I've been shopping online at World of Wool

Oh gees, all these special offers and sales on at places that sell spinning fibre and such.  I've bought more fibre.  I need to find room to put all this stuff!

First we have a mixed back of 25g of each colour of Northern Lights.  They sell these as full size braids but I chose to have just the sample packs as I want to use them as ingredients on my hackle.  100% Merino wool in colours, from left to right from top to bottom: Bliss, Harmony, Tempest, Calm, Whisper, Passion, Heavenly, Typhoon, Tranquil, Blaze, Rainbow

100g of Worth Melting For, 94% Merino Wool, 6% Stellina

500g of Botany Lap Waste, a mixed bag of all sorts of stuff, nothing labelled, all mixed in together so unfortunately some of the fibres were stuck to each other and I've had to sit and clean them all off by picking off lots and lots of stray fibres etc.  Some are small amounts like 1g or 2g and then others are huge amounts like the purple merino/sari silk blend on the top row that is 71g.

December's Fibre is here - Pink

It has arrived a few days after the letter.  My worst nightmare has arrived this morning.  Thank you Mr Postman, not!

It is definitely very pink and very, very soft but it is extremely pink, I don't see this as an accent shade of pink.  The natural grey of the Peduncle Silk definitely softens the vulgarity of the pink a little though.  75% Merino, 25% Peduncle Silk.

So, Peduncle Silk, what is that?  Well it comes from the tropical Tasar Caterpillar in India and when it spins a cocoon the first thing it makes is a kind of stem, which is called a Peduncle, and the cocoon hangs from that.  It has a shorter staple and greater bulk than many other types of silk and is a gorgeous natural grey-brown colour.

I don't like this one, its just the colour of it but then I have to knit and spin for my customers who do like pink so I will probably get around to this one at some point and if I really, really can't face it I could always over-dye it with blue to get something in the purple range.

Spinning up Il de France, Demeter

A few months ago I bought some unwanted spinning fibre from a fellow spinner and I am now spinning up the first of these that I have chosen to spin.  Its the Il de France in shade Demeter that I'm going to start with first.  There were just under two full braids of this so I started work on the full braid first, splitting it down the middle as best as I could and pre-drafting before I spun as it was slightly compacted and wouldn't draft straight from the braid without a bit of work.

My dream would be if this spun up as a yarn with long colour changes that transitions from one colour to the next as smoothly as possible with as little mudding or barber poling as possible.

I spun from the same end on both singles and when it came to plying the singles it started off good but didn't last.  The second braid worked out much better and when I finished plying and compared the skeins in good light I could see that one was predominantly barber-poled with smallish sections of smooth colour and the other braid was the complete opposite.  The OCD in me told me to snip out the sections that didn't belong in each skein and swap them over.  It took me a while to do this, re-joining the yarn with Russian joins whilst also making sure the colours still flowed as correctly as I could get them to.  In total, this took me over a month to complete as there were two large braids and with all the Christmas preparations going on but its not a race, I prefer to take my time and get it right.

The finished skein of yarn above is the one that barber-poled whilst still transitioning from one colour to the next.  There is 91g/328m of double knit weight yarn. 

The second skein of yarn above is the one that came out as I wanted it to, the colours matching up and no barber-poling whilst still transitioning from one colour to the next.  There is 91g/318m of double knit weight yarn.

A side by side view of the two skeins to show the difference between them and the different results you can get, accidental or intentional, from spinning the same colour braids.

These two braids will be used together with some natural white wool to make a pretty shawl that I have been itching to make for a long time.

Decembers Fibre Club Letter

Ok, so she was already giving a few hints away about the fibre before we even had the letter.  Apparently its going to be very, very different and its a colour she loves but has not used it in the club yet.  Oh gees, my immediate thoughts sprung to bright pink as that has not been used in the club, I checked the images of the all the fibres going way, way back before I joined the club.  I am not a fan of the colour pink.

