duck egg omlette

I always try to follow advice given to me by wise, knowledgeable people and a comment by Jules on my last post about making more for myself really hit the mark. So much so, that I immediately set to work.

I took a custom blend I’d had made by World of Wool which was a bit insipid as I hadn’t put enough colour in it and I added three more shades of dyed merino to it. Then I put it through the hackles twice to make delicious clouds of duck egg fluff.

 

I’m in love 😀

Thanks Jules

Duck Egg Omlette

The last colour way of the day is Duck Egg Omlette. People who know me will be surprised that I’m even considering parting with this because it’s my absolute favourite colour but hey, I know the secret recipe 😉

 

It gets a lot of pics because it’s so flipping pretty!

1 part Merino

1 part BFL

1/2 white Shetland

1/2 grey Shetland

a pinch of Mohair

I have 170g available for $47.60 plus postage. As always it comes packaged in a box to prevent the squishing and ruffling of these hand blended fibres. Postage is by Australia post and will be calculated once I know where to send the pretty fluff.

More colour ways are on their way so visit me again soon.

 

Creme Caramel

Mmmmm, I love caramel and one of my favourite desserts is creme caramel though to be totally fair I love everything toffeeish and caramelly.

So, I’ve blended up some delicious caramel coloured Fluff on my hackles in celebration of all that is lovely and caramelly.

 

It’s fat free with no artificial sugars and light as a feather made from deliciously soft Merino weighing 110g and I’m selling it for $30 plus postage. It’s packaged in a box to prevent the squishing and tangling of the fibres that I’ve hand blended.

 

Blueberry

I’ve had a busy weekend with the hackles making lots of pretty clouds of wool.

It’s not a particularly great photograph but I just wanted to show what it is about blending on the hackles that makes me giddy with excitement. If you couldn’t guess its the play with colour, there are 3 shades of blue and 2 shades of purple in this blend.  I like to blend like this because I’m trying to create yarn that isn’t flat in colour or tone, that has depth and interest. For me it’s a more natural and aesthetically pleasing.

This colour way is called blueberry because well, erm… it’s kinda like blueberries.

3 parts Corriedale

2 parts Merino

a pinch of bamboo

a pinch of silk

It’s 368g but I could split it in half or thirds. $28 per 100g because it’s hand blended it is very light and airy so it drafts beautifully. In order to preserve it’s light fluffiness I package it in boxes.

New! Hand blended wool tops for sale

Well I’ve been busy again with the hackles. I’ve created 3 new blends which are super pretty. I’m enjoying blending so much but I really don’t have enough time to spin them all so I’ve decided to start selling some of my blends on the blog for now and if there is enough demand, maybe open an Etsy shop. For now here are some recipes for your yarn.

The first one I’ve called “strawberries in my oatmeal”. Three shades of red blended with oatmeal BFL would make a lovely tweedy red yarn.

1 part Oatmeal Bluefaced Leicester

1 part Merino

2 parts Shetland

There is 140g of this colour way and I’m selling it for $39 plus postage.

Continuing with the strawberry theme is “so strawberry jammy”. The same three shades of red as above without the oatmeal BFL for a delicious semi-solid yarn.

1 part Merino

2 parts Shetland

138g of delicious red woolliness for $38.50 plus postage.

Next up is “raspberry milkshake”. SOLD

3 parts Merino

1 part Dorset Horn

Dorset Horn is a very versatile wool according to the Fleece and Fibre Sourcebook it can be spun into an airy woollen yarn or a more compact worsted yarn. It is noted for it’s resistance to felting. So great for a shawl or a pair of socks!

I’ve blended 137g and selling it for $34.25 plus postage.

All of my hand blends would be packaged in a box to prevent them from being squashed in transit thereby retaining all the light airy yumminess. If you are interested in any of my hand blends please email me at melanie.jordan@y7mail.com with your address. Postage will be charges as per Australia Post rates. At the moment I am accepting PayPal and bank transfer only.

This is all a bit new for me so if there is something I could do to improve my service please feel free to advise me.

Cheers Melanie x

Fun with fibre blending

I had heaps of fun blending fibre yesterday with my hackles. All of the blends were with British breeds that I blended with dyed Polwarth or Merino. The house looks like a bomb has been dropped on it and there is a thick carpet of Kemp and fluff where the polished floor boards should be but hey I thoroughly enjoyed it. My hands are really sore now though. Here’s a sample of each of the blends I created.

The central Southdown and green Merino I created especially for Sharon it’s her favourite colour. The dusky pink BFL and oatmeal BFL I created especially for Sonia as it is her colour. Both of these good friends encouraged me so much at the beginning of my spinning journey and this is my thanks to them.

The beauty of hand blended roving pulled off a hackle is that the fibre drafts like a dream making spinning effortless. The obvious benefit is that you can make yarns that are completely unique you would never see these blends at your LYS. The downside is that you are left with a lot of short fibres that can’t be dizzed off but they are great for carding.

My hackles are the Majacraft double row set and you don’t necessarily need combs unless you want to blend more thoroughly. I got my hackle set and combs from the lovely Emma at Spunout. My fibre was mostly from R.E. Dickie though their email seems to be defunct. So now I mostly use World of Wool who’s customer service is excellent and if your not up to blending yourself they do have a rather cool make your own custom blends tool that I have used, minimum order for the custom blends is 500g though. Here are 2 blends that I’ve made through them so far.

BFL/English 56s/Shetland/Tussah silk

Shetland/BFL/Merino/Mohair

Of course now I just need to find storage space and clean up. Another 24 hours in the day to spin up these lovelies would be good too!

Changeable

I lesson I have learnt or learned (?) recently.

I am apt to change my mind and go through phases, I’m kinda fickle but I think in a good way. Don’t get me wrong, I can be stubborn when it suits me too. It all depends on which way the wind is blowing and what pops into my head or what new thing I just learnt/learned (?) I really do have to find out which one is right, anyone know?

Anyhoo! So I’m going through a shawl phase at the moment which is a bit like Picasso’s blue phase except nobody will ever write about it except me and I don’t think, but I could be wrong but Picasso wasn’t into shawls and wool that much. Who knows, actually when I come to think of it I think it was Picasso’s blue period which erm, we will leave that there.

So shawls! Yes, they are really handy and you have probably knit several but it recently dawned on me (being rather slow) that I need a big bad ass shawl like a huge wooly cuddle and I don’t have one yet. I’ve just come back from a dyeing day with my incredibly cool, amazing friend Jules we played with logwood, or rather she did and I watched spellbound. I’ll post about that later. Jules has knit a few huge shawls that I madly covet like a mad coveting thing. So I am about to cast on for a big woolly cuddle of a shawl. I’ve already started a stripe study shawl but that’s out of sock yarn which is a completely different animal to the thick woolly yarn I’m knitting Terra from.

So I shall be knitting two shawls and if you looked at my Ravelry queue at the moment you would see that it’s vertually all about the shawls and cowls and other accessories but ’tis just t’interweb so it’s not like it’s written in stone, thankfully!

Anyway enough rambling. Woolly porn that’s what you want to see. Only one pic of some recently blended puffs of fluff. They are both made from dyed tops from my stash that I’ve blended with Dorset Horn.

YUM! The subtly of the grey one kills me it’s so beautiful, I almost don’t want to spin it. Almost.

Well ttfn x