tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29614992120271006732024-03-27T15:59:19.657+00:00DrapedInLaceDrapedInLacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188308092012122929noreply@blogger.comBlogger663125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961499212027100673.post-30472367911415241582024-01-10T12:39:00.055+00:002024-01-22T15:35:44.437+00:00Spinning the Whiteface Dartmoor blend<p>With the festive celebrations and everything else it has taken me around about a month to spin up the entirety of this <a href="https://drapedinlacebyjuliablakeman.blogspot.com/2023/06/making-blend-of-blue-whiteface-dartmoor.html" target="_blank">blend</a> that I put together myself back in June 2023, but then there is just over 450g of it. I finished spinning the first skein on 16th December 2023 and the last skein on 10th January 2024.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXGl0vhFi1Ob-_uqLY1YEFAW0dzsWJ1VubOlIfwCJCGLyF5FzVMGqdhRNehnGKb1ELwHsGw3M8aOS-8b_pFmPU02q0g3e7QH1-P-8owVGlpBl3oqRasd0x6oWh3hiFz-QS8ulIV_HDcRqUZX6In2ABz4ROodY6EWaZ3JPfW20M7qAU6PVboCX7s7ps_kw/s2600/blend%20collage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2600" data-original-width="2400" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXGl0vhFi1Ob-_uqLY1YEFAW0dzsWJ1VubOlIfwCJCGLyF5FzVMGqdhRNehnGKb1ELwHsGw3M8aOS-8b_pFmPU02q0g3e7QH1-P-8owVGlpBl3oqRasd0x6oWh3hiFz-QS8ulIV_HDcRqUZX6In2ABz4ROodY6EWaZ3JPfW20M7qAU6PVboCX7s7ps_kw/w590-h640/blend%20collage.jpg" width="590" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>As I was spinning I had to keep thinning out the various lumps and bumps of different fibres and I also tried to make sure that there were at least a few strands of the Whiteface Dartmoor throughout the entirety of the length of the yarn.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2EGuq72R4CU7Sk4_ExCzBnoWkJNqktgxpID2Pn37zSIUjLgWqnn9LIfnXbLMbmDhmOEjKCwehXGo66d1NCVlLjqnhUvfGsI5BK1YIqzuFsoSGuaCGphqo5qArbfSMkbQYJd3dSjaHJxeHzwnxwh2RJatpEN1xdDrz_aYmdTTy8AeSxHoofn-VXBLXdtE/s4000/yarn%20collage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="4000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2EGuq72R4CU7Sk4_ExCzBnoWkJNqktgxpID2Pn37zSIUjLgWqnn9LIfnXbLMbmDhmOEjKCwehXGo66d1NCVlLjqnhUvfGsI5BK1YIqzuFsoSGuaCGphqo5qArbfSMkbQYJd3dSjaHJxeHzwnxwh2RJatpEN1xdDrz_aYmdTTy8AeSxHoofn-VXBLXdtE/w640-h320/yarn%20collage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>All of the skeins are sport weight and they are reasonably soft considering the fact that majority fibre in the blend is Whitefaced Dartmoor. The fibre content is 67.5% Whiteface Dartmoor, 13.5% Merino, 5% Corriedale, 4% Tussah Silk, 3% Hemp, 3% Longwool breed, 3% Sari Silk, 1% Angelina. Unfortunately the Angelina doesn't show up in the photos but it is there and under the right lighting conditions you can see little purple sparkles in the yarn. In total there is 454g/859m.</p><p><br /></p>DrapedInLacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188308092012122929noreply@blogger.com0Birmingham, UK52.486242999999988 -1.89040124.176009163821142 -37.046651 80.79647683617884 33.265849tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961499212027100673.post-52281082318274672532023-12-21T18:48:00.022+00:002024-01-12T16:28:20.307+00:00Blending the Purple Llandovery Whiteface Hill - Mist at Twlight<p>Yay, the last one! Oh I really do ache now because it is tiring on the arms and shoulders loading up the blending hackle four times and dizzing off the blend, especially when you're using wool that you have stupidly managed to felt slightly during the dye process. I seriously need to look at my temperature probe in my dye kit, I'm positive it's on the fritz and I have tried changing the battery but that hasn't resolved the issue. I think it's a damaged wire problem. So, the Llandovery Whiteface Hill fleece that I dyed back in <a href="https://drapedinlacebyjuliablakeman.blogspot.com/2023/10/dyeing-array-of-fibres-purple.html" target="_blank">September</a>. I sorted out the additional fibres that I would be adding to all four lots of Llandovery Whiteface Hill back at that time and then dyed the lots of fleece colours to go with the additional fibres that I had chosen. All of the additional fibres in the different colours are within a few grams of each other and I plan to use all of each bump of fibre so that the final fibre content won't be exactly the same for all four blends but will be very close.</p><p>The other fibres that I chose to put in this blend are, from left to right, top to bottom: 19g Tussah Silk in shade Twilight, 9g Trilobal Nylon in shade Violet, 9g Silk Noil in shade Sea Mist, 10g Hemp that I dyed myself in June 2023 using cold water dyes and finally 153g Llandovery Whiteface Hill fibre that I dyed in September. I have decided to call this colourway "Mist at Twilight".</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9pcMpKJ6IdkQVAnBeowe-KAGcZIU7K9J-yYFWzrzmbiZz9_8B1zs3btc-wTFQu3dESsP1xcDwzhuX1__MhodLEXW4S7OeEbEZUoYwpl4zSqTgmceRJwN7KkSWyOE4Dz78oIpoGj5ExneQM6_FCqsqtBzaPx7bDT8ycSI93wlrDUI-z-dl1qhP_rskYrY/s3200/ingredients%20collage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3200" data-original-width="2000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9pcMpKJ6IdkQVAnBeowe-KAGcZIU7K9J-yYFWzrzmbiZz9_8B1zs3btc-wTFQu3dESsP1xcDwzhuX1__MhodLEXW4S7OeEbEZUoYwpl4zSqTgmceRJwN7KkSWyOE4Dz78oIpoGj5ExneQM6_FCqsqtBzaPx7bDT8ycSI93wlrDUI-z-dl1qhP_rskYrY/w400-h640/ingredients%20collage.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>I discovered that I had somehow managed to felt the wool slightly during the dye process so I had a little bit of trouble getting it to open up again. I didn't pre-comb this one again either. I've ended up with 200g of a lovely unique blend ready to spin.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDaT7DFrKosKRXsCI-yuSCbKS5YGsNIIs9PgJuGJXfSsZzL9K_W5uYUmxMNNUDVApmKSZxY4SIORWQlwLxE2C1xHvBrrbb5Boh7E5J4SEW6DBg5IvGj3TTFsErv-Slfax1bE0uEvai5pgepJB-Z2FBGj9kALwpb5AmcpevDEJLx2PhmEYkLLPdnzGb6d8/s3400/mist%20at%20twilight%20blend.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3400" data-original-width="2000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDaT7DFrKosKRXsCI-yuSCbKS5YGsNIIs9PgJuGJXfSsZzL9K_W5uYUmxMNNUDVApmKSZxY4SIORWQlwLxE2C1xHvBrrbb5Boh7E5J4SEW6DBg5IvGj3TTFsErv-Slfax1bE0uEvai5pgepJB-Z2FBGj9kALwpb5AmcpevDEJLx2PhmEYkLLPdnzGb6d8/w376-h640/mist%20at%20twilight%20blend.jpg" width="376" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>The fibre content of this one works out to be:</p><p>76.5% Llandovery Whiteface Hill wool<br />9.5% Tussah Silk<br />5% Hemp<br />4.5% Silk Noil<br />4.5% Trilobal Nylon</p>DrapedInLacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188308092012122929noreply@blogger.com0Birmingham, UK52.486242999999988 -1.89040124.176009163821142 -37.046651 80.79647683617884 33.265849tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961499212027100673.post-87684453498782140632023-12-20T12:36:00.044+00:002024-01-12T15:59:35.358+00:00Blending the Blue Llandovery Whiteface Hill - Evening at the Bay<p>Pushing on with my quest to tackle the Llandovery Whiteface Hill fleece that I dyed back in <a href="https://drapedinlacebyjuliablakeman.blogspot.com/2023/09/dyeing-array-of-fibres-blue.html" target="_blank">September</a>, today I am tackling the blue one. I sorted out the additional fibres that I would be adding to all four lots of Llandovery Whiteface Hill back at that time and then dyed the lots of fleece colours to go with the additional fibres that I had chosen. All of the additional fibres in the different colours are within a few grams of each other and I plan to use all of each bump of fibre so that the final fibre content won't be exactly the same for all four blends but will be very close.</p><p>The other fibres that I chose to put in this blend are, from left to right, top to bottom: 21g Tussah Silk in shade Evening, 12g Trilobal Nylon in shade Bay, 9g Silk Noil in shade Colbalt, 11g Hemp in shade Bright Blue and finally 155g Llandovery Whiteface Hill fibre that I dyed in September. I have decided to call this colourway "Evening at the Bay".</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4FMF-1b6VQvCSyILk9jnA35l7TEzmUyTEZPnVdePPgDNoat2zIe9iaRcrKb0jV__NU0JFptyKtMyW9fXpUuJmdIyV3j8L6Ic7u-rUvPKH9XCZoNInWyPCpvocHsRzwhv_VpY231CucuOfdD7o1VAb4G3mLKqWUI7L-wC_hjsM7p6Sps6XCbFXSsVHQTY/s3200/ingredients%20collage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3200" data-original-width="2000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4FMF-1b6VQvCSyILk9jnA35l7TEzmUyTEZPnVdePPgDNoat2zIe9iaRcrKb0jV__NU0JFptyKtMyW9fXpUuJmdIyV3j8L6Ic7u-rUvPKH9XCZoNInWyPCpvocHsRzwhv_VpY231CucuOfdD7o1VAb4G3mLKqWUI7L-wC_hjsM7p6Sps6XCbFXSsVHQTY/w400-h640/ingredients%20collage.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>I discovered that I had somehow managed to felt the wool slightly during the dye process so I had a little bit of trouble getting it to open up again. I didn't pre-comb this one this time, I learnt my lesson on the last one. I've ended up with 208g of a lovely unique blend ready to spin.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0WoviGXjXmwQ4xTphcgaANSMSIQFAG4IXD7fGujFdfJQlffTGj6SBHY2bubf7qtzlJlNwJp6AGkiOjWqPOIi0TFz9OccZfFnxz75vZJRn3TsemsL12Xvrw_NKX13LsslB2sKqAnM9_iiA2qOoRgY76lI-FAVYHPqj77qMdYgoSCqQlMqcwXVi6M7ZN_4/s3400/evening%20at%20the%20bay%20blend.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3400" data-original-width="2000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0WoviGXjXmwQ4xTphcgaANSMSIQFAG4IXD7fGujFdfJQlffTGj6SBHY2bubf7qtzlJlNwJp6AGkiOjWqPOIi0TFz9OccZfFnxz75vZJRn3TsemsL12Xvrw_NKX13LsslB2sKqAnM9_iiA2qOoRgY76lI-FAVYHPqj77qMdYgoSCqQlMqcwXVi6M7ZN_4/w376-h640/evening%20at%20the%20bay%20blend.jpg" width="376" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>The fibre content of this one works out to be:</p><p>75% Llandovery Whiteface Hill wool<br />10% Tussah Silk<br />4% Silk Noil<br />6% Trilobal Nylon<br />5% Hemp<br />4% Silk Noil</p>DrapedInLacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188308092012122929noreply@blogger.com0Birmingham, UK52.486242999999988 -1.89040124.176009163821142 -37.046651 80.79647683617884 33.265849tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961499212027100673.post-31818969031236555072023-12-15T15:32:00.002+00:002024-01-12T16:00:50.081+00:00Blending the Yellow-Orange Llandovery Whiteface Hill - Saffron Sunshine<p>It's been a few weeks since I last played with my blending hackle, I've been doing some spinning as well as preparing for the festive celebrations, but I really need to tackle the Llandovery Whiteface Hill fleece that I dyed back in <a href="https://drapedinlacebyjuliablakeman.blogspot.com/2023/09/dyeing-array-of-fibres-yellow-orange.html">September</a>. I sorted out the additional fibres that I would be adding to all four lots of Llandovery Whiteface Hill back at that time and then dyed the lots of fleece colours to go with the additional fibres that I had chosen. All of the additional fibres in the different colours are within a few grams of each other and I plan to use all of each bump of fibre so that the final fibre content won't be exactly the same for all four blends but will be very close.</p><p>The other fibres that I chose to put in this blend are, from left to right, top to bottom: 15g Tussah Silk in shade Saffron, 7g Trilobal Nylon in shade Sun, 9g Silk Noil in shade Saffron, 9g Hemp that I dyed myself in June 2023 using cold water dyes and finally 139g Llandovery Whiteface Hill fibre that I dyed in September. I have decided to call this colourway "Saffron Sunshine".</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjArdSLeznpsn_f84Oaj1AlEQvNzfPL7KtuOtm8dwTlmb5Ja_c3645f7bV1x1RnwU0CW8W1Or6nQD-e5ZUPgSOMAJVAjEvGf-56l7h9sSPa-Y1dzuJK7t_0XexVEokzZYucmVlNTtWGbXIV97ZjsZCMvD8-QRNIDfJU1THAb9Vv-_dG0YwHO_ynmkDmz4Q/s3200/ingredients%20collage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3200" data-original-width="2000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjArdSLeznpsn_f84Oaj1AlEQvNzfPL7KtuOtm8dwTlmb5Ja_c3645f7bV1x1RnwU0CW8W1Or6nQD-e5ZUPgSOMAJVAjEvGf-56l7h9sSPa-Y1dzuJK7t_0XexVEokzZYucmVlNTtWGbXIV97ZjsZCMvD8-QRNIDfJU1THAb9Vv-_dG0YwHO_ynmkDmz4Q/w400-h640/ingredients%20collage.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>I discovered that I had somehow managed to felt the wool slightly during the dye process so I had a little bit of trouble getting it to open up again. This time I decided to try combing it again before using it on the hackle to try to make it easier but I've lost quite a lot of fibre doing that and it hasn't made it feel any softer than just opening it up on the hackle during the blending. I've ended up with 179g of a lovely unique blend ready to spin.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihGjBOO38uNnxGjveSd5iyXAYgW7868SPd9MW4cFc4BMoXrmb3JSILZbrOuMWAduBO9gFyi5IWDnRiHtPZJVZSo0tll9KnKWg9QvFSGWrfDouxAESCFbUwVdOtLBKauTiuVnR588canl-Er93RjYCqK_KWf5YWDiEcIB5z_kOrEAbOx6uSw8xEnjnC4fE/s3400/saffron%20and%20sunshine%20blend.