Spinning Xinhai Revolution

I've done it!  I've spun up the last of the full braids of fibre from a previous supplier and I have to say it feels good.  I know it sounds stupid and I could have just sold all of the fibre off and got rid of it ages ago but for the most part the fibre isn't the problem, it is the memories of the conversations about it and her and her best mates attitude towards anyone who had a different opinion to them.  I don't have any such memories with this fibre as I had long since left the club and the group chat when this fibre was produced and, likewise, I don't have any such memories attached to the 37 small clumps of "blend ingredients" that I have in my stash that range from 1g to 22g as they were just instant purchases and not something that was discussed.

This fibre is called Xinhai Revolution and I bought it from another spinner when they were selling off some of their fibre stash and I liked the colour combination along with the texture.  I have no idea about the inspiration for the colour but I do know that the Xinhai Revolution took place in 1911 and overthrew the last Imperial dynasty of China and led to the establishment of the Republic of China.

I knew that because of the texture in this one that I would not be able to spin it too finely so I spun it over-the-fold to help make it thicker/bulkier but without it being too dense and heavy, using the loft of the fibres in a positive way to achieve this.  I just plied the two singles together and done this for each of the braids.

Both skeins have spun up to 12 wpi - sport weight for a combined total of 206g/627m and the fibre content is 50% Corriedale, 25% Bamboo, 20% South American, 5% Viscose Tweed Nepps.

Spinning up May 2020's fibre from the fibre club

I am so glad to have reached the point where I have spun up the last full braid of fibre that I purchased directly from a previous supplier that I had issues with.  I wish I could say that that is it with fibres from her but I can't.  I still have one double braid lot that I bought second-hand and I still have fibres in my "ingredients cupboard" that are from her, although they are going down gradually.

This one is "Athena" and from May 2020.  I wanted to keep a lot of the colour separation to create an interesting yarn rather than one that is blended together to make a boring "beige yarn". I split it in half across the length, creating two shorter pieces, and then each half I split down into lots of long thin strips to keep as few colours as possible in each piece.  

I spun it finely and plied to produce a yarn of Light fingering weight of 103g/510m.  The fibre content is 40% 18.5 micron Merino, 20% Alpaca, 20% Baby Camel, 20% Mulberry Silk.

Spinning up "Boat Race" from March 2020

Not letting the grass grow under my feet I am straight on with the next braid of fibre which is from the fibre club back in March 2020.  It is called Boat Race and is 70% Merino, 30% Viscose and is lots of shades of blues and a bit of green, watery colours, but it is put together in such a way that is near impossible to pull all the colours out separately.  I could have perhaps managed to pull a few colours out but I would need really good natural light to do that and at this time of year that just isn't really available so I have had to try to keep the different colours as visible as possible in a different way.

What I actually did was to split it in half and then I just spun from the end without any pre-drafting, as that would encourage the colours to blend, and I tried to follow the strips of colour as it entered the draft zone, so if some dark blue entered the draft zone I would try to follow the thin strip of dark blue fibres for several inches and then latch on to another shade and follow that.  My intention was to make as variegated a yarn as I could and not to allow the colours to blend too much.  I'm not sure I actually managed to achieve that but I tried.

It has spun up to sport weight and there is 100g/300m.

Spinning up "Khadi" from October 2019

This is another of the monthly fibres that I used to subscribe to and I have almost spun up all of the ready-to-spin braids that I have left from this supplier, just a few more to go.  I still have bits and bobs in my "ingredients cupboard" for when I make my own blends, but that is a different matter.

This one is from October 2019 and was based on some Indian cloth called Khadi that was championed by Mahatma Ghandi. 

The fibre looks like its got some different neutral colours in there but this doesn't seem to show in the finished yarn.  It was a very simple, straight-forward spin of splitting it in half, pre-draft the fibre and spin it and then ply the two singles together. 

I had intended to spin this to a thickness that would work with another yarn in my stash but I seem to have missed this by a mile and it has bloomed on washing as well. Oh, well, plenty more wool on the sheep in the field.  This one has spun up to double-knit weight and I have 102g/274m and the fibre content is 50% Merino, 25% Polwarth, 25% Tussah Silk.

Spinning up two braids of "Singer"

I am continuing to spin up some of the oldest fibres in my stash and this next one is from the monthly fibre club that I used to subscribe to.  It is from July 2019 and is called "Singer" and was based on the colours of the Singer sewing machines.  I had two braids of this, one that arrived at the time from the club and then I managed to get another at a later date via a fellow spinner who was downsizing and selling off some of their fibres.

