Or rather, who's on the bobbins at the moment. I'm currently spinning some of Jorrocks' first fleece and must admit I approached it with a little bit of trepidation. Wouldn't you? This is what he normally looks like :-
But actually, his fleece was surprisingly low in vegetable matter. Jorrocks is now 18 months old so has only had one shearing so far. I expected to have a lot of work with this fleece - picking out grass and seeds, carding etc., but I'm spinning straight from the bin liner it's stored in. Just grab a handful and spin. Brilliant. These photos don't really do him justice as far as showing softness is concerned, but they do show the different colours.
He has quite a range of shades in there, but is classed as a rose grey.
The yarn is turning out really soft and I'm looking forward to taking it off the bobbin - I'll probably Navajo ply it so I can use every scrap.
The other projects to show you are made from some hand-spun wool I won in this year's Tour de Fleece on Ravelry. This was a mix of black alpaca/Gotland/Finn sheep which came from Australia - spun by Sharon (Shazzapug on Ravelry). She also sent a skein of black alpaca/Icelandic, which is rather dense, but very soft.
Not long after I received it, I started knitting a shawl, the Lonely Tree Shawl. It probably took a few weeks to knit, but then it sat in the bag for quite a while because it turned out a bit smaller than I'd anticipated and I planned to pull back the border and knit another pattern repeat. Needless to say, it just sat in the bag, neglected, and the extra pattern never got done. In the end, just before Christmas, I washed and blocked it and, hey presto, it stretched out to a size I was happy with.
I still had some of the yarn left, so made a hat for Eric for Christmas.
Here it is in progress, and I was really pleased with how it turned out. We call it his "rasta hat", but really it's an Anemone Hat. Here's the grumpy old man wearing it:-
He doesn't look too happy with his new hat, does he? But actually, he really likes it - just keeps saying how heavy it is. I think that's probably the alpaca/Icelandic wool, which is what I did the "tentacles" with. It's also rather warm, but perfect for outside in the winter : he's just got to learn to take it off in the house!!
But actually, his fleece was surprisingly low in vegetable matter. Jorrocks is now 18 months old so has only had one shearing so far. I expected to have a lot of work with this fleece - picking out grass and seeds, carding etc., but I'm spinning straight from the bin liner it's stored in. Just grab a handful and spin. Brilliant. These photos don't really do him justice as far as showing softness is concerned, but they do show the different colours.
He has quite a range of shades in there, but is classed as a rose grey.
The yarn is turning out really soft and I'm looking forward to taking it off the bobbin - I'll probably Navajo ply it so I can use every scrap.
The other projects to show you are made from some hand-spun wool I won in this year's Tour de Fleece on Ravelry. This was a mix of black alpaca/Gotland/Finn sheep which came from Australia - spun by Sharon (Shazzapug on Ravelry). She also sent a skein of black alpaca/Icelandic, which is rather dense, but very soft.
Not long after I received it, I started knitting a shawl, the Lonely Tree Shawl. It probably took a few weeks to knit, but then it sat in the bag for quite a while because it turned out a bit smaller than I'd anticipated and I planned to pull back the border and knit another pattern repeat. Needless to say, it just sat in the bag, neglected, and the extra pattern never got done. In the end, just before Christmas, I washed and blocked it and, hey presto, it stretched out to a size I was happy with.
I still had some of the yarn left, so made a hat for Eric for Christmas.
Here it is in progress, and I was really pleased with how it turned out. We call it his "rasta hat", but really it's an Anemone Hat. Here's the grumpy old man wearing it:-
He doesn't look too happy with his new hat, does he? But actually, he really likes it - just keeps saying how heavy it is. I think that's probably the alpaca/Icelandic wool, which is what I did the "tentacles" with. It's also rather warm, but perfect for outside in the winter : he's just got to learn to take it off in the house!!
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