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3400" data-original-width="2000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihGjBOO38uNnxGjveSd5iyXAYgW7868SPd9MW4cFc4BMoXrmb3JSILZbrOuMWAduBO9gFyi5IWDnRiHtPZJVZSo0tll9KnKWg9QvFSGWrfDouxAESCFbUwVdOtLBKauTiuVnR588canl-Er93RjYCqK_KWf5YWDiEcIB5z_kOrEAbOx6uSw8xEnjnC4fE/w376-h640/saffron%20and%20sunshine%20blend.jpg" width="376" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>The fibre content of this one works out to be:</p><p>77.5% Llandovery Whiteface Hill wool<br />8.5% Tussah Silk<br />5% Silk Noil<br />5% Hemp<br />4% Trilobal Nylon</p>DrapedInLacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188308092012122929noreply@blogger.com0Birmingham, UK52.486242999999988 -1.89040124.176009163821142 -37.046651 80.79647683617884 33.265849tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961499212027100673.post-19820854837117086472023-12-13T12:30:00.088+00:002024-01-22T11:55:14.287+00:00Spinning "Sky at Night" and "Magic"<p>This is the last of four planned yarns that I am making using the last of the <a href="https://drapedinlacebyjuliablakeman.blogspot.com/2023/07/combing-last-of-jacob-fleece.html" target="_blank">black Jacob wool</a> that I have from fleece that I got several years ago. For this one I spun up the last of the black Jacob and then I spun up the 63g of 100% Merino from that I <a href="https://drapedinlacebyjuliablakeman.blogspot.com/2023/06/a-day-dyeing-fibre-mostly-wool.html" rel="" target="_blank">overdyed</a> in June 2023, it was previously a repulsive "Hot Pink" or "Barbie Pink" colour that was in a "mixed bag" that I bought for my "ingredients cupboard" but I was never going to use it as it was so the time had come to over-dye it in a useable colour. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5KqpC3vgtl49ZMSHvMeGu-3gcvAsVaCCPq_4zHfbAlDF-PoeyhBh56xUtzpSqkcpRRgAahXo5_aAz5Lg8RBvafB-WxNa4hkrnJkHMKrOCyUqSbnEFDicPzTVy-Q3aVA800Z3D0X9oacaR6a9-yDvqtuFFBqxNbDpq13nFrGFzGgWSLUb7Nl7WSw1ekwc/s3000/dye%20session%20side%20by%20side%209%20june%202023.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1337" data-original-width="3000" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5KqpC3vgtl49ZMSHvMeGu-3gcvAsVaCCPq_4zHfbAlDF-PoeyhBh56xUtzpSqkcpRRgAahXo5_aAz5Lg8RBvafB-WxNa4hkrnJkHMKrOCyUqSbnEFDicPzTVy-Q3aVA800Z3D0X9oacaR6a9-yDvqtuFFBqxNbDpq13nFrGFzGgWSLUb7Nl7WSw1ekwc/w640-h286/dye%20session%20side%20by%20side%209%20june%202023.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAW8LSr26NgxRzu9MlkXo329-DvKAhpiRhVAOyhB53S-RzhiUehdDjVrSAiW1qWGvKac27-_iTlRJ_LR1iSHkaabFnJdYZeEAjS1YwefuBHuWTQ50IcaOOGs5R18F5LhX0M02qCXFJdClrnoEKJWsHTVpzdtuJuRMbGMFlp4e6EHM_E-iSehSZbDoQNmg/s3000/fibre%20collage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="3000" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAW8LSr26NgxRzu9MlkXo329-DvKAhpiRhVAOyhB53S-RzhiUehdDjVrSAiW1qWGvKac27-_iTlRJ_LR1iSHkaabFnJdYZeEAjS1YwefuBHuWTQ50IcaOOGs5R18F5LhX0M02qCXFJdClrnoEKJWsHTVpzdtuJuRMbGMFlp4e6EHM_E-iSehSZbDoQNmg/w640-h298/fibre%20collage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>I spun each of them separately and then just plied them together until one of them ran out. As it happened, I ran out of the Jacob before I ran out of Merino so once I had finished the yarn I made a small skein of Merino by making an Andean plying bracelet of the remaining single on the bobbin and plied it back to itself. The main skein is 52.5% Jacob, 47.5% Merino.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieQkIoi5S0RQkCrsjDALZ7xtCppZ7kCLg8x9aCku5KCIoyGs2Gx-SP6ggZOgWHG-JmNtNKmXXpjXIaiLMTZSJHrQ6Wr2P0eN8RE_A8hetdXVyKUPu-ql15BxL65zadcbxyRRfWvf4waA74zs_2bIXQ3CM6aQFANvX1Y9Or7mu5cNGD0jJb4NRBL77q4EQ/s4000/yarn%20collage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="4000" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieQkIoi5S0RQkCrsjDALZ7xtCppZ7kCLg8x9aCku5KCIoyGs2Gx-SP6ggZOgWHG-JmNtNKmXXpjXIaiLMTZSJHrQ6Wr2P0eN8RE_A8hetdXVyKUPu-ql15BxL65zadcbxyRRfWvf4waA74zs_2bIXQ3CM6aQFANvX1Y9Or7mu5cNGD0jJb4NRBL77q4EQ/w640-h256/yarn%20collage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><p>I love the way the colours of the Merino are constantly changing between blue/lilac/purple and plying that with the black Jacob really makes the colours pop. It is similar but different to "Night Sky" so I have called it "Sky at Night".</p><p>This has turned out to be sport weight and there is 99g/244m</p><p>For comparison between the two...</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgco8hxUF-w67zKoF_GftZ1DT7Xxl-zObiQboeCf7cwv-rD4GAvZ_X0V6W-eXwOzq3UU5WxEHrW_W2sjjVmWUwPghTV0vWM2d547Kaz6yiO3RfjERPKqSF1wTk7ckLAll8jleKjSezlJ-pnpPSW65-5Ts1aHFL34AKkzW7OOH7ZRS4z0LcaCGOqJWtStUE/s3000/yarn%20comparison.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="2000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgco8hxUF-w67zKoF_GftZ1DT7Xxl-zObiQboeCf7cwv-rD4GAvZ_X0V6W-eXwOzq3UU5WxEHrW_W2sjjVmWUwPghTV0vWM2d547Kaz6yiO3RfjERPKqSF1wTk7ckLAll8jleKjSezlJ-pnpPSW65-5Ts1aHFL34AKkzW7OOH7ZRS4z0LcaCGOqJWtStUE/w426-h640/yarn%20comparison.jpg" width="426" /></a></div><br /><p>This one is the top one of the two, the bottom one is the one I spun up on 6th December 2023, which was a little thicker too.</p><p>The remaining Merino, I spun back to itself so that this little skein is 100% Merino and is sport weight and 12g/33m and I've called it "Magic".</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP3b2Xsc97O-PDsUqkowI9hrT9dL2Cn70ornf8a6Qetj1dT_xgzrNJHEsjwSO_R3zJQClwvqTMbZ7ayLa_unuFDFZKFPzzuxrk7vYIx9EZ6dnFUMpDy9R8nROYIOr70_dKeLRk_BhWzOaUYYTbmKJMsDbtgds56knaNMo3f2-HlutcHkPTMzHoIysZjEA/s4000/magic%20yarn%20collage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="4000" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP3b2Xsc97O-PDsUqkowI9hrT9dL2Cn70ornf8a6Qetj1dT_xgzrNJHEsjwSO_R3zJQClwvqTMbZ7ayLa_unuFDFZKFPzzuxrk7vYIx9EZ6dnFUMpDy9R8nROYIOr70_dKeLRk_BhWzOaUYYTbmKJMsDbtgds56knaNMo3f2-HlutcHkPTMzHoIysZjEA/w640-h256/magic%20yarn%20collage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>DrapedInLacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188308092012122929noreply@blogger.com0Birmingham, UK52.486242999999988 -1.89040124.176009163821142 -37.046651 80.79647683617884 33.265849tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961499212027100673.post-51247912592743364012023-12-10T17:31:00.093+00:002024-01-22T10:55:52.037+00:00Spnning "Mint Chocolate"<p>This is the third of four planned yarns that I am making using the last of the <a href="https://drapedinlacebyjuliablakeman.blogspot.com/2023/07/combing-last-of-jacob-fleece.html" target="_blank">black Jacob wool</a> that I have from fleece that I got several years ago. I made sure I had a full bobbin of the black Jacob and then I spun up some odds and sods of green Merino that I had in my "ingredients cupboard", which is a cupboard full of small amounts of various fibres in various colours that you can buy as "mixed bags" etc and most are generally 10-30g sample sized bumps of fibre, into a gradient. I made the green merino gradient by just simply pulling bits off of each adjoining colour and basic hand blending it a bit to make a "go-between" colour. I did this for all of the adjoining colours. It's far from perfect but it's worked pretty well.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi22jkqiLlimpwXF-z3cmzP9rWO76Beu00_sUgAllL29yQfLlz7Sgcx2scb9MYj9LcehYCIgKSFQhMCXReSdZVnq_aEA6bsHSrIy9YCdBhf71jX63OlRloKhRY8T-CMgCUO0aF79dFt5bWfm5Sh0B223fSeXYbCW8Ky3x1da9L55RbLMhTpJbX2h23MtKI/s3200/fibre%20collage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3200" data-original-width="2000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi22jkqiLlimpwXF-z3cmzP9rWO76Beu00_sUgAllL29yQfLlz7Sgcx2scb9MYj9LcehYCIgKSFQhMCXReSdZVnq_aEA6bsHSrIy9YCdBhf71jX63OlRloKhRY8T-CMgCUO0aF79dFt5bWfm5Sh0B223fSeXYbCW8Ky3x1da9L55RbLMhTpJbX2h23MtKI/w400-h640/fibre%20collage.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">31g Conifer, 18g Forest, 18g Leaf, 14g Peppermint<br />89g Natural black/brown Jacob </td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>As you will note, there was far more of the darkest green than any of the other 3 greens and I could have decided to not use all of it but I did use it all and my thinking was that I could use this to my advantage if I make a semi-circular shawl that starts with just a few stitches and increases with each row. I would have quite a deep section of the lightest colour and then as the shawl gets bigger the next two colours would be used on a decent number of rows, but not as many as the lightest colour, and then with the length of the rows being so long by the time I start using the darkest shade I would need that extra amount to get any decent number of rows worked in it before it runs out.</p><p>I spun each of them separately and then just plied them together until all of the green Merino gradient was used up. I used 89g of black Jacob with the 81g of Merino. The fibre content is 52.5% Jacob, 47.5% Merino.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikF8qvO14TreNfDOjGFsNmZ7IcHiMOOcMAoyf7fTHLRj-_njFKq46QXzJPCK8xkIlBBooK0s59Ub5JESgTiBRVWqLBeDnT5eNljE0rHmTrydRrF0hbP-bKRYQebe58OOILFEwUrqQD-NblpB9TD8WY_p09ReYaOmTs2ZovRvq5kTGVI-i7rVithkV74dA/s4000/gradient%20collage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="4000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikF8qvO14TreNfDOjGFsNmZ7IcHiMOOcMAoyf7fTHLRj-_njFKq46QXzJPCK8xkIlBBooK0s59Ub5JESgTiBRVWqLBeDnT5eNljE0rHmTrydRrF0hbP-bKRYQebe58OOILFEwUrqQD-NblpB9TD8WY_p09ReYaOmTs2ZovRvq5kTGVI-i7rVithkV74dA/w640-h320/gradient%20collage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0_MPI_Z5HlkuXt_G8G15VoISMeojf0zkdE5cUklsz7NQDGNcTqubkmuaJeJY_dhEhnwPVDqu6r_e5YMJAs4x55c8Ri2-pNExY0TV0L5mtjN3o9LLlktdAdPXrG-36NeaIDp-giDeBMhe_GK8O2Y0P4G8qlE1MK0sIMOIN-jiMbpbr9Uhfi8XXfQkZB-I/s4000/yarn%20collage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="4000" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0_MPI_Z5HlkuXt_G8G15VoISMeojf0zkdE5cUklsz7NQDGNcTqubkmuaJeJY_dhEhnwPVDqu6r_e5YMJAs4x55c8Ri2-pNExY0TV0L5mtjN3o9LLlktdAdPXrG-36NeaIDp-giDeBMhe_GK8O2Y0P4G8qlE1MK0sIMOIN-jiMbpbr9Uhfi8XXfQkZB-I/w640-h256/yarn%20collage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><p>I'm not totally in love with this one. I had an idea and I had to try it out. It could have gone better, I could have done it better. I think the palest of the green looks almost white and I think that is what is throwing me off this a little bit. It is what it is. I've called this one "Mint Chocolate".</p><p>This has turned out to be Double-Knit weight and there is 166g/396m</p></div>DrapedInLacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188308092012122929noreply@blogger.com0Birmingham, UK52.486242999999988 -1.89040124.176009163821142 -37.046651 80.79647683617884 33.265849tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961499212027100673.post-45920032435693081672023-12-08T12:27:00.064+00:002024-01-22T00:20:56.237+00:00Spinning "Chocolate Box"<p>This is the second of four planned yarns that I am making using the last of the <a href="https://drapedinlacebyjuliablakeman.blogspot.com/2023/07/combing-last-of-jacob-fleece.html" target="_blank">black Jacob wool</a> that I have from fleece that I got several years ago. For this one I topped up what was left on the bobbin of the black Jacob and then I spun up the 53g of "Selection Box" 50% Shetland, 25% Bamboo, 12.5% Flax, 12.5% Sari Silk from <a href="https://drapedinlacebyjuliablakeman.blogspot.com/2022/12/advent-calendar-2022-day-20.html" target="_blank">Day 20</a> of the Advent Calendar 2022.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTR0bQ-Q6Dyq55oan_3xR5VocU6vco11bXopG20nsvOE_-DLc-01bIwacG9qxRO-QoDRWAmYFlbyRmIEWA4H3uPzn3oJUijh1H54KbW3f9mSfhUGcNIjmw6-SGSBv4TKT1iGNX_oHqMMK_JyvRiCIpg7TdG6HO9WhKd38Zb_PC9ZA1S8OlZ2k0tHGVkD4/s3000/fibre%20collage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="3000" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTR0bQ-Q6Dyq55oan_3xR5VocU6vco11bXopG20nsvOE_-DLc-01bIwacG9qxRO-QoDRWAmYFlbyRmIEWA4H3uPzn3oJUijh1H54KbW3f9mSfhUGcNIjmw6-SGSBv4TKT1iGNX_oHqMMK_JyvRiCIpg7TdG6HO9WhKd38Zb_PC9ZA1S8OlZ2k0tHGVkD4/w640-h298/fibre%20collage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>I spun each of them separately and then just plied them together until all of the Selection Box was used up. I used 52g of black Jacob with the 53g of Selection Box. The fibre content is 50% Jacob, 25% Shetland, 12.5% Bamboo, 6.25% Flax, 6.25% Sari Silk.