Zebra Capelet - Design SB168

I found an interesting pattern to try out with some Colinette Shimmer Five in shade Zebra, which is a Super Bulky single strand yarn that is 50% Wool and 50% Viscose.

I made this in its entirety on 28th August 2012.

Angelina Fibre

I just spun a Rainbow Yarn using some Angelina to make it sparkly.

So, what is Angelina Fibre?

Well, its interesting to discover that these are iridescent soft shimmering ultra fine strands of Polyester that create an intense luminescent effect where light is reflected and refracted and they come in a wide range of colours and finishes and can be used to create all kinds of things including being used in spinning to add a bit of sparkle.  There are two types; heat bond/hot fix and non-heat bond type.  The heat bind kind can be arranged as you want on a piece of baking parchment, with different colours if you want, in patterns or randomly and you can even add in things like feathers or sequins.  Place another piece of baking parchment over the top and iron gently on a low to medium heat to bond the strands together.  Once cooled you can remove from the parchment and you have yourself an interesting piece or art or fabric for textile art, collage.

I have a few different colours, even the 4 white ones are different to each other - one sparkles with violet, another with gold etc.  The generally come in 5g or 7g bags and it goes a very very long way!

100% Merino, but then I added something

This is the second of three little packs of fibre brought from an online shop called The Rainbow Room in her closing down sale.  This rainbow coloured pack contained 20 different colours of Merino Wool.  

I wanted to spin another rainbow but I had an idea, let's make it a sparkly rainbow as I had just bought some Angelina fibre in different colours.  I matched the different colour Angelina fibre as closely as I could to the Merino fibre and just added in the Angelina as I drafted and spun the Merino. 

I kept it as a single because it looked so lovely but when I took it off my niddy-noddy it resembled rainbow spaghetti.  I had overspun it.  I corrected this by running it quickly back through my wheel in the opposite direction to take out some of the overtwist, don't want to remove too much as then it will fall apart, but just enough to straighten it out.  See the difference between the bottom two photos?  That's what I'm talking about!

I managed to get 286m from 128g and its about a light fingering weight yarn and its really soft, squishy and sparkly.

Again, choosing the right project for this was a bit of a task but I settled on making a cowl.

Handpainted combed top

I've been shopping again for more pre-prepared spinning fibre.  I love the vibrant colours in this handpainted combed top, called "Joy" and it is 70% BFL (Bluefaced Leicester), 30% SeaCell. SeaCell is a cellulose based fibre containing seaweed and is breathable, soft and non-allergenic.

I split the top into two, down the middle lengthways, and spun two singles, each starting from opposite ends so that one started with pink and the other started with lilac.  By doing this it means that I will get different colours coming together when I ply.

I love the effect that I got from this, reminds me of the colours of the sweets in the jars on the shelves of The Candy Box, a shop from my childhood, especially the jar containing lots of layers, all different colours, of the rainbow coloured sugar crystals called Kali.

I needed to make something simple, but interesting, to show off the colours of the yarn and so I created this crocheted ripple effect cowl.