I did consider ways in which to handle the colours which would include separating the colours out for a more interesting yarn but the problem with that is that the yellowy-gold colour is the Eri Silk and so by separating the colours this would isolate the Eri Silk away from the wool content and I didn't really want to do that.  What I decided to do was to split it in half along the length, pre-draft the fibre and just spin it as it comes and I done this for both braids.

Given that this fibre was from a monthly subscription and we were told that there was only ever one batch made at the wool mill that she used it surprised the hell out of me to discover that the two skeins made are different colours.

The braid that I had as part of the monthly subscription has spun up much darker and leaning more toward the green and black content than the braid that I got from a fellow spinner who was selling off stuff to downsize which leans more towards the red and gold content.

With this colour difference between the two skeins there is no way that I could work them together on the same project in a bid to blend them and neutralise any colour variation as it would just cause stripes and on the kind of things that I make stripes rarely work.  They will have to be worked on separate projects.

So, both come under the umbrella of "sport weight" and the darker/duller one (on the right) is 100g/331m and the other one is 106g/381m and the fibre content is 50% Shetland, 25% Corriedale, 25% Eri Silk.

Continuing to spin some older fibres

This is an older fibre from March 2015, although I have only owned it since May 2022 after purchasing it from another spinner who was having a destash, and this another fibre that was from the monthly fibre club that I used to participate in between May 2018 and May 2020, but from its earlier days.

This one is called "Suffragette" and there are two braids, which total 212g together.  The fibre content is 49% Merino, 17% Corriedale, 17% Bluefaced Leicester, 17% Bamboo.

With this one I did a very simple break the braid into two lengths, pre-draft, spin from the end and ply together to create two very straight forward 2ply skeins.

These yarns have spun up as fingering weight and there is 212g/743m of soft, squishy yarn.  It's not my favourite colour, it is a dark green with a kind of dark smokey mauve-grey colour.  It does remind me a lot of another from the same fibre club that I spun a long time ago that was called "Emerald City" and I've included photos of that yarn below and as you can see they are almost identical.  The fibre content on that one was 50% Merino, 25% Bluefaced Leicester, 12.5% Mulberry Silk, 12.5% Bamboo and that also spun up to fingering weight.

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2023 Stage 16

The Cycling: Stage 16 is 22km of an individual time trial route that starts in Passy and ends in Combloux.

The Daily Challenge: Time to be timed!  You've got two minutes to spin as many metres as possible. Go, go, go!

Suggested Fibre: Own choice

What I did

I'm not doing today's challenge.  I've done this before and got myself into a mess

I am going to tackle another of the older braids in my stash, another of the monthly subscription fibres I used to have.  It is called Humboldt.

This is a straight forward 2ply spin so I split the braid into two and pre-drafted before spinning it.

The finished yarn is 45% South American Wool, 25% Merino, 25% Llama, 5% Viscose Nepps, sport weight and 278m/100g.

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2023 Stage 14

The Cycling: Stage 14 is 152km of a mountain route that starts in Annemasse and ends in Morzine les Portes du Soleil.

The Daily Challenge: You can't beat the joy that a sunny day brings so spin something that makes you happy!

Suggested Fibre: Anything you like!

What I did

I plied the singles that I spun yesterday.

The finished yarn is 50% Merino, 25% Rambouillet, 25% Baby Camel, fingering weight and 379m/102g.

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2023 Stage 13

The Cycling: Stage 13 is 138km of a mountain route that starts in Chatillon-sur-Chalaronne and ends in Grand Colombier.

The Daily Challenge: Spin a French breed.  We've selected Rambouillet but you could pick something like Ouessant if you have access to it.

Suggested Fibre: Rambouillet

What I did

I do have both of the fibres mentioned in pure form but those are earmarked for something else so I have searched through my stash of fibre braids and found one that contains 25% Rambouillet, with the added bonus of that it is also one of the older braids in the stash so that's a win, win combination.

This is called Singapore Sling, it's 50% Merino Wool, 25% Rambouillet Wool & 25% Baby Camel and it was one of the monthly subscription braids that I used to have.

I pre-drafted the fibre and have spun both singles today.  Completely forgot to take any photos of it being spun but here it is in the basket waiting to be spun.