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuPE-GL9V6x9i5i7526LurNKiTWV-ZQ9p1Dk8VuROT-Gjs63rmbFOVEn_icxq92XNWVFEP29h-OX2pQcD61qoyqmu390aTTOKWU_ajOFNfJ-ApNIuUQze5Mnmub_soM121gR4oBzBtVDZQZiu0jniGR1gE766r7HOV2Th1X0w7nTE_8D1pBnc1CiheK6E/s4000/yarn%20collage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="4000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuPE-GL9V6x9i5i7526LurNKiTWV-ZQ9p1Dk8VuROT-Gjs63rmbFOVEn_icxq92XNWVFEP29h-OX2pQcD61qoyqmu390aTTOKWU_ajOFNfJ-ApNIuUQze5Mnmub_soM121gR4oBzBtVDZQZiu0jniGR1gE766r7HOV2Th1X0w7nTE_8D1pBnc1CiheK6E/w640-h320/yarn%20collage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><p>I love the way that the colours of Selection Box are constantly changing like the flickering flames of a fire and plying that with the black Jacob really shows that up. I've played around with the original name and the fact that it is now plied with the black/brown Jacob and called it "Chocolate Box".</p><p>This has turned out to be Double-Knit weight and there is 97g/214m</p></div>DrapedInLacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188308092012122929noreply@blogger.com0Birmingham, UK52.486242999999988 -1.89040124.176009163821142 -37.046651 80.79647683617884 33.265849tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961499212027100673.post-27567339356850486372023-12-08T11:01:00.009+00:002024-03-25T17:55:49.957+00:00Advent Calendar 2023 Day 8<p><b>The Tradition</b></p><p>Day 8 is called La Ribote and the tradition comes from Martinique in the Caribbean. Music and singing features a lot in the Christmas celebrations on the Island and a Ribote is the term used for the tradition of a large group of people that go from house to house singing hymns and carols on the evening and sometimes they will call in on people who are working such as Fire Stations, Hospitals etc and then after all of the singing they are usually invited to share in food and drinks.</p><p><b>The Fibre</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_3ZAJmDksqwhlrfHcUMF6ZOQ0FcIK1rh7pX3FzijTUV7-MYWs0PacxuiOjjxa2mQefmgh8N5FN6NTPLvvdzn7FBdk_FtartNlsjOJ2HsFSmjr3KO9cb9Ccl-BhHzYCcGe8rQJT3Rbikb3IMcbyI9HhrR7EgyrgbDEDGSS9zd94_3EGGANzec1ZVZQdfY/s2500/Day%208%20collage.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="2500" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_3ZAJmDksqwhlrfHcUMF6ZOQ0FcIK1rh7pX3FzijTUV7-MYWs0PacxuiOjjxa2mQefmgh8N5FN6NTPLvvdzn7FBdk_FtartNlsjOJ2HsFSmjr3KO9cb9Ccl-BhHzYCcGe8rQJT3Rbikb3IMcbyI9HhrR7EgyrgbDEDGSS9zd94_3EGGANzec1ZVZQdfY/w640-h358/Day%208%20collage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>The actual fibre content is 50% Bamboo (Amelia & Naomi), 40% Gotland (grey & white), 10% Mulberry Silk (Buenos Aires). Martinique is a beautiful island and this is an absolutely beautiful blend to go with it. Just because it's winter doesn't mean the colours are going to be any different. We have got bamboo, Gotland and Mulberry Silk. Bamboo and Mulberry Silk are really soft fibres so the Gotland is in here to hold it all together and this Gotland also adds a bit of sheen because Gotland is a lustre wool. If you look really closely at this blend you can see there are lots of different shades in it. We've taken all the blues from the Mulberry Silk ranges and the Bamboo ranges and blended them with Gotland to get this lovely shiny fibre. In terms of spinning if you were to spin this quite fine or make a four ply with it you find it has very good drape when its knitted or crocheted. </p><p><b>My Thoughts</b></p><p>I love this one. I love most things blue and I do like a bit of Gotland and I never say no to blends with Mulberry Silk in them. I did have a lot of trouble trying to capture the colours in the original photo with my mobile phone, it just would not show all of the lovely tones. I would say that it will be spun as it is, there is no way these colours can be separated out at all, it's too well blended for that.</p><p>This one is so different to how the camera on my phone captured the colours and at the time I couldn't get it to show all the variation of blues and greys that are in this blend but my proper Canon camera has.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUPFgCFdXnSuF-eDPpE43D1wAvv_WuuRvXA-xHr0WR0ZvRWOnXHjxGgW116VA7cibk1PlQUThSRCoyNEQKMhoLBeo5IOgxd19BXKqtkIG4txSowCLKPdbPmew4lPSYNysriScSarywq7I-P2ZNfaZETQTCYBiKFtXs58VdJm_CJDRwAt8oxMaRnUDhj5I/s2500/Day%208%20Fibre%20collage.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="2500" height="460" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUPFgCFdXnSuF-eDPpE43D1wAvv_WuuRvXA-xHr0WR0ZvRWOnXHjxGgW116VA7cibk1PlQUThSRCoyNEQKMhoLBeo5IOgxd19BXKqtkIG4txSowCLKPdbPmew4lPSYNysriScSarywq7I-P2ZNfaZETQTCYBiKFtXs58VdJm_CJDRwAt8oxMaRnUDhj5I/w640-h460/Day%208%20Fibre%20collage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>The information that has been printed on the bags is not always correct and there are no fibre content percentages, these have been provided on the chat boards. The percentages that they gave on the chat boards seem to be correct for this one, Hurrah!</p><p>What I have done with my bags is to write the actual fibre content on the bag using a gold gel pen in the gap immediately below the printed details, pretty much the only thing that will show up on black are the metallic gel pens. This is why I have not taken "new" photos of the bags.</p>DrapedInLacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188308092012122929noreply@blogger.com0Birmingham, UK52.486242999999988 -1.89040124.176009163821142 -37.046651 80.79647683617884 33.265849tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961499212027100673.post-66884599628144477532023-12-07T17:11:00.004+00:002024-03-25T17:13:03.627+00:00Advent Calendar 2023 Day 7<p><b>The Tradition</b></p><p>Day 7 is called Nisser and the tradition comes from Denmark. They are actually called Nisse and are small gnome like creatures with white beards that live in homes and gardens and look after the area they live in as well as any resident animals. They are one of the most familiar creatures in Scandinavian folklore. In English editions of Hans Christian Anderson stories the word Nisse as been translated and replaced with the word Goblin. Rice pudding with a pat of butter on the top is put out for them on Christmas Eve and if you skimp on the butter you risk them playing tricks on you for the next year. </p><p><b>The Fibre</b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjSxRVi7HXiHB1GRBGDqoOcEoJzKVJqf8_JMdH9fByNHOxuVZheR-oWQgLliJoqeYua_zts8nJw0vp1fnr_ZGHIFiZmfmLNE4IcUh-idgJ-H8J4p6z-PeAi2iom21fG-Suc49hsVf1P7wduqJurXlgQnLTwQG6j_egAlPPAvmhaNX_mqys3U5MprS7cb0/s2500/Day%207%20collage.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="2500" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjSxRVi7HXiHB1GRBGDqoOcEoJzKVJqf8_JMdH9fByNHOxuVZheR-oWQgLliJoqeYua_zts8nJw0vp1fnr_ZGHIFiZmfmLNE4IcUh-idgJ-H8J4p6z-PeAi2iom21fG-Suc49hsVf1P7wduqJurXlgQnLTwQG6j_egAlPPAvmhaNX_mqys3U5MprS7cb0/w640-h358/Day%207%20collage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span face=""Inter Hinted", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">. </span></div><p>The actual fibre content is different to that that was printed on the bags, see the comments in "My Thoughts" for full details. The blend is made of Merino, Viscose and Bamboo and its this wonderful green shade because if you're living the garden you're actually going to want to be well camouflaged in the foliage. The Merino brings the green to it then we have the Bamboo running through and also the nepps and tweedy-ness of the Viscose coming through as well which gives us a lovely amount of texture. It's really soft which makes it versatile for spinning, crochet, wet felting and it will do all of that at a drop of a hat. </p><p><b>My Thoughts</b></p><p>As soon as I opened the packet this one looked very familiar to me as I have something the same or similar in my stash called Riddle and I kind of know what I will be doing with this one, spinning them up individually but to the same thickness and using them both in the same project, maybe something with stripes.</p><p>The percentages that they originally gave on the chat boards was 50% Riddle, 25% Tweed, 25% Merino, which is different from the Merino, Viscose and Bamboo that is printed on the bag. I have some Riddle in my stash and this is made of 33.33% Merino, 33.33% Bamboo and 33.33% Tweed. We have already discovered that this Tweed is actually made up of 80% South American Wool, 20% Viscose. So, there is Tweed in the Riddle part and also extra Tweed has been added. Figuring this one out actually made my head spin a little but I done the math and the actual fibre content, with figures rounded to 1 decimal point, is 41.7% Merino, 33.3% South American Wool, 16.7% Bamboo, 8.3% Viscose. The also informed us that the additional Merino element is made up of two colours, Emerald and Lightning.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqcMUsw-tIDY8JgGWE1KYsJKFnWIKCIPZJumKS_5Tgd9H5gJ2SQ3RRQMn54qtm3mchTQBh4uwi1t22xk0lR6dDJTNlAxQV5BTmURrbQI6NS0f6hUyeTFFFWmUDxTUiIN6G8jwrRKiKXhdzDWGUSVUTm7IIjL6ZCSCYhtjOtN8pN4dhgNZXSYH7uzrFqYw/s3000/nisser%20and%20riddle%20comparison.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="2000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqcMUsw-tIDY8JgGWE1KYsJKFnWIKCIPZJumKS_5Tgd9H5gJ2SQ3RRQMn54qtm3mchTQBh4uwi1t22xk0lR6dDJTNlAxQV5BTmURrbQI6NS0f6hUyeTFFFWmUDxTUiIN6G8jwrRKiKXhdzDWGUSVUTm7IIjL6ZCSCYhtjOtN8pN4dhgNZXSYH7uzrFqYw/w426-h640/nisser%20and%20riddle%20comparison.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Top: 50g of Nisser containing 50% Riddle<br />Botton: 100g of Riddle<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAn-B8ymz8GfDY4JRDCPTpPZPITauNAnR9KEOn-dnYwDlN9nkVbTnfaGeUP9LCxc7wr2_ph8eNNM2pZ8U7hqo2mUJelN4qaKdoyBqY3qYMBTl6nIGIZfxJ7rvFtsf67P3RqdOG-U7aQQkgs9vAAJqhw4n6Nes10Wdb_0rA74u-bbz9ONzMWSgPDvAUTcE/s2500/Day%207%20Fibre%20collage.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="2500" height="460" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAn-B8ymz8GfDY4JRDCPTpPZPITauNAnR9KEOn-dnYwDlN9nkVbTnfaGeUP9LCxc7wr2_ph8eNNM2pZ8U7hqo2mUJelN4qaKdoyBqY3qYMBTl6nIGIZfxJ7rvFtsf67P3RqdOG-U7aQQkgs9vAAJqhw4n6Nes10Wdb_0rA74u-bbz9ONzMWSgPDvAUTcE/w640-h460/Day%207%20Fibre%20collage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>As I've already said a couple of times, as a customer/consumer I don't want to know the percentage of "other blends" that are in the blend and I shouldn't have to then do research or ask questions to find out what is in that blend and do the maths to add those fibre percentages into the main blend fibre content percentages. Thankfully I was not the only one that brought this oversight up with them and they've been pretty good about it. </p><p>What I have done with my bags is to write the actual fibre content on the bag using a gold gel pen in the gap immediately below the printed details, pretty much the only thing that will show up on black are the metallic gel pens. This is why I have not taken "new" photos of the bags, as this one got quite messy!.</p>DrapedInLacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188308092012122929noreply@blogger.com0Birmingham, UK52.486242999999988 -1.89040124.176009163821142 -37.046651 80.79647683617884 33.265849tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961499212027100673.post-33731724341617551052023-12-06T15:30:00.005+00:002024-01-21T23:43:43.436+00:00Spinning "Night Sky"<p>This is the first of four planned yarns that I will be making using the last of the <a href="https://drapedinlacebyjuliablakeman.blogspot.com/2023/07/combing-last-of-jacob-fleece.html" target="_blank">black Jacob wool</a> that I have from fleece that I got several years ago. For this one I spun up a whole bobbin of the black Jacob and then I spun up the 48g of "Baubles" 100% Merino from Day 8 of the Advent Calendar 2022 that I <a href="https://drapedinlacebyjuliablakeman.blogspot.com/2023/06/a-day-dyeing-fibre-mostly-wool.html" rel="" target="_blank">overdyed</a> in June 2023.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVFt3QEf39N2v1eCrViPwrDdMmf5fo4OzBFzdO1QSowsGzk6bioyn9DB2N73wPDWqyqq53MzW0hOFnLRHffwerf2nntny9hsly2w-V-i3UQcW13W-VxHWW3McjFtCT0AnrjWJA4nGnuOb1Zk1f0CYLSy8t-HUbZFSr5kAe-m0EkqsqNPRZ-x8lLit4BrU/s3000/fibre%20collage.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="3000" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVFt3QEf39N2v1eCrViPwrDdMmf5fo4OzBFzdO1QSowsGzk6bioyn9DB2N73wPDWqyqq53MzW0hOFnLRHffwerf2nntny9hsly2w-V-i3UQcW13W-VxHWW3McjFtCT0AnrjWJA4nGnuOb1Zk1f0CYLSy8t-HUbZFSr5kAe-m0EkqsqNPRZ-x8lLit4BrU/w640-h298/fibre%20collage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>I spun each of them separately and then just plied them together until all of the Merino was used up. By some miraculous fluke my finished yarn weighed exactly twice that of the Merino, so despite being different types/textures of wool both singles weighed the same and so this is 50% Jacob, 50% Merino.<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMkD3EonmNovqt7DUqFDHdIiVbihOejigVnbEf_qHks4wdvEorQ45lk2eKNqmE6J1s_sa1LFLnBZslLlHt59lg2uZMfxspTAkjcPc-Rc8K11hyVXJBOUyo3CuX40Nj4QSYx7L4isICSyW83Ir2jG3iIDUfiTekXhPI5r61KQdx7MYz12MgArko95ophQM/s4000/yarn%20collage.