The letter reads:

Rather than looking at a specific period in history this month we’re taking a long-term over view of one of the most divisive of colours… 

The link between femininity and pink seems to be so hard wired in our brain, but the link is comparatively modern. Even as recently as 1893 an article in The New York Times stated that “you should always give pink to a boy and blue to a girl”. Even in 1918 a trade publication reconfirmed this “rule” because pink was “the more decided and stronger colour”. Blue was considered “delicate and dainty” Quite why the colours swapped is unclear, but it took until the 1940’s before pink really started to become a colour that was strongly associated with girls. Historically many men would have ended up wearing pink. Red dyes tend to fade over time, and the highly masculine red coated soldier would have often ended up wearing a pink jacket by the end of a long military campaign. Blue meanwhile was the colour associated with the Virgin Mary, that shining example of femininity. However that didn’t mean that women never wore pink. Madame due Pompadour, the mistress of King Louis XV of France loved pink. We featured the colours of the Sèvres Pottery in the club in February 2017. 

Pink wasn’t used as a colour description until the late seventeenth century, until then it refers to a type of pigment, in the same way as some pigments are described as being a lake, the most commonly known being crimson lake. Pink pigments (which weren’t necessarily pink) were made by binding an organic substance to an inorganic substance like chalk to make the colour easier to use. The plant matter was usually from the broom shrub, or buckthorn berries, and like most plants, the colour they yield is yellow, so the most common colour was in fact a Yellow Pinke called Still de Grain. Pinkes could also be green or brown as well as rose. Pink as a colour name is also somewhat unique. After all pink is just a pale version of red. English doesn’t have a specific word for pale yellow, or pale green. Quite why pink stuck around as a colour to describe the pale red is probably due to the flower Dianthus plumarius, commonly known as Pinks. 

In modern times the colour has been linked to many feminine causes, a pink ribbon has been the symbol of breast cancer awareness since 1991 (though it is worth pointing out that men can also get breast cancer). The Pussy Hat Project used bright pink hats knitted to look like cats ears as a symbol for protesters to wear in the Women’s Marches of 2017. Time Magazine featured a Pussy Hat on the front cover with the caption ”The resistance rises- How a march became a movement.” Over time pink has gone from being a yellow pigment, to a colour that was worn by young boys, to a colour representing a women's rights movement. Love it, or hate it, that’s a pretty impressive story!

Oh. My. God.  My worst nightmare.  It IS going to be pink!  She tells us it is going to be soft, next to skin soft, with 25% silk and will be fantastic for shawls and then goes on to divulge that it is Peduncle Silk.  I've not heard of that so will have to Google it later.  She also says that if you don't like pink not to worry as it is an accent shade.  I am hoping it is a subtle shade then.

I've started another of my favourite vintage shawls - LF433

I've started making another one, I love them, people looking at my shop don't seem to take a look at them though, maybe its the rubbish photos.  One day I will be able to do something about that, I'm sure I will.

Anyway, light gold, turquoise and midnight blue.  I'm having to use a different brand of vintage thread for the petals this time but they are almost identical threads, same thickness, same length, same fibre content and probably made at the same factory with just different labels added to them for the different companies that sell them.

I have made a start, I have all the centres done and started on the flowers but I have to leave this for a little while as I have a custom order coming in and loads to do before Christmas so this will be finished in the New Year.  Sorry for the rubbish photo below, my phone is not the best for taking photos.

Oh no, not another one! - Design F213 - Golden Carrot

Back in September I spun this yarn that I had dyed using plant dyed from the boiled up carrot tops from the homegrown carrots.  This will be the last shawl of this design that I make, for a while at least.

This is really sparkly and I used the same beads as last time, Toho size 6 in shade 83, Metallic Brown Iris.

My eldest daughter doing the modelling again and the shawl is certainly a one-of-a-kind.

November's Fibre is here! - Khaki

I thought this might be a bit dull and boring but I think there is enough red in with the green to make in interesting enough to keep my attention and its soft but not as luxuriously soft as Hawaii for instance.  Its 50% Shetland, 50% Merino and still has a subtle sheep smell to it and I can't help myself from sitting and sniffing it from time to time.  Seriously, its like new leather, you either love it or you hate it.