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2023 Stage 4

The Cycling: Stage 4 is 182km of a flat route that starts in Dax and ends in Nogaro, both in Southwestern France.

The Daily Challenge: Use a furry friend as inspiration for this spin.  If you don't have a furry friend, a feathery, scaly or human one will do, too!

Suggested Fibre: Anything Shetland (a tenuous link to our Shetland Sheepdog)

What I did

I was going to spin up some fibre I have called National Trust for today's challenge, as I have been to quite a few of their properties with family, but seeing as I haven't yet finished yesterday's spin I had better crack on with that.  I have finished spinning the second single and plied both together.

The finished yarn is 80% Merino / 20% Ramie, light fingering weight and 554m/102g. I love the hint of green with the teal colour.

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2023 Stage 3

The Cycling: Stage 3 is 185km of a flat route that starts in Amorebieta-Etxano in Basque Country, Northern Spain and ends in Bayonne, Southwestern France.

The Daily Challenge: Draft with the opposite hand to the one you normally use.  See if this changes your yarn and report your findings.

Suggested Fibre: Virgo

What I did

I didn't even want to tackle the challenge today so I have just picked a braid of fibre from my stash to spin.  Where possible I am going to be spinning up the oldest fibre braids from my stash, as that makes the most logical sense to me.

I have picked one of the monthly subscription fibres that I used to get from a previous supplier that I used to buy from.  It is called Renoir and it is 80% Merino, 20% Ramie.

I split this fibre in half and started spinning.  It wanted to be spun finely so I let it be spun the way it wanted to be and I ran out of time because the first 50g took me well over 5 hours to spin. I need to finish spinning the second single and ply them tomorrow.

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2022 Stage 18 - Lourdes to Hautacam

Stage 18 of the Tour de France and it is a 143.2km long mountain race that starts in Lourdes and ends in Hautacam.

The Map

Sights and points of interest along the route

The race starts in Lourdes, most famous today due the Marian Apparitions allegedly seen by Bernadette Soubirous in 1858 and now visited by religious pilgrims.  The town has been occupied since prehistoric times and in the second half of the 19th century the remains of walls, parts of a citadel, necropolis and a Pagan temple dedicated to the Gods of Water were found after the demolition of the parish of Saint-Pierre.  So the sites to see today are the Sanctuary of Notre-Dame de Lourdes and the Torchlight Procession, every evening at 9pm between April and October thousands of pilgrims and tourists take part in the procession from the grotto of the apparitions to the esplanade of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary.  

There is also medieval Lourdes Castle, which now houses a museum of art and local history.  Other local interests are the Christhi Museum (calligraphy and ancient imagery), Pyrenean Museum, Lourdes Market Hall and Pic du Jer, which is a viewpoint of the city with the summit being 1,000m and accessed by a funicular railway that is more than 100 years old.  There is also a 18 hole golf course and The Gaves Green, Way, which is built on a disused railway line and accessible by all, including wheelchair users.

Lourdes

The first place of note on today's route is Saint-Pé-de-Bigorre which has an 11th century abbey of the same name and is currently a place for pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela.  Next is the 14th century bastide of Montaut and then, some 23km along the route, is Louvie-Juzon, followed quickly by Izeste, Gère-Belesten and Laruns, the latter being known for its sheep's milk cheese and a cheese fair which takes place the first weekend of October every year.

Laruns

Back to the route and Eaux-Bonnes, which is made up of several small hamlets and then onto Béost, which has a 15th century Abbey/Castle.  The cyclists now tackle the climb of the Aubisque mountain pass (1,709m), which has featured in the tour 73 times.  Spandelles Pass (1,378m) is next and is featured in the tour for the first time before they reach Argelès-Gazost with a population of 3,400 and it has the Abbey of Saint-Savon.  Towards the end of the race is Beaucens, which has a 10th century castle clearly visible on the top of a hill surrounded by woodland.  The castle, now in ruins, is also home to a zoological park which specialises in birds of prey.  Today's race ends with a climb up the mountain to the ski resort of Hautacam.

Hautacam

Who Won the Stage and Who Won What Jersey

The Stage winner is Jonas Vingegaard for Jumbo-Visma.

The Yellow Jersey won by Jonas Vingegaard for Jumbo-Visma

The Green Jersey won by Wout van Aert for Jumbo-Visma.

The Polka Dot Jersey won by Jonas Vingegaard for Jumbo-Visma.

The White Jersey won by Tadej Pogacar for UAE Team Emirates.