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="4000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMkD3EonmNovqt7DUqFDHdIiVbihOejigVnbEf_qHks4wdvEorQ45lk2eKNqmE6J1s_sa1LFLnBZslLlHt59lg2uZMfxspTAkjcPc-Rc8K11hyVXJBOUyo3CuX40Nj4QSYx7L4isICSyW83Ir2jG3iIDUfiTekXhPI5r61KQdx7MYz12MgArko95ophQM/w640-h320/yarn%20collage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>I love the way the colours of the Merino are constantly changing between blue/lilac/purple and plying that with the black Jacob really makes the colours pop. I've called it "Night Sky".</p><p>This has turned out to be Double-Knit weight and there is 95g/225m</p></div>DrapedInLacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188308092012122929noreply@blogger.com0Birmingham, UK52.486242999999988 -1.89040124.176009163821142 -37.046651 80.79647683617884 33.265849tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961499212027100673.post-104066698576199542023-12-06T15:18:00.004+00:002024-03-25T16:06:45.232+00:00Advent Calendar 2023 Day 6<p><b>The Tradition</b></p><p>Day 6 is called Pōhutukawa and the tradition comes from New Zealand. It is a flowering tree called the New Zealand Christmas Tree or Iron Tree that flowers November to January with vibrant red flowers. The oldest tree is thought to be around 600 years old and they are sacred in Māori culture and mythology. It is a coastal evergreen tree belonging to the Myrtle family that grow up to about 82ft tall.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibtRIS7rkmR5edLmJETputjlv6rrsLbzPVjsfQ-ZaK6fyqPt7pWLhyphenhyphenMgpxSwVBAixabNpBtCNIZmdx5UeYF8GdrsATFtuay1XWYpJ9D3OEq8beMLkBPmpxr7HreEE_vF344WM_HNh38xJ9gznD6PfdOBPj8lWhcjUBdZZ8kT41rkAVdY7Q9DPts5O4KpQ/s1687/Pohutukawa%20trees.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1209" data-original-width="1687" height="458" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibtRIS7rkmR5edLmJETputjlv6rrsLbzPVjsfQ-ZaK6fyqPt7pWLhyphenhyphenMgpxSwVBAixabNpBtCNIZmdx5UeYF8GdrsATFtuay1XWYpJ9D3OEq8beMLkBPmpxr7HreEE_vF344WM_HNh38xJ9gznD6PfdOBPj8lWhcjUBdZZ8kT41rkAVdY7Q9DPts5O4KpQ/w640-h458/Pohutukawa%20trees.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcjL_QP1MXLAdKBxDhuVY2vgd8Qps4yexbDp-Jh49rgSUkrD3ZiFLk0DgXYl39vbV2NNZNsfw1HLNL_i6eH2UvxyhFhkHd6z-PETqSZV_6qoNqORMViNGSD0mvObzXhSbTvsMcPfDdDFW25P8EAOYc7YHjwuntJFnY0wQdxGtM1cUr-57lSBtdcHnrulU/s1420/pohutukawa%20flowers.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1420" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcjL_QP1MXLAdKBxDhuVY2vgd8Qps4yexbDp-Jh49rgSUkrD3ZiFLk0DgXYl39vbV2NNZNsfw1HLNL_i6eH2UvxyhFhkHd6z-PETqSZV_6qoNqORMViNGSD0mvObzXhSbTvsMcPfDdDFW25P8EAOYc7YHjwuntJFnY0wQdxGtM1cUr-57lSBtdcHnrulU/w640-h360/pohutukawa%20flowers.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>The Fibre</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7UYjZXMNEBHOXjcuer2waoA-S0xXdD2OtbaYM5amZT6mziSdYDlLrgOAoRNxXVnsYkrJNdndPIkpvR9SCl2dQSzMei93fWMdkfojeqNFjzFsCKNQV6RCyMwvRe0_4Zg7k-Fq7UYBMBkRtohFkWNdcNNbYeRrh35PRvORK41Y2BrU5sVt9cP4GK3vs6UY/s2500/Day%206%20collage.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="2500" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7UYjZXMNEBHOXjcuer2waoA-S0xXdD2OtbaYM5amZT6mziSdYDlLrgOAoRNxXVnsYkrJNdndPIkpvR9SCl2dQSzMei93fWMdkfojeqNFjzFsCKNQV6RCyMwvRe0_4Zg7k-Fq7UYBMBkRtohFkWNdcNNbYeRrh35PRvORK41Y2BrU5sVt9cP4GK3vs6UY/w640-h358/Day%206%20collage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>The actual fibre content is 60% New Zealand (brown), 20% Sari Silk (Rosette), 20% Corriedale (Grass). Because this is a New Zealand tradition we have New Zealand fibre in it. This is a natural brown shade of New Zealand and its got green Corriedale in it, which also comes from New Zealand and its got red Sari Silk in to represent the flowers. You've got a little bit of everything in this blend, brown for the bark, green for the leaves and red for the flowers. This is actually quite a soft blend because the fibres in it are bulky and squishy and you would be able use these in any chosen craft. This will be an interesting fibre to spin with. The Sari Silk has got different staple lengths in it which means you don't always get an even draft on it so you would end up with some of it slightly thicker and some of it slightly thinner which would be a lovely textured yarn and it would also be good for an art yarn. Because this a recycled Sari Silk you get pops of other colours in it so we've got a little bit of pink in here are well as a tiny little bit of green too and it will be a fun blend to work with.</p><p><b>My Thoughts</b></p><p>Upon open the packet I immediately thought of one of the fibres from last years advent calendar, which this reminds me of. I am thinking that it might work well with last year's <a href="https://drapedinlacebyjuliablakeman.blogspot.com/2022/12/advent-calendar-2022-day-3.html" target="_blank">Day 3 "Wreath"</a>. The colours are not my favourite blend but I'm ok with that. </p><p>I am also writing up these blog posts some time after the date and the first photos are what I took on the day of opening using my mobile phone and the early December natural light, which isn't always the best, and the next photos have been taken some time after using my proper camera and my little lit pop up studio and the colours are more true to life. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6OAzLYeh6QAlAxidgh52Uz0VHISE_KRRuTeJE0AAOSFCdspnz1VxB_ZYuEDIAkiBmXBWjHaubXeG_SoG0pE-chI6ab-zo0JSTYm4BbOZoWCWSEk51VCIUpHUe8sWdZ53ZXGESGZQwb5bBDgDO3lDPI8pG8GdWQAgGV-_6zgFuh-Soa78iMwYi2Er9YNk/s2500/Day%206%20fibre%20collage.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="2500" height="460" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6OAzLYeh6QAlAxidgh52Uz0VHISE_KRRuTeJE0AAOSFCdspnz1VxB_ZYuEDIAkiBmXBWjHaubXeG_SoG0pE-chI6ab-zo0JSTYm4BbOZoWCWSEk51VCIUpHUe8sWdZ53ZXGESGZQwb5bBDgDO3lDPI8pG8GdWQAgGV-_6zgFuh-Soa78iMwYi2Er9YNk/w640-h460/Day%206%20fibre%20collage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>The information that has been printed on the bags is not always correct and there are no fibre content percentages, these have been provided on the chat boards. The percentages that they gave on the chat boards seem to be correct, YAY!</p><p>What I have done with my bags is to write the actual fibre content on the bag using a gold gel pen in the gap immediately below the printed details, pretty much the only thing that will show up on black are the metallic gel pens. This is why I have not taken "new" photos of the bags.</p>DrapedInLacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188308092012122929noreply@blogger.com0Birmingham, UK52.486242999999988 -1.89040124.176009163821142 -37.046651 80.79647683617884 33.265849tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961499212027100673.post-11985753413891776312023-12-05T10:48:00.007+00:002024-03-25T15:40:13.519+00:00Advent Calendar 2023 Day 5<p><b>The Tradition</b></p><p>Day 5 is called Almond Within and the tradition comes from Finland. In Finland it is called Riisipuuro (Rice Porridge) It is a tradition of putting an almond into Rice Pudding or Rice Porridge that is eaten for breakfast on Christmas Day and the person who finds the almond gets to make a wish and will be lucky for the next year. This tradition is much like our own British tradition of putting a coin in the Christmas Pudding.</p><p><b>The Fibre</b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7FPlMXfVj-b2Gw0G7YbWDzSBox6pVxjpHpuFJG0TNEP2UqgswMmiNybsZUEpVzfB5GlDvi1HIoBOvyX0fogg8wrjB8ujRGobjVH8xO3Wo8FXTi-RAZ38ol2WjoL8pykgSpcgXHfV2c5V0hKbP9XBgQI8svw-jxnih_O8fxtxR6uY32sNzMZkkxdevV78/s2500/Day%205%20collage.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="2500" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7FPlMXfVj-b2Gw0G7YbWDzSBox6pVxjpHpuFJG0TNEP2UqgswMmiNybsZUEpVzfB5GlDvi1HIoBOvyX0fogg8wrjB8ujRGobjVH8xO3Wo8FXTi-RAZ38ol2WjoL8pykgSpcgXHfV2c5V0hKbP9XBgQI8svw-jxnih_O8fxtxR6uY32sNzMZkkxdevV78/w640-h358/Day%205%20collage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>The actual fibre content is 80% Finnish Landrace Wool, 20% Mulberry Silk (in Jaipur Pink and Budapest purple). In this blend we have used Finnish wool, naturally, and to represent the Almonds, because our Sugared Almonds are always rather bright, we've got pink and purple Mulberry Silk going through it. It looks like sugared almonds and rice pudding. Finnish fibre is not really really soft, that's because Finland is not a warm place and so the sheep need nice warm double coats to keep the weather out. You'll find that this is much more textured, its got more grip to it which means it will felt really well and will give a nice firm outer layer. If you're knitting crocheting the stitch definition of this is absolutely fantastic and you benefit from the extra colour which gives a little bit of softness too.</p><p><b>My Thoughts</b></p><p>Yeah, hmmm, not a fan of this one. It's the colour, I'm definitely not a pink girl, Pink! (as in US singer) yep, love her music, but pink as in colour, that's a noooooooooooo from me. I will either have to put this braid with another white braid to reduce the amount of pink or I will have to over-dye the finished yarn after spinning. Maybe I will do both, it will depend on how pink it is when "watered down" with other fibres.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwNYw5O3jg7ia1rWc2uRTVewmXqzeUujPoRvDOFPzAJG62MPGsQpji5p0nYphgf3zzkt4gIBpkPzNltEIen6K3G0QI0YVE8A7Y0jTJMLqNpEM0AQcHvZ5YhpzXAihipsSyx6JMCxTUaIYPOYkswNfnknVOq9qPGl9mvoTZSF7g7y0ygMADsRj0RI3V4vI/s2500/Day%205%20fibre%20collage.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="2500" height="460" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwNYw5O3jg7ia1rWc2uRTVewmXqzeUujPoRvDOFPzAJG62MPGsQpji5p0nYphgf3zzkt4gIBpkPzNltEIen6K3G0QI0YVE8A7Y0jTJMLqNpEM0AQcHvZ5YhpzXAihipsSyx6JMCxTUaIYPOYkswNfnknVOq9qPGl9mvoTZSF7g7y0ygMADsRj0RI3V4vI/w640-h460/Day%205%20fibre%20collage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>The information that has been printed on the bags is not always correct and there are no fibre content percentages, these have been provided on the chat boards. This one has been pretty straightforward in regards to the fibre content though, no mistakes with this one, hurrah!</p><p>What I have done with my bags is to write the actual fibre content on the bag using a gold gel pen in the gap immediately below the printed details, pretty much the only thing that will show up on black are the metallic gel pens. This is why I have not taken "new" photos of the bags.</p>DrapedInLacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188308092012122929noreply@blogger.com0Birmingham, UK52.486242999999988 -1.89040124.176009163821142 -37.046651 80.79647683617884 33.265849tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961499212027100673.post-33167252131487191712023-12-04T14:02:00.007+00:002024-03-25T15:05:46.038+00:00Advent Calendar 2023 Day 4<p><b>The Tradition</b></p><p>Day 4 is called Window Shoes and the tradition comes from Iceland and is just a small part of the tradition of the 13 Yule Lads. Icelandic Folklore features stories and poems about monsters and trolls and one of these is a female troll called Grýla, who has dozens of children with her first two husbands, none of which are mentioned anymore, but is now married to Leppalúði and has 13 children with him known as the 13 Yule Lads. In old times these characters were portrayed as kidnappers of naughty children who would take them back to their huge family cave and eat the children. They were used to frighten children into good behaviour, similar to the story of the Boogeyman. It is said that the King of Denmark, Christian VI, objected to the use of this disciplinary stool and the scary stories were officially banned in 1746. In more modern times The Yule Lads are benevolent pranksters who arrive one by one over the 13 nights in the run up to Christmas or Yule and each one stays for 13 days, starting on 12th December and the first lad departs on Christmas Day with the rest departing daily through to 6th January. They place small gifts in shoes that children leave on window sills, although if the child has been naughty they will find a rotten potatoes in their shoe. </p><p><b>The Fibre</b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio5LoayWCBUnlTrNg-98hU_pW4jBPk3Q5a_iQRAAIKhQp-0PMVaGVMYtsFtBV3-M0V954wkiv0ijJy4uEopWjuvPMwFZHbqUolc20FePqsMIYw1K2M1iVLKmDDjga992qKg7VqexFb1STADEWOfKO4IHEEpd9ZexuK8xyj-_NiDS5XsQ1o1MeOKO8zb_s/s2500/Day%204%20collage.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="2500" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio5LoayWCBUnlTrNg-98hU_pW4jBPk3Q5a_iQRAAIKhQp-0PMVaGVMYtsFtBV3-M0V954wkiv0ijJy4uEopWjuvPMwFZHbqUolc20FePqsMIYw1K2M1iVLKmDDjga992qKg7VqexFb1STADEWOfKO4IHEEpd9ZexuK8xyj-_NiDS5XsQ1o1MeOKO8zb_s/w640-h358/Day%204%20collage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>The actual fibre content is different to that that was printed on the bags, see the comments in "My Thoughts" for full details. We have used Icelandic in this blend, naturally, and blended it with Stellina and Glitz to mimic the Northern Lights so you have greys and whites of the snow and cold and these little shocks of green and purple just to mimic the lights and you can actually see it coming through in the blend, which is lovely, This isn't a really soft blend because Icelandic is not a really soft fibre. It is double coated which means it has a long coat on the outside and then a shorter warmer coat on the inside which gives it character, as you will on the sheep they look a bit scraggy in places, so this blend is not hugely smooth but its perfect for outer garments if you're going to knit or crochet.