This colour is growing on me but the proof will be in the spinning I guess.

I have managed to find the video of the Veteran that I wrote about in my post containing the letter for this fibre.

Elderly British War Veteran Salutes to Memorial

Novembers Fibre Club Letter

I need to sort myself out and start spinning some of the Fibre Club packages, they are starting to accumulate and I have other fibre all around me too waiting for me to do this, that or the other with it.

The letter reads:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

An excerpt from For the Fallen by Robert Laurence Binyon (1869-1943), published in The Times newspaper on 21 September 1914.

It’s now commonly read at Memorial Services, particularly on Remembrance Day, November 11th when the UK remembers all those who have lost their life in conflict.

It’s estimated that around 10 million military personal lost their lives during World War One, along with 8 million civilians. The loss of life is tragically huge on both sides. It is hard to comprehend just how many people died. My Great-Great Uncle Albert Giles was one of them. He lies in a military graveyard in Northern France.

Every November 11th, at 11am we hold a 2 minute silence to remember the fallen. For me this has always meant the fallen on both sides of the war and every war since. Millions of men on both sides died, they all deserve to be remembered.

During World War One all army uniforms were dull khaki coloured. The bright red dress uniforms used by the British Army during the Victorian era had finally been replaced by the official Service Dress in 1902. Camouflage had become more important than tradition, though the change in uniform colour wasn’t popular initially. The United States Army first adopted khaki during the Spanish-American war of 1898, troops complained about the colour until the 1950s when it was replaced with a cooler grey-green which is still in use today.

The word is yet another example of the English language borrowing words, khaki is Urdu for dusty. It was first used by Sir Harry Lumsden to clothe a Corps of Guides in Peshawar. He wanted his men to blend in to the landscape so bought up metres of cloth in the local market, and ordered it be rubbed with mud from the local river. As time went on mud was replaced with any dye stuff that could be obtained; coffee, tea, and curry powders. The colour spread through the Indian Army, and to the rest of the British Army, and eventually to the armies of other nations. By 1898 when the colour was used for American Army uniforms the colour would have been dyed using synthetic aniline dyes, probably chrome based.


This sounds like it could be quite a plain dull colour again but she often adds a flash of another colour in with them too so it might not be quite as you would expect and from the spoilers thread she has added in a streak of red to echo the poppies that grow on the battlefields of WWI.  She has also revealed that there is a lot of Shetland Wool in this months fibre.  Sounds very intriguing.

I don't know what it is this year, probably to do with my age, but I keep getting very tearful when I see the Veterans on parade and saluting the memorials.  There was a UK video on Facebook of a very old Veteran Paratrooper in a wheelchair who could barely stand but he wanted to salute the memorial and there were two younger Veteran Paratroopers, maybe in their 40's, who were also there so they helped him up and flanked him so that if he started to fall they were on either side of him to catch him.  When the old man saluted it was the look of pride on his face that just got me right in the heart strings and even writing this now, just thinking of that video has tears running down my face.  I'm a hopeless mess!

12 Days of Christmas 2018

As soon as my regular fibre supplier announced her idea that she had for a special Christmas parcel bundle of fluff I was all ears.  Her idea was for one main braid of fibre that we all open on Christmas Day and then 11 small packets of fibre to be opened one a day for the following 11 days and all this would be parcelled up in a hand-printed fair-trade cotton bag that she designed and printed herself.

She came up with 3 options originally and every time she released a new batch they sold out in minutes so due to high demand she came up with a 4th option using fibre she had in stock to replace one of the colourways that sold out after 2 batches.

These are the inspiration photos that she released, from left to right top row: Northern Lights, Ski Lodge, Christmas Cake and the large photo is Pine Forest.  Northern Lights was put together and released for the last batch.