Combatif Award won by Wout van Aert for Jumbo-Visma.

Leading team: Ineos-Grenadiers

The Challenge: The roads from Lourdes to Hautacam mark the last mountain stage of this year's Tour de France, it is all downhill from here!  But first, the riders need to scale their final challenge - the Pyrenees, home of the highest waterfall in France and one of the highest roads in Europe!

Push yourself to finish something you have started. Spinning a braid, plying, winding, balling or biscuits.

Suggested Fibre:  Whatever you fancy!  If you've got some Botany left, you can always dip in to it to make the final push.

What I did

I decided that I would up one of the monthly subscription fibres from a supplier that I used to use to get it out of the way. I chose "Peterloo" from August 2019, which is 50% Shetland, 25% Linen, 25% New Zealand wool.  The inspiration for the fibre can be found here.

I split the fibre into two equal parts, pre-drafted it and spun two singles and then plied them together.

The finished yarn is sport weight, 100g/231m which in terms of the TdF length calculations is 693m - 2 singles plus the plied length = 3 x finished yarn length.

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2022 Stage 8 - Dole (France) to Lausanne (Switzerland)

Stage 8 of the Tour de France and it is a 186.3km long hilly race that starts in Dole (France) and ends in Lausanne (Switzerland)

The Map

Sights and points of interest along the route

Dole was developed during the 13th century along an ancient Roman road and mills and tanneries operated here until the beginning of the 20th century.   Louis Pasteur was born 27th December 1822 in Dole.  Although most famous for in the invention of pasteurisation, a way to treat milk and wine to stop bacterial contamination, he was not only a founder of Bacteriology and Microbiology but he also undertook a study into diseases of silkworms which were infecting large numbers of silkworms in the South of France and having a heavy impact on silk farmers, which then filtered down through the silk textile industry in this region.  He came up with a process of checking for one particular disease, Pebrine, by sampling a number of chrysalises and if the number of corpuscles were low then it would be good to carry on reproducing from those moths.  If the numbers were high then those moths would be destroyed taking the disease with them, stopping the infection from spreading and saving much of the silk industry from this disease.  However, he was not able to solve the issue with Flacherie.  There is a museum bearing his name at the house where he was born which is 8 rooms on two levels and documents his life and work.

The house where Louis Pasteur was born in 1822

There is also a museum of fine arts and archaeology, 16th century Notre-Dame de Dole Collegiate Church and 17th century Hôtel-Dieu de Dole, which was a hospital from the time it was built until 1973.

Todays race passes through the village of Mont-sous-Vaudrey and then through the town of Arbois, where there appears to be another house of Louis Pasteur, this time where he grew up since the age of 5 until he was 17 years old.  He later inherited the house from his father in 1865.  It is also a town famous for it's wines, which is hardly surprising given Louis Pasteur's work in preventing bacterial contamination in wine.

The route moves on to La Châtelaine with its castle ruins and then to Champagnole, followed by Syam.  At Syam there is the Palladian Villa (or Syam Castle), which is built in a 16th century Italian style, parts of it are still being restored by it does host exhibitions and events.  At Foncine-le-Bas is the Bief de la Ruine waterfall which comprises about 10 smaller drops in heights rather than one big drop, but it is still a waterfall.  Next is the village of Morbier, famous for its cheese with a dark horizontal line through the middle, whose origins lies in the fact that the curd of the morning milking was protected by a little soot whilst waiting for the evening milking to form a whole cheese.  

Morbier Cheese

Just 2 km further along the route is Morez, which is close to the Swiss border and there is an eyewear museum here that houses all sorts of spectacles, including those of the Dali Lama and some Inuit glasses.  Les Rousses is a ski resort town in France and is the last French town on todays route and has a 19th century stone built fort which, although it played no military role, was used right up until 1997 for training purposes in the handling of explosives by the commando training centre at the fort.

The race now moves into Switzerland and the first notable town is Le Chenit, home to several famous watchmakers.  5th century Abbey of Romainmôtier is nearby and is still in use.  L'Abbaye village has a population of 1,300 and is 134km into todays race.  Château de L'Isle is now a school and administration building for L'Isle.  In the town of Cossonay is a rather imposing 11th century Temple of Cossonay before moving on to Échandens and then Saint-Sulpice.  Charles Aznavour, famous singer, spent much of his later years in a house in Saint-Sulpice and there is an 11th century temple here too.