</p><p><b>My Thoughts</b></p><p>I'm not a massive fan of this blend but I don't dislike it either. It is certainly interesting and it definitely does not contain any Stellina whatsoever, there are no metallic looking fibres in this at all. Stellina looks like the metallic threads that you can buy to hang off a Christmas Tree and gives a sparkle whereas Trilobal Nylon is much softer and really really fine and gives more of a shimmer than a sparkle. At this point in time I am not sure what I will be doing with this one.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwC8OfX3AZeq-ZMUd2jE8s-WEZGjyf7C-uIvTj7rwqBgs36-z98CJ13BS4xl8V1cRff3LJszB-NuWyPGld4NrDgfkBne2y3dUM8hpLBVtElXQfNIDtExzbOFizzs3fW9bDpkhoKK2Jsw_5h0ThjgprEAWRc8VQDxNuHJaq4FHE2xObc1LgpigdZ8pET9U/s2500/Day%204%20fibre%20collage.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="2500" height="460" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwC8OfX3AZeq-ZMUd2jE8s-WEZGjyf7C-uIvTj7rwqBgs36-z98CJ13BS4xl8V1cRff3LJszB-NuWyPGld4NrDgfkBne2y3dUM8hpLBVtElXQfNIDtExzbOFizzs3fW9bDpkhoKK2Jsw_5h0ThjgprEAWRc8VQDxNuHJaq4FHE2xObc1LgpigdZ8pET9U/w640-h460/Day%204%20fibre%20collage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>The information that has been printed on the bags is not necessarily correct and there are no fibre content percentages, these have been provided on the chat boards. The percentages that they originally gave on the chat boards was 50% Icelandic, 30% Glitzy Aubergine, 20% Glitzy Mallard, which is different from the Icelandic and Stellina that is printed on the bag. I have some Glitzy Mallard in my stash and this is made of 70% Merino, 30% Trilobal Nylon. Aubergine and Mallard are just the names of two colours of the same range of fibre that have the exact same fibre content and no Stellina in sight. The actual fibre content is 50% Icelandic, 35% Merino, 15% Trilobal Nylon</p><p>As I said yesterday, as a customer/consumer I don't want to know the percentage of "other blends" that are in the blend and I shouldn't have to then do research or ask questions to find out what is in that blend and do the maths to add those fibre percentages into the main blend fibre content percentages. Thankfully I was not the only one that brought this oversight up with them and they've been pretty good about it. </p><p>What I have done with my bags is to write the actual fibre content on the bag using a gold gel pen in the gap immediately below the printed details, pretty much the only thing that will show up on black are the metallic gel pens. This is why I have not taken "new" photos of the bags.</p>DrapedInLacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188308092012122929noreply@blogger.com0Birmingham, UK52.486242999999988 -1.89040124.176009163821142 -37.046651 80.79647683617884 33.265849tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961499212027100673.post-79095496520534127532023-12-04T12:26:00.059+00:002024-01-18T21:25:38.305+00:00Spinning the Olive Green Jacob blendI have found the time to finally spin the blend that I made back in June with the <a href="https://drapedinlacebyjuliablakeman.blogspot.com/2023/06/making-blend-using-olive-green-jacob.html" rel="nofollow">Olive Green Jacob</a> wool. I forgot to take any photos of the pre-drafted fibre in my spinning basket and I had plenty of chances to do that because I made 4 skeins and each has two halves so I had 8 opportunities and I just didn't take any photos because I'm dippy! Thankfully I did remember to take at least one photo of the spinning-in-progress.<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2c8xp0WggB0s6iecJ67rHSFHs3oG1kdrebtpgwbdudD9AeTtWL6mZA8uuWosAvJwjuzLEKj8Ti5achKMNPxG5GrcVbKSDeYxyuKLLQ2LA2iF7OcjdSGOe3V62Hv7UqRFI_aMmM4JDlZ1MUFWgBFB6v9EzsNpd_8tlUDUHo0JYFROxK5JeqmeCJiO_6S0/s2000/work%20in%20progress%20collage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="2000" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2c8xp0WggB0s6iecJ67rHSFHs3oG1kdrebtpgwbdudD9AeTtWL6mZA8uuWosAvJwjuzLEKj8Ti5achKMNPxG5GrcVbKSDeYxyuKLLQ2LA2iF7OcjdSGOe3V62Hv7UqRFI_aMmM4JDlZ1MUFWgBFB6v9EzsNpd_8tlUDUHo0JYFROxK5JeqmeCJiO_6S0/w640-h384/work%20in%20progress%20collage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div>When I pre-drafted this I had to thin out all of the additions that I added and then when I spun it I thinned it out some more and was mindful when the silk noil came up to make sure that got thinned out too so that I got some texture but not great big bumps of it. Some people love really really textured yarns but I do not, I don't mind a little bit of interest but I'm not into overly textured yarns.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik6wCBa14tiVEilsGnZOCvVAkjeafINbnyi4pm9TgxxblPwNU3SY7zTvTnx8_5Uw_4i8Kjiya1zpZQl_f5USGZohRCw_3EUINQkG0dBskwEHuIgp2riPeQ9O6HlYfR8K3W8vmrvsLWDbidcSgTAq_WaborqBxpStUpse_iXlNnwGVUbK-HEYjgJafKlMI/s4000/yarn%20collage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="4000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik6wCBa14tiVEilsGnZOCvVAkjeafINbnyi4pm9TgxxblPwNU3SY7zTvTnx8_5Uw_4i8Kjiya1zpZQl_f5USGZohRCw_3EUINQkG0dBskwEHuIgp2riPeQ9O6HlYfR8K3W8vmrvsLWDbidcSgTAq_WaborqBxpStUpse_iXlNnwGVUbK-HEYjgJafKlMI/w640-h320/yarn%20collage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div>I got 4 skeins, all sport weight, 101g/215m, 105g/215m, 104g/221m and 103g/228m. The final fibre content is: 54% Jacob Wool, 16% 23 micron Merino Wool, 14% mixed white wools, 5.5% Cellulose, 4% Tussah Silk, 3% Hemp, 2.5% Silk Noil, 1% Trilobal Nylon. I had trouble capturing the true colour in photographs and I had to manually adjust them to increase the green as they were showing as almost greyscale photos.</div><div><br /></div>DrapedInLacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188308092012122929noreply@blogger.com0Birmingham, UK52.486242999999988 -1.89040124.176009163821142 -37.046651 80.79647683617884 33.265849tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961499212027100673.post-2684073450876972962023-12-03T09:37:00.004+00:002024-03-25T15:10:34.279+00:00Advent Calendar 2023 Day 3<p><b>The Tradition</b></p><p>Day 3 is called Kurisumasu ni wa Kentakkii and the tradition comes from Japan. The first KFC outlet opened in Japan in 1970 and its manager was Takeshi Okawara. He came up with the idea of a creating a "party barrel" of KFC to be sold at Christmas after overhearing a couple of foreigners talking in his store about how they missed having turkey at Christmas whilst they are in Japan. He marketed his "party barrel" at Christmas in his store until KFC themselves took the idea up and marketed it across all of their Japan stores for Christmas 1974 under the name of Kurisumasu ni wa Kentakkii, or Kentucky for Christmas. It was a success and Takeshi Okawara rose through the company ranks quickly, serving as president and CEO of Kentucky Fried Chicken Japan from 1984 to 2002.</p><p>Previously, there was no Christmas tradition in Japan as the majority of Japanese people follow Shinto or Buddhism faiths, worshipping ancestors and spirits with only around 1% of the population following the Christian faith. Today an estimated 3.6 million Japanese families treat themselves to the special meal at KFC over Christmas period. Other families treat it as a time to have a romantic celebration, similar to St Valentines day, and have a meal in upscale restaurants and then there are some families that acknowledge the day but do not celebrate it in any form.</p><p>The meals are so popular over the Christmas period that you can't just walk in a get one. Most people pre-order the meal weeks in advance and if you don't do this then you could be waiting in line for hours to be able to get one and daily sales at some KFC restaurants can be 10 times that of any other time of year. It's not just barrels of fried chicken that is available, over the years the meals have morphed into banquets and you can now get fried chicken, cake and wine. In a country that puts a high value on its elders, they now also dress up the company mascot, Colonel Sanders, in Santa outfits. </p><p><b>The Fibre</b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_Qw_ga8UOQveT0rCp3YgJrFapaDDRpjnus9EGFK9ng6_Rd1JQTjWirPE_VbJE_a1Qx5z-KrapCGXQXwmb-vPAOiLWfnuFeqfqVG2oLtFIQK4gHEPh-cQl49xUMZduUw0uiUU0hHOQ7XdG7YswiMnyP3yeKxuK6SRKAm1j8HfKSh2osScE2S_7jWlnhy8/s2500/Day%203%20collage.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="2500" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_Qw_ga8UOQveT0rCp3YgJrFapaDDRpjnus9EGFK9ng6_Rd1JQTjWirPE_VbJE_a1Qx5z-KrapCGXQXwmb-vPAOiLWfnuFeqfqVG2oLtFIQK4gHEPh-cQl49xUMZduUw0uiUU0hHOQ7XdG7YswiMnyP3yeKxuK6SRKAm1j8HfKSh2osScE2S_7jWlnhy8/w640-h358/Day%203%20collage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>The actual fibre content is different to that that was printed on the bags, see the comments in "My Thoughts" for full details. There are some kind of similarities with some colours maybe with some sort of branding but it is totally unintentional and this blend doesn't contain any interesting herbs or spices. It has a nice bold colour provided by the Corriedale and although Corriedale is not as soft as Merino it does have the same stitch definition when its being knitted or crocheted. It has a nice bulk to it, which you don't find in Merino blends and there are lovely little bits of Tweed running through it to add a little bit of extra colour and some texture. The lightness comes from the Lotus Fibre, which has just been blended throughout so instead of being a heavy dark red it lifts it quite a bit.</p><p><b>My Thoughts</b></p><p>I like this one, it's quite festive and could even represent Santa with the red suit, white trim and black accessories. I'm glad that the blends are not all super soft and fluffy, I like having a bit of a more hardwearing fibre too.</p><p>The information that has been printed on the bags is not necessarily correct and there are no fibre content percentages, these have been provided on the chat boards. The percentages that they originally gave on the chat boards was 60% Corriedale, 30% Tweed, 10% Lotus, which is different from the Corriedale, Lotus and Viscose that is printed on the bag and after some discussion it transpires that "Tweed" is actually 80% South American Wool, 20% Viscose and it took a little while to get the actual contents from them and work out the actual fibre percentages, which is 60% Corriedale, 24% South American Wool, 10% Lotus and 6% Viscose . </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwNGj-q7GYRusCgu5mUc1yZMYRsMzQRD4WkxDSm06aiYgX_h1Nhm5B4PvTxjfzXwGo0EZWrGZAMj8_FiCfmJmbaYbhMsNZFmtKCFycrt1XhXi-jN-YHxCYzYncIcRp76hUPBevJ_aBHhjOJs_ezmBfu7RMpcyr8KReoJfZJlGb3HuaiBNZZ92tNhDrWUE/s2500/Day%203%20fibre%20collage.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="2500" height="460" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwNGj-q7GYRusCgu5mUc1yZMYRsMzQRD4WkxDSm06aiYgX_h1Nhm5B4PvTxjfzXwGo0EZWrGZAMj8_FiCfmJmbaYbhMsNZFmtKCFycrt1XhXi-jN-YHxCYzYncIcRp76hUPBevJ_aBHhjOJs_ezmBfu7RMpcyr8KReoJfZJlGb3HuaiBNZZ92tNhDrWUE/w640-h460/Day%203%20fibre%20collage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>As a customer/consumer I don't want to know the percentage of "other blends" that are in the blend and I shouldn't have to then do research or ask questions to find out what is in that blend and do the maths to add those fibre percentages into the main blend fibre content percentages. Thankfully I was not the only one that brought this oversight up with them and they've been pretty good about it. I have now also adjusted the fibre content details on all other blends in my stash that contain "Tweed" to correct them to what they actually are. Thankfully I have not made any shawls or anything with any yarns that I have spun using this "Tweed" content.</p><p>What I have done with my bags is to write the actual fibre content on the bag using a gold gel pen in the gap immediately below the printed details, pretty much the only thing that will show up on black are the metallic gel pens. This is why I have not taken "new" photos of the bags.