Some of the fibre bases changed as they sold out and was replaced with the same colour on a different base, such was their popularity.  I decided to go for Pine Forest, which I managed to get from the third batch because I either missed the release time or I just wasn't fast enough and it already sold out before I could checkout.  They literally sold out that fast.  It was crazy!

These are the descriptions that she wrote for each colourway.  The main braid is 100g of luxury hand dyed fibre and then we have eleven 20g parcels of Tussah Silk that have numbers on them so we all open them on the correct days.  A different colour main brand and different colour range of Tussah Silk for each colourway.

Christmas Cake
Warm rich tones, think Spices, Candied Peel, Dried Peel, Dried Fruit. (Spoiler: pick this one if you're not a fan of blue, this really is the contents of your spice rack, the citrus fruit bowl, raisins, sultanas, with a small amount of green.)
Batch 1: 60% 18.5 micron Merino, 20% Yak, 20% Tussah Silk
Batch 2: 60% 18.5 micron Merino, 20% Yak, 20% Tussah Silk
Batch 3: 100% BFL

Pine Forest
An early morning walk in a pine forest, snow on the ground, frost sparkling on branches, dark shadows. (Spoiler: there is green... but not in huge quantities.  It's focusing on the interesting things light does as it filters through branches.  This one is filled with cool colours and interesting neutrals).
Batch 1: 60% 18.5 micron Merino, 20% Yak, 20% Tussah Silk
Batch 2: 60% 18.5 micron Merino, 20% Yak, 20% Tussah Silk
Batch 3: 50% Corriedale, 25% Yak, 25% Rose Rayon.  This is the one I managed to get.

Ski Lodge
A mug of hot chocolate, classic skiing knitwear, a midnight view of a snowy mountain. (Spoiler: this one has a real mixture of colours.  Very few of what I describe as "warm" tones, and the ones that are included aren't bright and in your face.  They're designed to set off the other colours.) 
Batch 1: 60% 18.5 micron Merino, 20% Yak, 20% Tussah Silk
Batch 2: 50% Corriedale, 25% Yak, 25% Rose Rayon.
Batch 3: None produced - replaced with Northern Lights colourway

Northern Lights
Bright colours dancing across a dark sky
Batch 3: Superfine Shetland

So, my parcel arrived this morning and I couldn't wait to take photos and a little peep inside, knowing that they were all in little sealed paper bags so that I couldn't really peep at what was in store.  I found a little round cardboard thing inside the bag with a pretty design on it, turns out to be a coaster but I've not taken a photo of it. Really excited for Christmas now to see what I've got.

Merino Triad Pack

In addition to buying myself the 12 Days of Christmas pack, I've also bought myself a large pack of 100% merino braids.  Three braids, slightly different from one another but all will work well together as its two different colour braids with the third having colours from each of the other two to bridge-the-gap so to speak so that you can make a gradient, a fade or a variegated yarn.  Really nice and soft.

Not another shawl of the same design, yup! - Design F213 Mink

I've enjoyed spinning but I'm happy to be back knitting again, another shallow triangular shawl of the same pattern as last time but this time I am using some of my own handspun that I spun a couple of years ago.

Its really nice and soft , its a blend of Corriedale Wool and Tussah Silk.  I chose to use some brown beads that I've used before, Toho size 6 in shade 83, Metallic Brown Iris.

I love the dramatic effect of blocking, how a scrumpled up piece of knitting becomes the most beautiful smooth and drapey shawl.

My daughter is modelling for me again and as always the shawl will be available in the shop until someone buys it.

Spinning up South Africa

I thought I would spin up the fibre that arrived in July from the monthly fibre club that I'm in.  This is South Africa and its 62.5% Bluefaced Leicester Wool, 37.5% Bamboo and its gorgeous.  The colours are incredibly difficult to photograph but I've done my best.  This spun up as sport weight and its come out at 100g/283m.

It reminds me of those rainbows you get in the road after its been raining and a car has leaked a bit of oil and it forms a dark yet vibrant colourful splodge.

