TdF Prize

I don't think there's any fibre preparation I enjoy more than making up colourful batts for spinning.  I'm not very good with colours and the colour wheel is a total mystery to me.  I normally just pull out colours I like, add in some that I think will "bounce" off the others, and hope for the best!  I never have a clue what the batts will turn out like with the colours I've chosen, and it's maybe this element of surprise that I like so much.  So far I've never been disappointed with the end result and I've never made batts I don't like.  It must be instinctive!

Anyway, when our TdF team were asking for prize donations, drum-carded batts seemed the obvious choice for me. I sorted through my fibre stash and came up with the combination above : 80g merino in various shades, 40g black alpaca, 25g charcoal bamboo, 20g mauve alpaca, 20g banana fibre, 10g silk, 5g Gotland curls.  200g total.

As usual, I was pretty pleased with these.

Also as usual, I wanted to spin them as soon as they were finished . . .

. . . and I can't, because they're not for me!  I think I'm going to have great difficulty in keeping my hands off these until the end of the 2nd week of the Tour when my prize is awarded.

TdF Days 8 and 9

I finally finished spinning the white Falkland and then plied it.

The two skeins are now soaking in water ready for tomorrow's (Monday) dyeing session.

Then I started carding up batts with a selection of naturally dyed fleece.

These are the ones I chose - there are two types of fleece here, British Friesland and Merino.  The dyes I used were nettles, lichen, madder and apricot bark, and lastly I added some banana fibre.

I then split the batt lengthwise into the different colours, halved them, and spun them in turn.
The finished yarn should make stripes when it's knit.

Not a very good photograph - it had gone dark by this time.  I prefer to photograph things in natural light, the colours don't show up very well here.

Wildberry Surprise

I know, it sounds like a recipe doesn't it?  Well I suppose in a way it was.

Ingredients

100g merino top
  50g baby alpaca fleece
A handful of white banana fibre
Blue, pink and violet dyes

Method

First you take the 100g of merino and dye it blue.

(This dye was labelled "navy blue", but I think I prefer this colour)

Then you dump the washed and wetted-out baby alpaca in a dyepot and randomly pour on various shades of blue, pink and violet dyes.

When dry, split the fleece more or less into the different shades

Then blend with half of the blue on a drum carder, adding a sprinkling of banana fibre here and there.

You will then have five or six luscious, pettable batts of mixed fibres and colour.

Time to get spinning.  I spun one bobbin of plain blue, and one bobbin of the mixed batts.

And plied them together to make this :-

Wildberry Surprise (because the way the colours blended in the final skein were not what I'd planned!) : 150g, 423 yards.  This was finally sent to my sister a week ago, and received yesterday.  Only a month late for her birthday!

Destined to become a shawl/shawlette.

Note to Liz : I WANT PHOTOS WHEN IT'S FINISHED!!!