</p>DrapedInLacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188308092012122929noreply@blogger.com0Birmingham, UK52.486242999999988 -1.89040124.176009163821142 -37.046651 80.79647683617884 33.265849tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961499212027100673.post-83193015944000993872023-12-02T20:05:00.004+00:002024-03-25T12:05:21.515+00:00Advent Calendar 2023 Day 2<p><b>The Tradition</b></p><p>Day 2 is called Ligligan Parul and the tradition comes from the Philippines where there is an annual Giant Lantern Festival held in the City of San Fernando in the Philippines, not to be confused with The San Fernando Valley in California, USA. It began in San Fernando in 1904 but it's history goes back further, to Bacolor which is the previous provincial capital, and it was a much simpler religious activity that is known today as Lubenas, where the lanterns measured just 2 feet and were made from bamboo and coloured paper. Over the years the competition of making them has progressed so far that these are now around 15 to 20 feet in diameter, made of coloured plastic or fibre glass and illuminated by 3,500-5,000 electric light bulbs and there is now a limit of a maximum of 10,000 lights because it has become a real big competition between the different administrative divisions of the Philippines.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzcM6dQVrpwaq_xX3RKtO6yeI_ZzJuXSrGEL_sPMy7S5kcP8JcZ8fg7tKKOI8xjvQRDQ0OO90EmQSYVZC-Ec2jRwzI29bldIp29qhntiQetJSd-EaX-4a1BfJlEQA1CwFE1s-mdtCz2Zn_X1CDt9Ol8jL1POLsrbL_Y6mw5qK5nafPDY-yaR0gSyGTuaM/s474/Ligligan%20Parul.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="138" data-original-width="474" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzcM6dQVrpwaq_xX3RKtO6yeI_ZzJuXSrGEL_sPMy7S5kcP8JcZ8fg7tKKOI8xjvQRDQ0OO90EmQSYVZC-Ec2jRwzI29bldIp29qhntiQetJSd-EaX-4a1BfJlEQA1CwFE1s-mdtCz2Zn_X1CDt9Ol8jL1POLsrbL_Y6mw5qK5nafPDY-yaR0gSyGTuaM/w640-h186/Ligligan%20Parul.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /> <b>The Fibre</b><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYwchmqXdcsAyqEEcEHADqHnedSe0wlMhtVpYDOVi4fMXnOVKVxKRqx2g_apVVOFszQz8Tb7Q4Wk0Pb04e27na95_vroF4jBhvPlOosv6kXpAoXG6-XZOlA3IGbg9ECQhgElDfjnVdjxGB1q1VyxjBBMmd6LbbbfKghOoRfOmP26_mdy4Zto92oFCHUoc/s2500/Day%202%20collage.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="2500" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYwchmqXdcsAyqEEcEHADqHnedSe0wlMhtVpYDOVi4fMXnOVKVxKRqx2g_apVVOFszQz8Tb7Q4Wk0Pb04e27na95_vroF4jBhvPlOosv6kXpAoXG6-XZOlA3IGbg9ECQhgElDfjnVdjxGB1q1VyxjBBMmd6LbbbfKghOoRfOmP26_mdy4Zto92oFCHUoc/w640-h358/Day%202%20collage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>The fibre is 80% Merino (23 microns), 20% Extra Bleached Tussah Silk and the colours represent the bright lights of the festival. This one needs to be big and bright and so we have used Merino and Tussah Silk so that it is both soft and bold. Imagine this with a black back drop and that is how the lanterns appear in the festival. It has a really nice sheen, from the Silk and the Merino is really bringing the blues and greens. Any garment made from the spun yarn would be snuggly and cosy and lovely next to the skin.</p><p><b>My Thoughts</b></p><p>I like the colours in this one, the colours remind me a little bit of a Blue Tit (British garden bird). Its not an unusual blend in terms of the fibres, Merino and Tussah Silk blends can be found everywhere. I'm not sure how I will handle the colours, let them blend to give an overall bluey-green yarn or separate them out to give a more colourful yarn. I don't need to make any decisions yet.</p><p>As usual I am waiting until I have opened all of the packets before I decide what I will do with it. I am also writing up these blog posts some time after the event and the first photos are what I took on the day of opening using my mobile phone and the early December natural light, which isn't always the best, and the next photos have been taken some time after using my proper camera and my little lit pop up studio and the colours are more true to life. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN4LVSCsgqOv9wgpFVeyIbH_2gDs2TOnmvEsKcSBSwHv-ZRJraSFaiamvUQZODofp9iknIChCloJiv6yaaBaayCYPN-zqTBEsH_Ja_gWMbj3PFTysgm4mXpNs-ZflVX4BiLa3g5fOsSOE0Uw2JbjZfRy4vmLqqRI6MY6WeVu0iSwj93EKNM40I4za8p5E/s2500/Day%202%20fibre%20collage.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="2500" height="460" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN4LVSCsgqOv9wgpFVeyIbH_2gDs2TOnmvEsKcSBSwHv-ZRJraSFaiamvUQZODofp9iknIChCloJiv6yaaBaayCYPN-zqTBEsH_Ja_gWMbj3PFTysgm4mXpNs-ZflVX4BiLa3g5fOsSOE0Uw2JbjZfRy4vmLqqRI6MY6WeVu0iSwj93EKNM40I4za8p5E/w640-h460/Day%202%20fibre%20collage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>The information that has been printed on the bags is not necessarily correct and there are no fibre content percentages, these have been provided on the chat boards. </p><p>What I have done with my bags is to write the actual fibre content on the bag using a gold gel pen in the gap immediately below the printed details, pretty much the only thing that will show up on black are the metallic gel pens. This is why I have not taken "new" photos of the bags.</p>DrapedInLacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188308092012122929noreply@blogger.com0Birmingham, UK52.486242999999988 -1.89040124.176009163821142 -37.046651 80.79647683617884 33.265849tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961499212027100673.post-44526212351807449682023-12-01T17:21:00.015+00:002024-03-25T11:50:08.078+00:00Advent Calendar 2023 Day 1<p>So, following the arrival of the Advent Calendar about a week and a half ago, I have since decided to throw the fibre packaging away as it really isn't worth the hassle of trying to do anything with it.</p><p>This year's advent calendar is themed on different "Holiday Traditions" from around the world. I will say "Holiday" because there are numerous religions and faiths that celebrate at this time of year and it's not necessarily called "Christmas", there are many other names for many different celebrations.</p><p><b>The Tradition</b></p><p>Day 1 is called Gävle Goat and the tradition comes from Sweden where a huge goat is made of straw every year and erected in the town of Gävle at Slottstorget (Castle Square). It is basically a giant version of the traditional Yule Goat decoration. This tradition started in 1966 when an advertising consultant by the name of Stig Gavlén (1927-2018) came up with the idea of placing a giant version of the traditional decoration in the square and the giant goat has been subject to all sorts of vandalism and destruction since then, usually by human hand but sometimes by nature. As of December 2023, 42 out of 58 goats have been destroyed by burning or some other cause. It is now illegal to destroy the goat and if you get caught doing so it is a 3 month prison term for you. The first one built in 1966 stood at around 13 metres tall and the height has varied over the years, with one year it being just 2 metres tall and then this year it stands at around 12 metres tall. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjCH8kpkHrlRw9oa7EQezHa0aVsjiVzn13qLR6QK6KVYomNVRGNtbqKv_GtrayvGfrpxbjksNK101vDVEQ_wXAGWCS78HjFdccm6PRERKk01H8ddl9Ux8OpYR-XVyv8awQazjv59PuKHub9Q0CdJQtSJxCdlQq13hlUWnkmZPWfC3P7F-elueSSYaPRC0/s640/gavle%20goat.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjCH8kpkHrlRw9oa7EQezHa0aVsjiVzn13qLR6QK6KVYomNVRGNtbqKv_GtrayvGfrpxbjksNK101vDVEQ_wXAGWCS78HjFdccm6PRERKk01H8ddl9Ux8OpYR-XVyv8awQazjv59PuKHub9Q0CdJQtSJxCdlQq13hlUWnkmZPWfC3P7F-elueSSYaPRC0/w640-h360/gavle%20goat.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p><b>The Fibre</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin4ybWrcMwZrTz37LXCWMJj_0r5_QLf_322o5BESddEap6I7Yh7OT4gDC6lE1HlhpOTHpjnt1mxr1oYG3qUMbhu4UE3NLL0p52xIh0llsyLPEt9IpiO59rueD8YP_kZYitkX3EU4MmAR5fYc7r2n9eRtr14JZAyqlk-zjkWKvtS4VPyEDQ91vs7NSJ7Zs/s2500/Day%201%20collage.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="2500" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin4ybWrcMwZrTz37LXCWMJj_0r5_QLf_322o5BESddEap6I7Yh7OT4gDC6lE1HlhpOTHpjnt1mxr1oYG3qUMbhu4UE3NLL0p52xIh0llsyLPEt9IpiO59rueD8YP_kZYitkX3EU4MmAR5fYc7r2n9eRtr14JZAyqlk-zjkWKvtS4VPyEDQ91vs7NSJ7Zs/w640-h358/Day%201%20collage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>The fibre is 80% Mohair, 20% Flax and represents the Goat and the Straw element of the tradition. The flax brings a little bit of texture to the blend and the blend has a fantastic sheen to it. Anything you knit with the spun yarn will have a little bit of texture and colour running through it.</p><p><b>My Thoughts</b></p><p>It's not a fibre that I am particularly familiar with so this will be interesting. As usual I will wait until I have opened all of the packets before I decide what I will do with it. I am hoping to create great pairings with other packets of fibre from either this year or last year, as I have used very little of last year's advent calendar.</p><p>As what I often do, due to a busy life, I am writing up these blog posts some time after the event so the first photos are what I took on the day of opening using my mobile phone and the early December natural light, which isn't always the best, and the next photos have been taken some time after using my proper camera and my little lit pop up studio and the colours are more true to life. I am also including a close up photo of each of the pattern strips that are on the packets, each one is different, and some are of a different clarity/quality, that is not my photography skills but rather the printed design and this must be down to the original image source.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFHY_cq2N5T7z_Nsj9yKX5EeC824a6ENl2wta_gvp71yEOi2jUXNVI6xZ4bFS0rncqNcWfQ3daYilT2lT1LCJd1zMqCMTX_YfWXsqKZr2jYfOxgqJpfL0Z2rMRVx80D4yyjgpWIYIqgdF7AuowjbdZZRVTcBtOFeDnBvFhwVb8IHovslkEZAWDLzpD8G8/s2500/Day%201%20fibre%20collage.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="2500" height="460" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFHY_cq2N5T7z_Nsj9yKX5EeC824a6ENl2wta_gvp71yEOi2jUXNVI6xZ4bFS0rncqNcWfQ3daYilT2lT1LCJd1zMqCMTX_YfWXsqKZr2jYfOxgqJpfL0Z2rMRVx80D4yyjgpWIYIqgdF7AuowjbdZZRVTcBtOFeDnBvFhwVb8IHovslkEZAWDLzpD8G8/w640-h460/Day%201%20fibre%20collage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>The information that has been printed on the bags is not necessarily correct and there are no fibre content percentages. This information has been provided in the online chat boards for this advent calendar and in some instances, where they have used amounts of other blends that they produce along with other fibres to make this new blend, we have collectively asked for further clarification and then the fibre content has changed quite considerably. What I have done with my bags is to write the actual fibre content on the bag using a gold gel pen in the gap immediately below the printed details and before "World of Wool". Petty much the only thing that will show up on the black packaging are the metallic gel pens. This is why I have not taken "new" photos of the bags, they all have my scribble on them.</p>DrapedInLacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188308092012122929noreply@blogger.com0Birmingham, UK52.486242999999988 -1.89040124.176009163821142 -37.046651 80.79647683617884 33.265849tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961499212027100673.post-87706102228452958432023-11-25T18:25:00.001+00:002024-01-12T18:10:13.616+00:00Spinning the white blend of the North Country Cheviot<p>I know that I have started to blend the Llandovery Whiteface Hill ready for spinning but I really should crack on and finish the spinning that I started as well. I've already spun the <a href="https://drapedinlacebyjuliablakeman.blogspot.com/2023/07/spinning-green-blend-of-north-country.html" target="_blank">lime green version</a> a few months ago now so it was time to spin the natural version of the <a href="https://drapedinlacebyjuliablakeman.blogspot.com/2023/06/making-my-own-matching-reverse-blends.html" target="_blank">North Country Cheviot</a> blend. I almost forgot to take any work in progress photos of the spinning, but at least I did remember, unlike last time!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWoL0c-Yh3udne3x5M0-aY2P0qvKgINjUCB20Epe8wVz-UWlLmGU4vmtzkHCFSQEt2NX0EU4OagKDY_hkRzjC9HLb85O_I75Tu9rjEIP8zsGoR-J2x5YUcdu-7geS8yfl6diXknQOmbwAv0D6NYXE70fv4EoIHDokQ4FSniB2iC9cmlQ7j8-5nD0cQm9M/s2000/work%20in%20progress.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="2000" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWoL0c-Yh3udne3x5M0-aY2P0qvKgINjUCB20Epe8wVz-UWlLmGU4vmtzkHCFSQEt2NX0EU4OagKDY_hkRzjC9HLb85O_I75Tu9rjEIP8zsGoR-J2x5YUcdu-7geS8yfl6diXknQOmbwAv0D6NYXE70fv4EoIHDokQ4FSniB2iC9cmlQ7j8-5nD0cQm9M/w640-h384/work%20in%20progress.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDbTXjR5MH6Q71iZtUpHfzB1cGZKtd96d9GMGX48QNcOGCh4Tx8kwi6E7rCyBASpp60dG_7xmNxsenWemNXvTNzg5qy7E6EtYjomktueDY2Q6KKpU-o4X1FAQmC4lHOjo12uGi1PskM2PObIUXjYJeyf3yAEyhFiDFw5PWJ1hQn_4_MSLu1tE3qiHATUI/s3000/Natural%20plus%20lime%20fibre%20and%20yarn%20combo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="2000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDbTXjR5MH6Q71iZtUpHfzB1cGZKtd96d9GMGX48QNcOGCh4Tx8kwi6E7rCyBASpp60dG_7xmNxsenWemNXvTNzg5qy7E6EtYjomktueDY2Q6KKpU-o4X1FAQmC4lHOjo12uGi1PskM2PObIUXjYJeyf3yAEyhFiDFw5PWJ1hQn_4_MSLu1tE3qiHATUI/w426-h640/Natural%20plus%20lime%20fibre%20and%20yarn%20combo.jpg" width="426" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp-hEFCAyHRdZ3o0Xf4SW4sOYuh35fbFjnLoKSV2areGbI59bP4TNNhbjD4NyVzN_AdhNOeodZjXYbZX4u1ZxDPjcOfIvyNxgBpWLg3p3RSvuGYq_H3N1swrCR1-VnN4TYwpler6PX_aiGRI3n7i3EmIntqLWlG_S34X52UiQ0ETrSS6vHZvUrgHjIVJo/s3000/Natural%20plus%20lime%20yarn%20close%20up.