Peppermint Sparkles

Back in September I had a play with my new blending hackle and I made this beautiful fibre and I have now had chance to sit and spin it.  I am in love.  This one is very delicately coloured and so sparkly.

The final fibre count is 89% Merino Wool, 5% Angelina, 3% BFL, 1.5% Shetland Wool, 1.5% Soy Bean Silk.  This is sport weight and 109g/320m.  I am very happy with how this turned out.

Robots in the Freezer - Design F213

Following on from the success of my last shawl I decided to make another one using another sock yarn, again Superwash Sock 80/20 from Spun Right Round, this time in shade "Robots in the Freezer" and its 80% Superwash Merino, 20% Nylon.

I couldn't wait to wind this yarn to see how colourful it was and if there were any particularly large splodges of colour.  I was very happy to discover that this skein was one of the paler ones that I have seen in this colourway.  Choosing the beads was quite easy this time and I settled on Toho size 6 in shade 181 Rainbow Crystal Tanzanite, which are dark blue with a rainbow shine to the surface of the glass.

These knit up quite quickly, about 4 or 5 days, depending on how many hours you can spend knitting but I knit whilst the kids are in school so I do have limited hours as I don't knit once they are home.

Hopefully my photos are showing off the colour of the beads.

My eldest daughter is modelling for me again.

Available to purchase from my Etsy store until someone snaps it up as its another one-of-a-kind.

October's Fibre has arrived - Iron Age

I was excited to receive this one, its gorgeous whilst being unusual.  Really soft with a slight sheep smell.  I do miss the sheep smell that you get with raw natural fleece straight from the animal and I've not bought any for a while, other than the Llanwenog.  After reading the letter with the hints I was right about it having some greeny-blue!

The fibre content is 58.5% Merino, 25% BFL, 12.5% Mulberry Silk and 4% Stellina and its called "Bronze".

I love this one and it looked familiar so I got out my bag of samples from the recently purchased goody bag and it matches perfectly with 4 small samples that weigh 24g so I now have 124g to spin, bonus!

Octobers Fibre Club Letter

Its that time of the month again when the e-mail lands in my inbox with the details of the next theme for the Fibre Club.  Sometimes it feels like the e-mail is long awaited and other times I am just so busy that its a nice surprise that its here already.

The letter reads:

The Bronze Age represents a period of history characterised by the use of bronze. Prior to this tools were either stone, or made from pure Copper. Bronze is harder and much more durable so is much more efficient for making tools. 

The use of bronze requires a technological innovation and a series of production techniques. Bronze took the copper smelting and processing techniques and refined them by adding tin. This combination of metals is what makes the bronze alloy. Tin is relatively rare and only found in a small number of sites that were accessible to ancient miners. Therefore extensive trading networks became established with tin being transported vast distances around Europe. 

In terms of dates, the Bronze Age, defined as the period when Bronze is used as the primary metal, varies depending on geographical location. The beginning of the Bronze Age began in around 3300BC in the hotbed of civilisation in ancient Mesopotamia (modern day Turkey, Syria and Iraq). From there the technology spread across the rest of Europe but didn’t arrive in Asia and China until around 2000BC. 

Bronze was used for a huge number of items, not just tools and weapons. The Bronze Age craftsman was highly skilled and made sculptures, jewellery, and any number of decorative items. 

The Bronze Age was eventually replaced by the Iron Age. This isn’t the point at which iron is being processed, but rather the point at which steel is being manufactured, because iron is not a superior material then bronze for many purposes. One of the reasons why steel production had to develop was due to the population disruption in the Mediterranean area in 1200-1100 BC. Tin became harder to obtain. Bronze production never stopped however, because for many things it is a better material. It carried on being used for cannon production right up until the modern period. 

For your fibre this month I’ve chosen to go for the colour of the ancient objects, rather than the bright yellow colours of newly cast objects.

