April's Club Fibre is here!

Alrighty then, so this months fibre has arrived and I have to say that I don't like it.  I had got this idea in my head about how it might look and its nothing at all like I envisioned.  My dislike for it has nothing to do with me being disappointed with the fact that its not like I hoped or envisioned but purely to do with the fact that its just too bright and colourful for me and I know that the colours will muddy and make for a very "barf" colour if I spun it as it is.  My plan will be to split it into small chunks and spin it with some black or dark grey fibre so it will be colourful, black, colourful, black all the way along one ply and just black for the second ply.  Not sure what breed yet, but definitely a natural black or dark grey wool, possibly Zwartbles but most likely to be Jacobs.

The fibre is 55% Merino,  30% Zwartbles, 15% Sari Silk

Shortly following the delivery of this fibre and discussion within the fibre club group I had yet another disagreement and fall out with the woman who runs it and I got put "on the naughty step" for having an opinion about fibre that I have paid for. 

I've been having fibre from this club for 2 years now, as well as buying directly from her online shop, and this is certainly not the first time that I have had a disagreement with this woman over something but it certainly will be the last as I have now had enough of the attitude and have initially put my subscription on a two month holiday as the payment for my next month has already gone out of the bank and if I tell her now that I want to cancel she is likely to take the huff and either not send the next fibre and then give me grief about getting a refund or she will block me so that I can't get the spinning hints for the next months fibre.  Once I have the next fibre and the hints I will then cancel the club subscription properly. 

The quality of her fibre is brilliant and I will miss it, but seriously, I really can't be doing with the self-righteous, only my view and opinion matters attitude any more.  Its a funny way to speak to customers and there are plenty more worthy fibre sellers who would be welcome and appreciative of my custom.

April's Fibre Club Letter

April's Fibre club letter has arrived and I have an idea of what I think the fibre will be like, especially given that it has an amount of Zwartbles wool in it, which is naturally black and such a dark black that it is pointless trying to dye it.  I hope that I am right.  We will wait and see.

The letter reads:

April 13th marks the 450th anniversary of the birth of Guy Fawkes, the most famous of the Gunpowder plotters. The plot was organised by a group of English Catholics who wished to assassinate James I in order to put a Catholic on the English throne. James I was already the reigning Scottish King when he inherited the English throne. He was the son of Mary Queen of Scots, whose Grandmother was Margaret Tudor, a sister of Henry VIII. On the death of Elizabeth I he was her closest male relative, and more importantly was a Protestant. He was not popular with many English Catholics, and they wished to put his daughter Elizabeth Stuart on the throne. Aged just 10 she would have been little more than a puppet Queen, allowing Catholic nobility to make all the decisions about the ruling of the kingdom. Eventually Elizabeth’s grandson inherited the throne on the death of Queen Anne in 1714. 

James was more open to religious freedom than Elizabeth I, his wife was Catholic and he appointed “known” Catholics such as the Earl of Northumberland, Thomas Percy, to important government posts. This led to many Catholics being more open about their religion, which in turn led to religious friction with extreme Protestant groups like the Puritans. James was stuck between the 2 groups, and following the discovery of 2 Catholic plots to depose him reintroduced strict laws against Catholicism. Some Catholics returned to living their double lives, but others decided to take action. Over the course of 1604 and 1605 a group of men gathered together and concocted a plan to blow up the King, and many of the Protestant nobility during the state opening of Parliament on November 5th 1605. 

The lead plotter was not the more well known, Guy Fawkes. Robert Catesby had already made sacrifices for his faith. His father had been arrested for sheltering a priest, and he had left university without completing his studies as he refused to swear the Protestant Oath of Supremacy. He put together a group of friends who all wished to take action, and they were joined by Guy Fawkes. He was an English Catholic who had fought for Catholic Spain against the Protestant Dutch Republic. The group later grew from 5 to 10, with most of the subsequent plotters being relatives of the original 5 by blood or marriage. Many of the men were known to Robert Cecil, “spymaster” of the British crown, but the plot would have remained undiscovered were it not for William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle (and secret Catholic) showing Cecil an anonymous letter warning him to stay away from the opening of Parliament. That clue was enough to lead to a search of the cellars under Westminster. They found a large amount of firewood in one cellar, and in the other Guy Fawkes and some barrels of gunpowder. The remains of the plotters had already fled London, and the plan had been for Fawkes to light the fuse and to flee the city by boat to reach the safety of continental Europe. Meanwhile the other plotters were to lead an uprising in the Midlands to seize power. Eventually all the plotters were arrested, and either died in a fight whilst resisting arrest, or were captured and executed. The failed plot caused many further hardships for British Catholics, leading them to being scapegoats for events such as the Great Fire of London. Placating the Puritans also had limited success, in turn many ended up fleeing Britain for America, to escape religious persecution. 

The plot itself was uncovered on November 5th, and by Parliament decree became a day for celebration. In London bonfires were lit, and by the 1650’s they were accompanied by fireworks. To this day 5th November is know as Bonfire Night, or Guy Fawkes Night. Effigies known as “guys” are burnt on the bonfire.

This one, I imagine, could contain a large amount of black with the addition of splashes of bright colours and if it does then it could be reminiscent of this yarn, the last one in the post, that I made several years ago

Spinning up Emerald City

My next fibre to spin up is from May of 2019 called "Emerald City".  I'm working through them in order so as to catch up and spin the oldest fibre first as it does tend to clump together a bit and get harder to spin the longer it is sat there doing nothing.

I wasn't sure about this one when it arrived and now that I have spun it I know that when I knit it up it will need to be worked with something else, a lighter colour, to break it up as I think making a shawl out of this on its own would be very dark and unappealing.  I spun this one up to Fingering weight and I got 368m from it.  The fibre content is 50% Merino, 25% BFL, 12.5% Mulberry Silk, 12.5% Bamboo Rayon.