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="2000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp-hEFCAyHRdZ3o0Xf4SW4sOYuh35fbFjnLoKSV2areGbI59bP4TNNhbjD4NyVzN_AdhNOeodZjXYbZX4u1ZxDPjcOfIvyNxgBpWLg3p3RSvuGYq_H3N1swrCR1-VnN4TYwpler6PX_aiGRI3n7i3EmIntqLWlG_S34X52UiQ0ETrSS6vHZvUrgHjIVJo/w426-h640/Natural%20plus%20lime%20yarn%20close%20up.jpg" width="426" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>This one is prettier now that it's spun up and it will be interesting to see how it knits up at some point in the future. I intend to find a pattern that will use both yarns in one project.</p><p>The fibre content of this one is 83% Cheviot Wool, 6% Tussah Silk, 4.5% Silk Noil, 4.5% Hemp, 2% Trilobal Nylon</p><p>It has spun up to sport weight and the skeins are 77g/180m and 72g/162m</p>DrapedInLacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188308092012122929noreply@blogger.com0Birmingham, UK52.486242999999988 -1.89040124.176009163821142 -37.046651 80.79647683617884 33.265849tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961499212027100673.post-10829839221043113842023-11-23T16:34:00.001+00:002024-01-12T14:54:47.495+00:00Blending the Orange-Brown Llandovery Whiteface Hill - Foxes and Pumpkins<p>Today I have been having fun with my blending hackle and tackling the Llandovery Whiteface Hill fleece that I dyed orange-brown back in <a href="https://drapedinlacebyjuliablakeman.blogspot.com/2023/09/dyeing-array-of-fibres-orange-brown.html" target="_blank">September</a>. I sorted out the additional fibres that I would be adding to all four lots of Llandovery Whiteface Hill back at that time and then dyed the lots of fleece colours to go with the additional fibres that I had chosen. All of the additional fibres in the different colours are within a few grams of each other and I plan to use all of each bump of fibre so that the final fibre content won't be exactly the same for all four blends but will be very close.</p><p>The other fibres that I chose to put in this blend are, from left to right, top to bottom: 19g Tussah Silk in shade Rust, 12g Trilobal Nylon in shade Pumpkin Spice, 10g Silk Noil in shade Pumpkin, 11g Hemp that I dyed myself in June 2023 using cold water dyes and finally 156g Llandovery Whiteface Hill fibre that I dyed in September that I think looks like the colour of foxes. With this in mind I have decided to call this colourway "Foxes and Pumpkins".</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggUiJVPbFIkhxyBCMdjwHGrP9pwb6vLiqQZnzansaieOTbHwp9FL-Ky_2ocxMMvQPgfpweaotkUwH45nAjtEC1snUsND27lAKlYi46LvHsodku2LsnpokxavB6ttYT8k9DgCrbkei5LDfZV3xGTHObhy-uTQgIQx7WGtyA0JSfYEOkCGDcP8_oj1DlBCc/s3200/ingredients%20collage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3200" data-original-width="2000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggUiJVPbFIkhxyBCMdjwHGrP9pwb6vLiqQZnzansaieOTbHwp9FL-Ky_2ocxMMvQPgfpweaotkUwH45nAjtEC1snUsND27lAKlYi46LvHsodku2LsnpokxavB6ttYT8k9DgCrbkei5LDfZV3xGTHObhy-uTQgIQx7WGtyA0JSfYEOkCGDcP8_oj1DlBCc/w400-h640/ingredients%20collage.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>I discovered that I had somehow managed to felt the wool slightly during the dye process so I had a little bit of trouble getting it to open up again but I managed it and I ended up with 208g of a lovely unique blend ready to spin.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivLBXV9jec5Ygtx2YiC7LcUNC45VTTD-so181T3oGd50dKK21iSW9zKAUtBtSPzaO7IHmmERil0HL61u_6WDsh-Fn3etGLKKOp4Acw_i_S3tyc-O1cVCDxf2YQfS9vcfnWcfWr9GE6f5pnkYKLnGPp16MxODna3AgrdseGUy8r8P93r7SD5Jdo_aa4nhc/s3400/Foxes%20and%20pumpkins%20blend.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3400" data-original-width="2000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivLBXV9jec5Ygtx2YiC7LcUNC45VTTD-so181T3oGd50dKK21iSW9zKAUtBtSPzaO7IHmmERil0HL61u_6WDsh-Fn3etGLKKOp4Acw_i_S3tyc-O1cVCDxf2YQfS9vcfnWcfWr9GE6f5pnkYKLnGPp16MxODna3AgrdseGUy8r8P93r7SD5Jdo_aa4nhc/w376-h640/Foxes%20and%20pumpkins%20blend.jpg" width="376" /></a></div><br /><p>The fibre content of this one works out to be:</p><p>75% Llandovery Whiteface Hill wool<br />9% Tussah Silk<br />6% Trilobal Nylon<br />5% Silk Noil<br />5% Hemp</p>DrapedInLacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188308092012122929noreply@blogger.com0Birmingham, UK52.486242999999988 -1.89040124.176009163821142 -37.046651 80.79647683617884 33.265849tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961499212027100673.post-2616920838780857062023-11-21T17:30:00.018+00:002023-11-22T18:28:22.775+00:00The 2023 Advent Calendar has arrived<p>The long awaited Advent Calendar has arrived in a huge box, it's so big my first thought was the line from Molly Weasley when she says "big box for Ron". I opened the outer-box to reveal a massive black gift box with packaging around the sides. This packaging is apparently the waste from the wool mill and consists of various fibre and yarns and there has been a bit of a challenge thrown out to see what we will do with it. Some have said they will bin it, some have said they will probably use it to protect garden plants from the frost and cold over the winter and some, like me, are considering the options, but there is a lot of it. My packaging weighs 584g!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf0OFgtiZ9ZxC8KICZKuf8F_d-k0KxKeGB-gQqrT85ceJPMAum2Pa7PkqzCLds3sP8FUaO4nPFdO5ucHTQFM6Vygr-5jZv5HmExz9nee7OG9w2wJtDiU3bJgzHdi9MY0UhBgTCgBeppe7nNF4e3jvaLwmVoVWFGO5B0Zu_rzNztGrhNbbpNIcTsTZDsO4/s4080/20231121_145700.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3060" data-original-width="4080" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf0OFgtiZ9ZxC8KICZKuf8F_d-k0KxKeGB-gQqrT85ceJPMAum2Pa7PkqzCLds3sP8FUaO4nPFdO5ucHTQFM6Vygr-5jZv5HmExz9nee7OG9w2wJtDiU3bJgzHdi9MY0UhBgTCgBeppe7nNF4e3jvaLwmVoVWFGO5B0Zu_rzNztGrhNbbpNIcTsTZDsO4/w640-h480/20231121_145700.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzWluJlZFAWzkUukbMXyrB0y1C9J64lH_6TgCI-P_zZfFn1JUmNLiONq8lyPCD38-fmS66ORt8eAme6Xkid_zO8yj2_yNi4Fs6RG40SW_pri2H1r-Ee9drlILCbwqfIryz7XbRJMk6b1QwSi3RzWxNx3LslfHhsht3ughpd_tTkLUDrX5fprnSP-ol0kc/s4080/20231121_145728.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /><img border="0" data-original-height="3060" data-original-width="4080" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzWluJlZFAWzkUukbMXyrB0y1C9J64lH_6TgCI-P_zZfFn1JUmNLiONq8lyPCD38-fmS66ORt8eAme6Xkid_zO8yj2_yNi4Fs6RG40SW_pri2H1r-Ee9drlILCbwqfIryz7XbRJMk6b1QwSi3RzWxNx3LslfHhsht3ughpd_tTkLUDrX5fprnSP-ol0kc/w640-h480/20231121_145728.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div>I have no idea if I will use this, or not, but for now it is bagged up. It may yet end up in the compost bin or dug into the vegetable bed or something. I'm not sure yet but it is really soft.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, onto the box, now that I can actually get it out of the outer box. It's huge, bigger than last year's, but it also feels relatively flimsy, compared to last year's so I'm not sure if its a size thing or whether it's a cheaper box. It's more matte and the wording is stuck on with some kind of tape, whereas last years box had a more shiny surface and the wording was properly printed onto the box. We did try to carefully peel the tape off but the lettering is coming with it so we pushed it back down. There is no magnetic closure on the box this year and the ribbon can be pulled through both parts of the box.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixIK9t0IsrkhPMU77W70EcjLVI0LglkuP1vAQXYX2cyfQSptNPBLN59umrf4iwE435mFI8d17e68pbLWZR4yFQDyo421bZA7b7XplREZPPhg9aaOR4wv4Xkq6kkY8IlEJtv3WhBE3lp7_VWCkcj2G4Lt4BMudlv0DkjDJzMkfAzkch2axBkcvItpXN4LE/s4080/20231121_134808.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3060" data-original-width="4080" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixIK9t0IsrkhPMU77W70EcjLVI0LglkuP1vAQXYX2cyfQSptNPBLN59umrf4iwE435mFI8d17e68pbLWZR4yFQDyo421bZA7b7XplREZPPhg9aaOR4wv4Xkq6kkY8IlEJtv3WhBE3lp7_VWCkcj2G4Lt4BMudlv0DkjDJzMkfAzkch2axBkcvItpXN4LE/w640-h480/20231121_134808.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFo7dk3cOWa1jnAZ1BKAAPhVLC01fUP1dw0Oq0LdiK6XG8Qc490uj5hDU7Qj8r5IYr0BdB7sunJmOPeAyOHILq3-M8gxLPOP4_fcj5FqZk8aakjehWABwe70KpanBPkHuq2qL5pdHg_HM_Yq7psi6ep4m2N6ZOOfUWYK7R8lN9Ku7n1RfigIf5BMM5vkE/s4080/20231121_134823.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3060" data-original-width="4080" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFo7dk3cOWa1jnAZ1BKAAPhVLC01fUP1dw0Oq0LdiK6XG8Qc490uj5hDU7Qj8r5IYr0BdB7sunJmOPeAyOHILq3-M8gxLPOP4_fcj5FqZk8aakjehWABwe70KpanBPkHuq2qL5pdHg_HM_Yq7psi6ep4m2N6ZOOfUWYK7R8lN9Ku7n1RfigIf5BMM5vkE/w640-h480/20231121_134823.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div>If I had bought this as a gift for someone else I would be a bit disappointed but I have bought this for myself and it is just the box and the most important things are inside, but even so...</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNYPhSFYSN1IeGkL7l4DD98hiehB5UPfQNFKzlXfRUtjVlTLn4-DhkakLddEaePdKO7bzb7aWMCKpjR0QnoBDnoQQGQPx46Sghja_IDqHaHTk3wQkfXmQAMljzZXoq82El7fuiXw6zBm1a7pGdZj25ejFRo7zaIo6YHv_9u9hW3GCHweOy9RseBdZv8Oc/s4080/20231121_134856.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3060" data-original-width="4080" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNYPhSFYSN1IeGkL7l4DD98hiehB5UPfQNFKzlXfRUtjVlTLn4-DhkakLddEaePdKO7bzb7aWMCKpjR0QnoBDnoQQGQPx46Sghja_IDqHaHTk3wQkfXmQAMljzZXoq82El7fuiXw6zBm1a7pGdZj25ejFRo7zaIo6YHv_9u9hW3GCHweOy9RseBdZv8Oc/w640-h480/20231121_134856.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div>The box is actually too big and so these didn't arrive neat like they are now, they were all over the place and I was a good girl and managed to stand them up without looking at the print on the front that details the name they've given to each one and the fibre contents. There was also a load of "sprinkles" inside the box, I'm not sure if they paper or a kind of plastic or laminated type material but they have the Aztec type print on them and they are shaped like sheep. Might use them for something, not sure, but they were a little annoying like when people put sprinkles and glitter inside birthday and Christmas cards and send them in the post to you for you to open and get covered in it all. Now that all the bags are all stood up the only print I can actually read clearly are the numbers of the days so I sorted them out in order. They are nice bags by the look of it, I didn't look at them in detail because I'd be able to read the contents and I don't want to but apparently they are resealable. The issues with these bags are that the details are printed on the outside and so can ruin the surprise and I store all of my fibre in clear bags so that I can see at an instant what the colour is so once I've opened each day I will most likely be cutting around the details to place it in a clear bag with the fibre. I wonder if they could have had a peel off piece placed over the name and fibre details so that all we see on delivery as the numbers on the bags. That would have been a solution.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm sure as the boxes arrive with their customers those of us who chat on their social media will express our views about what we like about it and what we don't like about it. I can't believe I start opening this in just over a week's time!</div>DrapedInLacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188308092012122929noreply@blogger.com0Birmingham, UK52.486242999999988 -1.89040124.176009163821142 -37.046651 80.79647683617884 33.265849tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961499212027100673.post-48894475243107800532023-10-08T23:00:00.000+01:002023-11-23T23:01:10.999+00:00Combing the Suri Alpaca<p>I recently dyed some Suri Alpaca in 4 different colours. I got 200g of fleece back in 2015 from a lady in Gloucestershire who keeps Alpacas and this came from a Suri Alpaca called Butterscotch. I washed it on arrival and was left with 162g of fleece to prepare for spinning.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXVwvHXvtOXLhR5yPJQ2Jbf4UQuHNjgc6W_fut2y2rMMooNTKSm3vg84tyEENO7CEH8ccMmmQPi-szNtttT0hyphenhypheni5jFCM-HZv0HWgmWZ-EfbS0-Wn2rJs4xEI3XY3Fzyrqwq_7c-V3xtN2MLeSapKQs0innWIVsYd-oaiCFqlJ1mf8pR6qiw9L-AhaCADc/s640/Butterscotch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXVwvHXvtOXLhR5yPJQ2Jbf4UQuHNjgc6W_fut2y2rMMooNTKSm3vg84tyEENO7CEH8ccMmmQPi-szNtttT0hyphenhypheni5jFCM-HZv0HWgmWZ-EfbS0-Wn2rJs4xEI3XY3Fzyrqwq_7c-V3xtN2MLeSapKQs0innWIVsYd-oaiCFqlJ1mf8pR6qiw9L-AhaCADc/w640-h480/Butterscotch.