Oooh, this one sounds interesting and I've Googled "ancient bronze objects" and looked at images so I'm thinking it may have some kind of greeny-blue in it.  Last months was nice but a bit dull and plain, but that may look completely different once spun up as there are a few colours in it.  This months spoiler she says she has gone for a "neutral" and that there is a high percentage of high drape and long stapled fibres in this months along with silk.  I can't wait for this one to arrive.

Living in a Bubble - Design F213

Every now and again I see people selling off yarn and I try my best to resist as I have so much already but on the rare occasion I give in, I can't help it, it calls to me.  So I've recently bought an amount of yarn that is designated as "sock yarn".  It is perfect for making socks as it contains an amount of nylon to make it more hard wearing but the beauty of it is is that you don't have to make socks with it, you can make other things with it.  I thought I would make some smallish shawls, the kind that you can wear as a scarf, a large neckerchief kind of thing.

I have made this design before way back in 2013.

The yarn is Superwash Sock 80/20 by Spun Right Round and is 80% Merino Wool, 20% Nylon.

Its a top down shawl, so the beaded edge is worked last.  I was thinking about using some dark blue beads but in the end I settled on some Toho size 6 beads in shade 507 Higher Metallic Iris Green, which aren't actually green but more of a rainbow bead with an overall green tone.  They are difficult to describe but as you can see from the photos, the multi-colours of the beads really work with the multi-colours in the yarn, which isn't as blue as it looks in some of the photos that were taken with my phone.

The photos below are more true to colour, these were taken with my actual camera, not with my phone, which tends to distort the colours somewhat.  I've decided that if I make any more of these, which I am bound to do, then I will add an extra bead to the centre point as it only calls for 4 in the pattern and I think it would look better if it had 5 so that it is closer in looks to those either side of it.

My eldest daughter agreed to model the shawl for me, she's just turned 15 and becoming a young woman and is the same height as me now.

As ever, you will find this in my Etsy store until someone buys it and then it will be gone as it is one-of-a-kind.

Pink Fizzy Sparkles

Last month I had a play with my new blending hackle and one of the fibres I blended was some pink and white plant based fibres.  I wasn't happy with the result but is that because of the disappointment with the fibres or more to do with my dislike of the colour pink.  Hmmmm, maybe both.

I have finally spun up the fibre that I made, not happy with this either but its done now.

I've called it Pink Fizzy Sparkles, its very heavy and dense, definitely not something I would do again.  I worked out the final fibre content, based on what I put in to begin with and its 45% Egyptian Cotton, 22% Bamboo, 22% Soy Bean Silk, 7% Linen, 4% Angelina.  Its a sport weight at 90g/182m.

Individual baubles - all done

Way back in early 2012 I was playing with making fine crochet lace covers for Christmas baubles and decorating them with ribbon roses to create an olde worlde / Victorian style Christmas decoration.  I kept it all quiet and hush hush because at the time I had a couple of other makers that seemed to be copying everything that I did and undercutting my prices so much that they clearly weren't making any profit on them whatsoever and I didn't want them copying this idea.

I put this idea to the side for a few years and all of a sudden fast forward 5 and a half years and I have been making more of these baubles on and off over the past year but again keeping it all quiet.

I have made three different styles of baubles.  One is a bauble that is completely covered in fine crochet lace of different designs, usually made in two halves and joined to each other around the middle and then decorated with ribbon roses and the second is a crochet lace cover that only covers part of the bauble, all of the designs are the same but in all sorts of colours and decorated with ribbon roses and beads hanging off the points of the crochet lace. The third type was very simple, using Twilleys Goldfingering like I did for the boxes of 6 baubles, and I made just two of them to finish up the baubles.

Trying to enclose a bauble in crochet lace is not easy, trying to keep the bauble inside the partially joined pieces whilst crocheting the pieces together is tricky, not to mention trying to crochet around a solid object without the free space that you would normally have to work in is awkward too.  There was no need to glue the cover to the bauble on these designs as the crochet cover is stretched over the bauble and stitched to itself.  The covers with the hanging beads were easy to create but then I had to attach the beads.  At first I was using special beading wire, which is actually like a thick nylon thread but this was problematical for me and quite stiff and then I changed to dental floss, which gave the same strength but was more flexible.  Don't worry, it was a brand new one that I bought from the Chemists specifically for the purpose and no teeth or dentists were hurt in the making of them.  These half-covers are actually glued to the bauble to keep them in place.

