She sells sea shells...

I bought this fibre direct from my previous supplier that I no longer use and I think it may have been some kind of stock clearance or something because I bought this in August 2018 but this fibre was from February 2015.  

Its a larger amount of fibre than usual and the description from the website is "Gradient Packs are a clever way of creating a subtle gradient skein of yarn.  Careful design means you can just sit down and spin and get a great result. 140g of fibre designed to give you seamless colour transitions.  I take some shades of dyed wool, combine them with natural colours of wool and other non-wool fibres.  There are 5 main shades in each gradient, but in addition there are smaller amounts of transition colours.  This means that you get gradual shifts in colour, rather than broad stripes.  The colourways are all limited edition, so if you see a colour you like it's best to get it while you can.  The good news however, is that I keep introducing new and exciting shades."

I have always wanted to try one of her gradient packs but usually as soon as she releases them they are gone so fast and it usually works out that I don't have spare money to treat myself at the right time but this time I did finally get one and its a really nice colourway.  I did manage to buy a second gradient pack in an unusual but striking colourway last year too so I will have that to spin up in the future as well.  The colour is "Sea Shell" and the fibre content is 50% Merino, 25% Shetland, 25% Seacell.  I split each little fibre bundle into two and spun each single the same and plied them together.  The final yarn is spun to sport weight and is 139g/302m and its really soft.

Luxury blend Autumn yarn

Onto the next fibre braids, again I got this from someone else's de-stash and its only about 2 years old but this time I have two the same but that throws up a few choices or ideas that I need to consider.  Do I spin them both in the same way or do I spin one of them one way and the other one in a different way?  Regardless of whether I do both the same or both differently my first decision is "what are my options?", so I needed to list different ways that I could spin the fibre but to focus only on the methods that would produce a yarn that I would actually use, so not likely to choose any kind of chain spun methods.

Option 1: split the fibre into two down the middle, the full length of the braid, and spin one single from one end and spin the other single by starting at the opposite end and then ply these two singles together.  This would result in a barber-pole yarn, for the most part at least, and each of the colour sections would be quite large due to the amount of fibre in each half of the braid.

Option 2: split the fibre into two down the middle, the full length of the braid, one single being spun from each half with the second single being spun by starting at the opposite end to the first but before I spin each single to split it further, once or multiple times but each half needs to be split the same amount of times, along each length to make each clump of colour smaller and spin each split length starting at the same end and then ply these two singles together.  This would result in a barber-pole yarn, for the most part at least, and each of the colour sections would be smaller, so whilst technically similar to Option 1 it would look different because the colours would change more frequently.

Option 3: split the fibre into two down the middle, the full length of the braid, and spin each single from the same end and then ply these two singles together.  This would result for the most part at least, a solid colour yarn with long colour changes due to the amount of fibre in each half of the braid.

Option 4: split the fibre into two down the middle, the full length of the braid, and spin each single from the same end and then ply these two singles together. but before I spin each single to split it further, once or multiple times but each half needs to be split the same amount of times, along each length to make each clump of colour smaller and spin each split length starting at the same end and then ply these two singles together.   This would result for the most part at least, a solid colour yarn with short colour changes due to the amount of fibre in each half of the braid.

I went with Option 3, splitting it straight down the middle and spinning from the end so that I have long colour changes.  I also decided to spin both braids in the same way.  When I was spinning the first braid I had already spun the first single the previous day and  I spun the second single and plied them together whilst we had a couple of young workmen in fitting an air circulation system in the loft (roof space) with the vent over the stairs.  One of them was fascinated in what I was doing and couldn't believe I had finished it before they left and was watching me split the second fibre braid down the length and could hardly believe that this is what unspun wool looks like and loved the colours and the look of the finished yarn.  His mum knits, apparently, so he is used to seeing yarn but has never seen anything as amazing and as nice as this.

The finished yarn is 200g of Double Knit weight yarn, 360m in total, with a fibre content of 50% Polwarth wool, 25% Black Alpaca and 25% Mulberry Silk.  It is pretty amazing and the colours are spectacular.  There is a tiny amount of barber-poling in the areas where the colours change but this is minimal and has to happen to some degree, it's the nature of the beast with colour changing yarns.

Nordic: Idun

I bought this another fibre braid from a fellow spinners de-stash of fibre back in June 2018 and is a "sibling braid" to Nordic: Sif, Nordic: Earth and Nordic: Frigg. I won't repeat the whole description because it is the same. Idun: The rejuvenating one, Goddess of the Earth with a basket of apples offering eternal youth.  A fresh shade of green but with slight hints of reddy-pink to represent the applies, and add an earthly balance".

This range called to me as its inspired by the Norse Gods and Goddesses, in the plainest terms, Pagan, and of course I am Pagan.  