Saint-Sulpice Temple

Ecublens is the place where Roger Federer's career really began.  In Lausanne there is a new arts district known as Platforme 10 and within that are 3 museums housed in 2 buildings, Cantonal Museums of Fine Arts, Cantonal Museum of Design and Contemporary Arts and Photo Elysée with the later being one of the most important in the world relating to photography and holds several large collections, including that of Charlie Chaplin.  In and around Lausanne, there is also the 12th century Lausanne Cathedral, the Rumine Palace and an Olympic museum, Lake Geneva and Mon-Repos Park. 

Who Won the Stage and Who Won What Jersey

The Stage winner is Wout van Aert for Jumbo-Visma.

The Yellow Jersey won by Tadej Pogacar for UAE Team Emirates.

The Green Jersey won by Wout van Aert for Jumbo-Visma.

The Polka Dot Jersey won by Magnus Cort Nielsen for EF Education-Easypost/USA.

The White Jersey won by Tadej Pogacar for UAE Team Emirates.

Combatif Award won by Mattia Cattaneo for Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl

Leading team: Ineos-Grenadiers

The Challenge: From Dole to Lausanne it is a bit of a hilly day today and you can guarantee that none of the cyclists are on those fancy electric bikes!  Lausanne is not only the Olympic HQ but is very, very keen on sustainability and green tourism.

Today's challenge is to spin with a recycled fibre.  These are very different fibres to spin and it hard to imagine what they once were!  If you're spinning from your stash, why not try using odds and ends of fluff that you didn't have the heart to throw away - maybe there is a bag of scraps that is crying out for use!

Suggested Fibre:  We suggest either Sari Silk or Recycled Plastic

What I did

I do have a few bumps of Sari Silk in different colours but I prefer to use it as an accent/ingredient in my own blends.  I don't want to spin it on its own.  The only blend I have that contains Sari Silk is one of the monthly fibres I had when I was part of a subscribed fibre club.  That will have to do for today, at least it gets it spun up.

I just found the mid-point of the length of fibre and pulled it apart to make two shorter lengths and pre-drafted it.  

I chose to spin it as fine as I could, which wasn't easy given that there are great lumps of Sari Silk in the blend, but I was able to thin some of the bigger ones out a bit.  The finished yarn is fingering weight, 62.5% Corriedale, 25% Sari Silk, 12.5 Mulberry Silk and is 100g/286m which in terms of the TdF length calculations is 858m - 2 singles plus the plied length = 3 x finished yarn length.

May 2020's fibre is here - Athena

I knew what this one would look like and I was totally bang on.  I do love this one and its such a shame that I have felt the need to give up the monthly fibre club that I loved receiving as I will miss the monthly surprises but I won't miss the other things that go with being part of that club.  For my own mental health I have had to leave the club and the chat group.

There are lots of shades of a similar colour in this one and I like that.  What I don't like is lots of different colours that, in my opinion clash, like last months fibre.  However, that is not saying that I don't like fibre with different colours in them altogether as I do like January's fibre, National Trust, and I think that is because the colours are more muted and do work well together rather than fight each other for attention.

The fibre content of this one is 40% Merino, 20% Alpaca, 20% Baby Camel, 20% Mulberry Silk and I have to say that is very nice to touch and stroke.

May's Fibre Club Letter

May's Fibre club letter has arrived. An interesting read.  Seeing that the inspiration is an owl really narrows down the colour options to neutral and natural shades and will be very different from last months dreadfully coloured braid. I expect it will look a little like this Bramble Path fibre I spun up 4 years ago. This will be the last braid I receive from this club as I will be cancelling my subscription.


The letter reads:

Your fibre this month is named called Athena, who was the pet owl belonging to Florence Nightingale. May 12th is the 200th Anniversary of her birth. She is most famous for being “The Lady of the Lamp”, a Victorian paragon of womanly virtues, and for modernising nursing and turning it in to a profession. Even now nurses in the USA take a Nightingale Pledge as the equivalent to the Hippocratic oath taken by doctors. 

Nightingale announced her decision to enter nursing aged 24, which was met with opposition from her family. She came from an affluent, well connected family where daughters would have been expected to marry well and go on to have families of their own. As a young woman she travelled widely in Europe, and it was in Athens, Greece where she rescued the little owl who she named Athena. The owl became her constant companion for the next 5 years. However during her preparations for her departure to the Crimea the owl was placed under the care of a family member, and the story goes that neglect, and pining for Florence led to Athena’s death. In 1850 Florence went to Kaiserswerth-am-Rhein in Germany, and spent time with the Lutheran community. The work of the Pastor and Deaconesses in caring for the sick began her nursing career, and whilst there she received 4 month of medical training. 