September's Fibre has arrived - Penicillin

Considering this months fibre colour is based on Penicillin as per the letter, it doesn't look mouldy at all.  I quite like it and its a new to me fibre by way of the Llama content.  I've never spun Llama.  I have spun Alpaca, which is often confused with a Llama but they are very different in temperament and fleece, so this is going to be interesting.  Its 75% Corriedale, 25% Llama and it is soft and lovely. She is using some new packaging, that is eco-friendly and whilst it is not recommended to be put in the household recycling bin with other recyclable plastics it is recommended that it goes either with other household waste in your regular bins or to put them in the compost and let nature do its thing.  As always it has come unbraided so I have braided it myself as I think that shows the colour off much better and its better for storage in my opinion.

The colour is hard to capture but it is a greeny-grey with small amounts of other colours.  This one will take a little bit of time to grow on me, I think.  It will probably spin and knit up quite plain.

Spinning the Golden Carrot

I've sat and spun up something special.  This is the original post about how I made the dye and what fibre I dyed.  I added more to it and blended it all together in this post.  Now I have gotten around to spinning it and I am thrilled with the results.

I have called it Golden Carrot and its a fingering weight yarn 92g/316m and is 49% Merino, 28% Alpaca, 7% Mulberry Silk, 6% Angelina, 5% BFL, 5% Sari Silk.  Well, you certainly can't buy that in the shops!

I've had some goodies arrive

Whilst I was working in the front garden today the postman bought me a nice parcel. One item is something that once spun will make a fabulous shawl and the other is so that I have small amounts of different fibre in different colours to use with my blending hackle to create my own interesting fibre blends for spinning.

This is another Ingredients Box from my regular fibre supplier and this colourway is called Leaf Kicker, very autumnal. The pack contains: 20g each of three shades of Tussah Silk, 10g each of two shades of Silk Noil, 10g each of two shades of Hemp, 10g each of two shades of Firestar (Trilobal Nylon) and 1g each of two shades of Angelina (in the little bags)

This is a gradient pack in shade Sea Shell and its 50% Merino wool, 25% Shetland wool, 25% Seacell.   There are 5 main shades in a gradient pack with smaller amounts of transition shades to produce a gradual shift in colour and not stripes.  All the colourways are limited edition and so quite unique.

Septembers Fibre Club Letter

Its been very manic here, trying to make sure my youngest has all her uniform for secondary school, it has to be bought from a specialist supplier and I finally got the last specialist piece 3 days before she started her new school.  Anyway, the next Fibre Club letter has arrived, yay.

The letter reads:

On the 28th of September 1928 Sir Alexander Fleming made an observation that changed the face of modern medicine. The Scot came back from a summer holiday and discovered that some of the bacteria he had been studying had been contaminated with mould growth. And here’s the crucial part, instead of just cleaning out the dishes, he made an observation, the bacteria he had been studying had been killed off by the mould. He recognised that discovery, wrote a scientific paper about his findings, and identified that if the mould growth could be industrialised it may be possible to use it to treat bacterial diseases. However, he neither had the resources or the knowledge to continue the development of the process to go from Penicillium mould to what we now call antibiotics. 

It took another 10 years for the right person to come across Fleming’s scientific paper. Dr Florey was the director of the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology at Oxford University. He read the paper, and set one of the laboratory employees to work. Dr Ernst Chain was a Jewish German immigrant, and he developed a method of extracting the crucial compounds from Penicillium mould. The science was tested on a group of mice, who were infected with Streptococcus bacteria. Those that were injected with the Penicillin survived. At this point the science was sound, but a big problem still existed before Penicillin as a treatment became viable. It took 2000 litres of mould solution to treat a single case of sepsis in a human. Dr Norman Heatley was another member of the lab who worked on developing processes to produce the mould in large quantities. The drug was first put to the test in September 1940, but the lab couldn’t produce enough of the Penicillin to complete the course of treatment, the patient started to get better, but then the drug supply ran out, and he unfortunately died. 