The yarn is 50% Corriedale, 50% Merino spun to sport weight, I have 100g/237m.

Nordic: Frigg

I bought this another fibre braid from a fellow spinners de-stash of fibre back in June 2018 and is a "sibling braid" to Nordic: Sif and Nordic: Earth. I won't repeat the whole description because it is the same. Frigg: Goddess of wisdom with the gift of second sight.  Warm pinks and oranges, with just the faintest hint of lilac".

This range called to me as its inspired by the Norse Gods and Goddesses, in the plainest terms, Pagan, and of course I am Pagan.  

The yarn is 50% Corriedale, 50% Merino spun to sport weight, I have 99g/223m.

Nordic: Earth

I bought this another fibre braid from a fellow spinners de-stash of fibre back in June 2018 and is a "sibling braid" to Nordic: Sif.  I won't repeat the whole description because it is the same. Earth: A classic neutral.  Rich brown, with a faint hint of mossy green, and warmed toned greys".

This range called to me as its inspired by the Norse Gods and Goddesses, in the plainest terms, Pagan, and of course I am Pagan.  

The yarn is 50% Corriedale, 50% Merino spun to sport weight, I have 100g/215m.

Nordic: Sif

I bought this fibre braid from a fellow spinners de-stash of fibre back in June 2018.  It was originally from my previous main fibre supplier and I was still buying from that supplier at the time that I bought this.  It is from the "Nordic" range. To quote the suppliers' description "Nordic is inspired by the lands across the North Sea and the ancient mythology of the Norse Gods and Goddesses.  Sif: Goddess of Earth and Growth.  Ripening corn and barley, with faint hints of sage green.  She's also represented by a Rowan Tree, so pops of Rowan berry red provide a hint of cheer".

This range called to me as its inspired by the Norse Gods and Goddesses, in the plainest terms, Pagan, and of course I am Pagan.  If you are into the Marvel franchise, specifically the Thor/Loki movies, you may recall Lady Sif from there.

The yarn is 50% Corriedale, 50% Merino spun to sport weight, I have 99g/224m.

My advent calendar has arrived!

I got a notification to say that a parcel would be delivered today from World of Wool, should have been dispatched today not delivered today, but I'm not complaining.  Turns out that they've started sending out a little earlier, starting with the International (non-UK) customers due to delays with deliveries due to Covid and now they've moved on to the UK customers.

I'm being a good girl and not peeping but it does rattle a little and I'm now very intrigued as to what it is that's rattling inside.  Maybe one of the little gifts are some stitch markers or something like that.

A Little Luxury Blend

I'm working through the oldest fibres in my stash that are ready for spinning.  This one I bought back in April 2018 and it's 50% Polwarth wool, 25% Alpaca, 25% Mulberry Silk and was one of my first purchases from my new favourite fibre supplier.

I've spun this to sport weight and I have 102g/170m and it's really, really soft.

Teeswater - Autumn Gradient

I've made a list of the ready to spin braids of fibre that I have in my list by order of the date they were bought by me and in the case of those I've bought from fellow spinners, the date or approximate date that they bought them.  I intend to spin some of my stash down, starting with the oldest of these braids.

Back in May 2020 I bought a number of braids of fibre that a fellow spinner was selling off because they just either don't have the time to spin any more or they have fallen out of love with it.  This is one of those braids.  They originally bought it in August 2014 but I fell in love with the colours and I do like spinning the longwool breeds.  I have had this for 18 months myself so now is the time to get spinning the older fibres in my stash before they become no good for spinning.

I was a little worried about the quality because it looked a little fuzzy so it may have become a little compacted or felted but I needn't have worried, it was absolutely fine and it's made a lovely fingering weight gradient yarn, 104g/161m of lovely autumnal gradient.

Spinning the Llanwenog brick red blend

Way, way, way back at the beginning of the year, 28th February to be exact, I created an interesting blend with some rust/brick red Llanwenog wool.  Well, the four hand-blended fibre braids have sat in a bag across the other side of the room looking at me until this week.  I've been so busy with the British Breeds project that it just got left, until now.  I did decide to make 3 larger skeins rather than 4 smaller ones so each are now 91g-94g rather than 70g or so each.

The final fibre content of this certainly won't fit on a postage stamp, it's 73% Llanwenog, 12% Merino, 5% Bluefaced Leicester, 2.5% Tussah Silk, 2% Soy Silk, 2% Shetland, 1.5% Trilobal Nylon (Firestar), 1% Silk Noil, 0.5% Alpaca, 0.5% Angelina.  It has been spun to approximately DK weight and in total there are approximately 574m so I can make something pretty decent sized with this or maybe two smaller shawls.