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>I did nothing with this alpaca fleece until recently, when I decided to split it into 4 amounts and dye each amount a different colour. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhol1p4EmGop-BoO7Y3Vb4RofdFY4klhQCZXQhFg-bfg7Qvs_uxN1NFfHbuWBoNCnzk4euOcYscGgAKW-EbBXpHwUmrL0JuG0PL6MBP2iOxDsDmkIy3HVgTzGQACU4VElEwoezNK85_Z13fD4z4IC8Ifw1EkdSrnrJmCtQ3U3GI5mTRhZyUroNLvsqG5aE/s1600/hand%20dyed%20suri%20alpaca.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhol1p4EmGop-BoO7Y3Vb4RofdFY4klhQCZXQhFg-bfg7Qvs_uxN1NFfHbuWBoNCnzk4euOcYscGgAKW-EbBXpHwUmrL0JuG0PL6MBP2iOxDsDmkIy3HVgTzGQACU4VElEwoezNK85_Z13fD4z4IC8Ifw1EkdSrnrJmCtQ3U3GI5mTRhZyUroNLvsqG5aE/w640-h480/hand%20dyed%20suri%20alpaca.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>Over the past couple of days I have combed this Suri Alpaca so that it is ready to use when I need it. Each lot started out at 42-44g and it took me 90 minutes to comb each lot and each time I was left with just 15g of lovely hand combed top, except for the orange-brown one where I was left with 12g. It's not a lot but at least I did get something from this fairly old fleece that I had somehow overlooked for so long.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk3ATTqA7jfMnEVXZBqg2X2UO8vsxfCl_3WsADVOL26RDgatAAkDxLTQzxrUt8j_JVNRDjQy2Lc-lfNNOSYaV0FmBVIyneByEl7IekqqlRBaV-qjfAKBqY3M8JMrP8O1YIujvoVDhSSgIBqdWjqxtNIYQSWs-3L_SWy5GdT6MvCdP2_-OFs65v9gnz7zM/s1600/hand%20combed%20suri%20alpaca.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk3ATTqA7jfMnEVXZBqg2X2UO8vsxfCl_3WsADVOL26RDgatAAkDxLTQzxrUt8j_JVNRDjQy2Lc-lfNNOSYaV0FmBVIyneByEl7IekqqlRBaV-qjfAKBqY3M8JMrP8O1YIujvoVDhSSgIBqdWjqxtNIYQSWs-3L_SWy5GdT6MvCdP2_-OFs65v9gnz7zM/w640-h480/hand%20combed%20suri%20alpaca.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p><br /></p>DrapedInLacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188308092012122929noreply@blogger.com0Birmingham, UK52.486242999999988 -1.89040124.176009163821142 -37.046651 80.79647683617884 33.265849tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961499212027100673.post-45226347209779678702023-10-02T16:10:00.030+01:002023-11-23T22:08:37.051+00:00Dyeing an array of fibres purple<p>Further to my previous three posts I have continued to dye the Llandovery Whiteface Hill wool and fibre selection that I have chosen and now that the third lot is dry I can get on with my fourth and final lot. </p><p>So, what I will be dyeing in each dye pot is:</p><p>150-155g of Llandovery Whiteface Hill wool that I hand combed myself<br />40g Suri Alpaca, this is some raw fleece from an alpaca called "Butterscotch"<br />25g of 14.5 micron Merino, which was from Day 23 of the 2021 Advent Calendar<br />25g of Mulberry Silk<br />12g of Tussah Silk Noil<br />12g of Trilobal Nylon<br />12g Milk Protein, which was from Day 19 of the 2021 Advent Calendar</p><p>I soaked all of the fibres in warm water with a splash of Synthropol added to the water to remove any "chemical finish" that may have been added to the fibres during production. This also removes any grease and dirt that may be left in the fleece.</p><p>I made up a dye bath of 1% dye depth made up of 67.5% River Blue and 22.5% Flame Red and 10% Midnight Black. What I weighed out was 1.86g of River Blue, 0.62g of Flame Red and 0.276g of Midnight Black. The dye didn't take so well on the two Silk lots, they are little bit patchy but they are OK.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixPUgWa_bYdSoGAmDZXbS8OaBQHhMwV5HRR2vc8IOv7W6idkw5Qb9U7AeF8ODfFARqYpc9FXRlyQaQDTBs0Ow6pUm3mkKJrez6oe0xcP9j7fgILbE20WkVqpIpwl6zCkJPdLCQAs7lzdy-j7cMq5Dd4aumdUnwSOVxTQA1RN7Oz9Djc3fBDh_6RN1AJQ0/s2100/Dye%20pot%204.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2100" data-original-width="2100" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixPUgWa_bYdSoGAmDZXbS8OaBQHhMwV5HRR2vc8IOv7W6idkw5Qb9U7AeF8ODfFARqYpc9FXRlyQaQDTBs0Ow6pUm3mkKJrez6oe0xcP9j7fgILbE20WkVqpIpwl6zCkJPdLCQAs7lzdy-j7cMq5Dd4aumdUnwSOVxTQA1RN7Oz9Djc3fBDh_6RN1AJQ0/w640-h640/Dye%20pot%204.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>DrapedInLacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188308092012122929noreply@blogger.com0Birmingham, UK52.486242999999988 -1.89040124.176009163821142 -37.046651 80.79647683617884 33.265849tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961499212027100673.post-62749985141212977742023-09-29T16:09:00.034+01:002023-11-23T21:28:11.762+00:00Dyeing an array of fibres blue<p>Further to my previous two posts I have continued to dye the Llandovery Whiteface Hill wool and fibre selection that I have chosen and now that the first two lots are dry I can get on with my third. </p><p>So, what I will be dyeing in each dye pot is:</p><p>150-155g of Llandovery Whiteface Hill wool that I hand combed myself<br />40g Suri Alpaca, this is some raw fleece from an alpaca called "Butterscotch"<br />25g of 14.5 micron Merino, which was from Day 23 of the 2021 Advent Calendar<br />25g of Mulberry Silk<br />12g of Tussah Silk Noil<br />12g of Trilobal Nylon<br />12g Milk Protein, which was from Day 19 of the 2021 Advent Calendar</p><p>I soaked all of the fibres in warm water with a splash of Synthropol added to the water to remove any "chemical finish" that may have been added to the fibres during production. This also removes any grease and dirt that may be left in the fleece.</p><p>I made up a dye bath of 1% dye depth made up of 75% River Blue and 25% Amazon Green. What I weighed out was 2.07g of River Blue and 0.69g of Amazon Green. The dye didn't take so well on the two Silk lots, they are little bit patchy but they are OK.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlnBOy-w44RxB35bEuRscG0KjeMjVZGD7nxsWeFHK4F7wNTCl92FwTdrYU7JRIXdfcEQiRgBTDDT-dRPeWJSy6dZ13Mwyrgd16OB3zVzGfl2dXQnM76KGbEM4YXsqYAZ9tXpd5dM4fxy43wLTPgD2PwOOJ40rkchXMKT1XsjS56CbhhKVu2YMXPDcR9ZI/s2100/Dye%20pot%203.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2100" data-original-width="2100" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlnBOy-w44RxB35bEuRscG0KjeMjVZGD7nxsWeFHK4F7wNTCl92FwTdrYU7JRIXdfcEQiRgBTDDT-dRPeWJSy6dZ13Mwyrgd16OB3zVzGfl2dXQnM76KGbEM4YXsqYAZ9tXpd5dM4fxy43wLTPgD2PwOOJ40rkchXMKT1XsjS56CbhhKVu2YMXPDcR9ZI/w640-h640/Dye%20pot%203.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>DrapedInLacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188308092012122929noreply@blogger.com0Birmingham, UK52.486242999999988 -1.89040124.176009163821142 -37.046651 80.79647683617884 33.265849tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961499212027100673.post-71052941212007166152023-09-16T18:45:00.028+01:002023-11-23T21:10:53.681+00:00Dyeing an array of fibres yellow-orange<p>Further to my <a href="https://drapedinlacebyjuliablakeman.blogspot.com/2023/09/dyeing-array-of-fibres-orange-brown.html" target="_blank">post</a> of earlier today I have also dyed a second batch of fibres the colour that I had intended to the first time around, before I weighed the dye out incorrectly.</p><p>So, what I will be dyeing in each dye pot is:</p><p>150-155g of Llandovery Whiteface Hill wool that I hand combed myself<br />40g Suri Alpaca, this is some raw fleece from an alpaca called "Butterscotch"<br />25g of 14.5 micron Merino, which was from Day 23 of the 2021 Advent Calendar<br />25g of Mulberry Silk<br />12g of Tussah Silk Noil<br />12g of Trilobal Nylon<br />12g Milk Protein, which was from Day 19 of the 2021 Advent Calendar</p><p>I soaked all of the fibres in warm water with a splash of Synthropol added to the water to remove any "chemical finish" that may have been added to the fibres during production. This also removes any grease and dirt that may be left in the fleece.</p><p>I made up a dye bath of 1% dye depth made up of 95% Sunshine Yellow, 2.5% River Blue and 2.5% Flame Red. What I weighed out was 2.62g of Sunshine Yellow and 0.138g each of River Blue and Flame Red. The dye didn't take so well on the two Silk lots or the Milk Protein, they are little bit patchy but they are OK.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidmucx6sDVcI7H4wun7Zd6dwl2NzSdVyPVJ9Z4uQoSlexLmKMY3GEzh2Sp7PbBRCSvteF1uZ0cUo3pNeFDcvDVmTgYgnQAPQsN9LLtNfkRlQ8mJO9JdFT8v7Q9w28PRatZ9d5UGVAjJPjZJrtNGbiLFul0l_z_9xTiByTP3U498ImcLJC1vrVBeXOgY5A/s2100/Dye%20pot%202.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2100" data-original-width="2100" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidmucx6sDVcI7H4wun7Zd6dwl2NzSdVyPVJ9Z4uQoSlexLmKMY3GEzh2Sp7PbBRCSvteF1uZ0cUo3pNeFDcvDVmTgYgnQAPQsN9LLtNfkRlQ8mJO9JdFT8v7Q9w28PRatZ9d5UGVAjJPjZJrtNGbiLFul0l_z_9xTiByTP3U498ImcLJC1vrVBeXOgY5A/w640-h640/Dye%20pot%202.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>DrapedInLacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188308092012122929noreply@blogger.com0Birmingham, UK52.486242999999988 -1.89040124.176009163821142 -37.046651 80.79647683617884 33.265849tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961499212027100673.post-51793338666421283282023-09-16T15:43:00.143+01:002023-11-23T21:05:48.225+00:00Dyeing an array of fibres orange-brown<p>Further to my <a href="https://drapedinlacebyjuliablakeman.blogspot.com/2023/09/combing-rest-of-llandovery-whiteface.html" target="_blank">post</a> of a few days ago I have now decided what I am going to do with the combed Llandovery Whiteface Hill fibre. I decided to split the fibre into 4 lots of around 155g each and add the same fibres to each lot but in different colours so that I can dye the fibre an appropriate colour and make 4 yarns that are almost identical but just in different colours. The total amount of fibre in each lot will be enough to make 2 skeins of yarn and a nice amount to make a shawl.</p><p>I started out by sorting items from my ingredients cupboard into colour groups and then checking if I had at least 4 different colours of any given fibre. Where I didn't have the necessary 4 colours that fibre was eliminated from the piles. Next I had to decide which fibres in each colour group worked well together, such as which shades of blue out of all of the packets looked good together. I ended up with 5 piles of 4 small packets of fibres so I had to eliminate one colour group, which I did easily as the colours didn't work together as well as the other piles.</p><p>I also decided that I would take the opportunity to dye some of the currently undyed fibres in my stash at the same time so that these would go into my "ingredients cupboard" for use at a later date.</p><p>So, what I will be dyeing in each dye pot is:</p><p>150-155g of Llandovery Whiteface Hill wool that I hand combed myself<br />40g Suri Alpaca, this is some raw fleece from an alpaca called "Butterscotch"<br />25g of 14.5 micron Merino, which was from Day 23 of the 2021 Advent Calendar<br />25g of Mulberry Silk<br />12g of Tussah Silk Noil<br />12g of Trilobal Nylon<br />12g Milk Protein, which was from Day 19 of the 2021 Advent Calendar</p><p>I soaked all of the fibres in warm water with a splash of Synthropol added to the water to remove any "chemical finish" that may have been added to the fibres during production. This also removes any grease and dirt that may be left in the fleece.</p><p>I had intended my first batch to be dyed a kind of mustard yellow but I made a really stupid mistake when I was weighing the dye out and only realised once I added the fibres to the dye pot and saw the colour it all went. Whoops, but a happy mistake because the fibres have turned out almost the exact colour I had intended for my second batch.</p><p>What I had planned was 1% dye depth made up of 95% Sunshine Yellow, 2.5% River Blue and 2.5% Flame Red. What I should have weighed out was 2.62g of Sunshine Yellow and 0.138g each of River Blue and Flame Red. What I actually weighed out was the correct amount of Sunshine Yellow and then I messed up and weighed out 1.38g each of River Blue and Flame Red (10 times too much of each colour). The dye didn't take so well on the two Silk lots and in both cases they are kind of a peachy-coral colour along with what can only be described as grey and it looks like a pile of burnt rubbish. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF8CPtibeW3_nArOSOfMS4gRR5LvxkbpgRVtMmy_idZo7iGvWHYP9r4U8mCU4e2R7peIuLDNnpbgCWcwv2V4fECntwKMdawHFn_n4nh_EzAIu3MOX9g-lq7Yxgb2ydm8aFRKRYtFb4jwvTHgzigPSB7fT2-jdtSMyJm26nUgYJ6lU5nXUV4XIiufhxzfM/s2100/Dye%20pot%201.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2100" data-original-width="2100" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF8CPtibeW3_nArOSOfMS4gRR5LvxkbpgRVtMmy_idZo7iGvWHYP9r4U8mCU4e2R7peIuLDNnpbgCWcwv2V4fECntwKMdawHFn_n4nh_EzAIu3MOX9g-lq7Yxgb2ydm8aFRKRYtFb4jwvTHgzigPSB7fT2-jdtSMyJm26nUgYJ6lU5nXUV4XIiufhxzfM/w640-h640/Dye%20pot%201.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>DrapedInLacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13188308092012122929noreply@blogger.com0Birmingham, UK52.486242999999988 -1.89040124.176009163821142 -37.046651 80.79647683617884 33.265849