In the summer of 1941 the USA entered World War II and Florey and Heatley flew to America, together with American scientists they worked on developing methods to mass produce the drug. One of the key breakthroughs was when a laboratory assistant, Mary Hunt, bought a different mould species in to the lab for testing. This species of Penicillium yielded 200 times the amount of Penicillin as the original mould discovered by Fleming. By the end of the war American pharmaceutical companies were producing 650 billion units of Penicillin a month, the death rate from bacterial pneumonia in World War I was 18 percent, in World War II the use of antibiotics meant it fell to less than 1 percent. 

Fleming actually had very little to do with the development of Penicillin as a drug, but he was still awarded the Nobel prize in 1945, along with Florey and Chain. In his acceptance speech Fleming warned that overuse of Penicillin could well lead to bacterial resistance. So next time you let a piece of bread go mouldy, look down at that patch of blue-green fuzz, and say thank you! Mouldy bread poultices had been used as treatment for wounds since ancient times, but taking a pill is definitely more convenient! 

Hmmm, now thinking what colour to expect, possibly mossy greens and blues through to grey but in our house food gets eaten long before it has chance to go mouldy.

From the chat threads for this group she has revealed that its going to be a bit more fluffy than last months fibre, hmmmm.

I've taken the front garden to task

I've gotten thoroughly fed up of the mess that the front garden has gotten into in recent times, a lot of this is due to the fact that I fell out of love with the house and felt vulnerable and threatened in my own garden due to the horrible neighbours living next door.  I know that I have mentioned her and her kids before now, well, they are still here, they haven't moved out, more's the pity.

Something had to give.  It either gets left in a mess and I put up with it or I muster up the physical and mental strength to tackle it and the neighbour.  I decided that I would tackle the garden and her if need be.  I had not got many plants left due to things they were doing to them, lack of care from me, the hot summer we've had and being choked out by what I thought was a creeping Sedum that turned out to be a similar looking weed.

I took advantage of the plants being thirsty to saturate the creeper in weed killer a couple of times over the school summer holidays to try and kill off the roots too, drink it up buddy!  Inspired by our recent visit to the Isle of Wight and seeing all the lovely plants at Godshill Model Village I had already planned the garden out in my head and set about ordering all the plants in, which were due for delivery Mid-September, which gave me a few weeks to get it into a condition where it can be replanted up.

The weed was pretty much killed off on the surface so I raked off the dead foliage, which allowed me to see what plants were actually left and I have to say, not many!  Before digging the garden over and getting any roots out I painted the fence blue and was entertained by some of the neighbours facial expressions as I did so.  I just carried on painting chuckling to myself.

The first photo shows the overgrown garden, the other photos show the garden raked off and the fence painted.  As always, our dog had to get in on the photos.

A few plants survived and some of these were moved to different positions whilst I can, such as all the lavender is now planted either side of the path by the door, the poppy has been moved forward, away from the fence, to allow for a larger shrub to be planted behind it so we can still see it once everything is grown.

These are images of the additional plants that have been planted in the garden.  A few shrubs, a few smaller plants and lots and lots of bulbs in a range of colours and styles.

I will have to take photos next year of it all in colour as it should look brilliants against the blue fence.

I've bought some Black Alpaca

I had the opportunity to buy some beautiful black alpaca, a little late in the year, but seeing as I've just got my blending hackle I jumped at the chance as I may need some black to make interesting yarns.

I bought a 1Kg bag from Aston Alpacas and after washing all the dust and dirt out, Alpacas love a roll in the dirt, and removing a few bits of slightly coarse fibres I am left with 823g.  It will be beautiful once it has been combed to get the bits of grass etc out of it.