In 1853 she was appointed Superintendent at the Institute for the Care of Sick Gentlewomen in Harley Street, London. She remained there, training nurses until October 1854, at which point she left, along with 38 other volunteer nurses and 15 Catholic nuns, to take up posts nursing soldiers who had been injured in the Crimean war. She was deployed to Scutari (in modern day Turkey). Conditions in the hospitals were appalling. This is the point at which Florence's class and connections came in to play. She wrote a letter to The Times highlighting the problems faced, and the British Government were shamed in to action. Isambard Kingdom Brunel was commissioned to design a prefabricated hospital, that could be put on a ship in England, sent to the Crimea and quickly constructed. The death rate in this new hospital was 1/10th of that in the pre-existing hospitals. 

With the Victorian trend for creating women heroines (Grace Darling receives similar treatment in the press and public consciousness), Florence was lauded for revolutionising the nursing care and conditions in hospitals in the Crimea. However, she simply played a part in improving the conditions. There was a limit to improvements of hygiene with nursing care when the sewers and other aspects of the hospitals were hopelessly overwhelmed. The Sanitary Commission arrived in the Crimea 6 months after the arrival of Florence and her team of nurses, and this team of men flushed out sewers and improved ventilation in the hospitals. In fact the death rate at the hospital where Nightingale and her nurses work was far higher than in many of the other field hospitals because the hospital in which they worked was built on top of a sewer so the men were continually drinking contaminated water. Until the sanitation and ventilation was improved nursing could do nothing other than provide comfort to men dying of Cholera, Typhus, Dysentery and other diseases. 

After she left the Crimea she established the first Nursing school in 1860, and by 1865 trained nurses were now being employed as staff in the workhouse system. Prior to this the standard of care in the sick wards of workhouses was extremely variable, with nurses usually being widows or former servants who were unable to find work elsewhere. 

Nightingale’s greatest skill is probably that of a statistician, however that was an area of knowledge which was seen as a manly pursuit, so not publicly acknowledged at the time. She excelled in creating visual representations of data, which she used to convince the politicians and public to fund her reforms. In particular she created a form of pie chart called the polar area diagram, which illustrated seasonal variation in patient mortality due to different factors. 

Florence lived to the age of 90, and she’s a complex woman to try and understand. She was often difficult, hard to work with, demanding of her staff, and could be downright rude and offensive. She was snobbish about the work of Mary Seacole, a British Jamaican nurse who also worked in the Crimea. She must have been very strong willed, because she truly defied all public conventions about how a woman from her class should live, this drive and ambition may well colour contemporary accounts about her personality, to many of the people who she came in to contact she would have been a true maverick. 

I'm actually looking forward to receiving this one, and she has already posted an image of a sample of how it looks spun up from the fold and from the end.  I'm not entirely happy that she has done that on the day that she posted it out to all members, as this has kind of ruined it for everyone to some degree, but given that it obviously consists of a blend of natural colours there really isn't that much to spoil, but even so, not a good idea in my eyes.

April's Club Fibre is here!

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

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

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

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

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

April's Fibre Club Letter

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

The letter reads:

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

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

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

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

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

Spinning up Emerald City

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

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

Spinning up Gold

I'm getting on spinning my way through some of the mass of spinning fibre that I have building up around me.  This time I have chosen one from last year, the February 2019 monthly fibre called "Gold".  I really like this one as its pretty much a single colour, with varying shades, and sparkle.  I do like a bit of sparkle as it adds interest and makes for pretty lace shawls.

There's not a lot to say about how this spun up really as I didn't encounter any problems with it so I'll just get on and show it off.  I spun it to fingering weight and I got 364m out of it.  To re-cap the fibre content from the linked post about the fibre it is 58.% Merino, 25% BFL, 12.5% Mulberry Silk, 4% Stellina.

March's Club Fibre is here!

Happy little squeals could be heard from me this morning as I opened my little parcel from the fibre club.  Just as I expected after reading the letter and little bit of research, this fibre is all shades of blue with a hint of green.  I was having a little problem with light when taking the photos but the true colour is more like the larger photo.  Its 70% Merino, 30% Viscose, with the Merino being naturally dyed in Italy using Indigo and Woad.