A Mermaids Tale - my own blend

I had a crazy idea, quite some time ago now, to spin a yarn that was lime green and turquoise with sparkles and texture going on and to use some of the left over bits and pieces of Twilley's Goldfingering in the yarn if I could as one time I accidentally miscounted and cut far too many lengths for the fringing on one of the shawls and I don't want to just throw it away.  It just so happens to be turquoise.  I get lots of left overs of Goldfingering that can't really be used to make anything much so if I can incorporate it into my own handspun yarns that means less wastage and less going into landfill.

I already had a braid of merino fibre that was mostly lime green with a bit of turquoise but I bought a braid of turquoise merino fibre from the Wool Show that I went to just before Christmas.  I also had some Trilobal Nylon in Colbalt and Tussah Silk in a lime green that I bought in years ago and then some Tussah Silk Noil in pale blue and Hemp in Tropical Green that I dyed myself a couple of years ago.  I put these 6 fibres through my blending hackle in 4 equal lots, one lot for each ply of a skein and I am making 2 skeins.  I can't put the lengths of Twilley's Goldfingering through the blending hackle, they will have to be added in as I go.  My fingers did turn blue though and this was to do with excess dye in the turquoise merino braid, which was also ever so slightly felted in parts, not enough to throw anything away, it did all come loose eventually, but it was harder work putting it on the blending hackle than it should have been.  I didn't have any problems with the other braid of merino, that just pulled apart as easily as would be expected.

The blue goldfingering was already cut into lengths and there was 15g of that.  I then cut the lime green goldfingering into the same sized lengths but because there was only 6g of it I didn't get many pieces so what I did with the lime green was to then cut those lengths in half to give me more instances of when the green will be in the yarn.  I split the number of the lengths of each colour into two, for each skein, and then split them again into two for each ply.  I then put them into pairs of one blue and one green and then when I ran out of green I made pairs of the remaining blue.  In total I had 30 pairs

I worked out that the total length of Goldfingering for each ply was around 60ft.  The first fibre that I dizzed off the blending hackle measured roughly 30ft in length and the ones I dizzed off after that didn't quite measure that length but all I had to do was to work my way along pulling it out a bit thinner to get it up to 30ft in length.  The reason for doing this is that I can then break off lengths that match the longer blue pieces and I can add in the two lengths of Goldfingering, whatever colours they may be, randomly whilst spinning the woolly blend and at least they will then be distributed throughout the yarn as evenly as possible whilst still being random, if that makes sense. 

I did have a little trouble getting the ends of the Goldfingering to embed themselves into the fibres so that they wouldn't stick out or unravel but there were a few times that I had to go back and add a bit of fibre specifically over the join to try to help keep the ends in place.  Plying has helped this even more but I have noticed that there are still one or two that are sticking out.  I will leave them alone until I actually use the finished yarn to make something and assess what is happening with the those ends at the time of making something, because knitting or crocheting may bury any stray ends in anyway.  It was a bit tricky and a little time consuming but I love the finished yarn.

My fingers kept turning blue throughout the spinning process due to the excess dye having not been washed out thoroughly enough from the braid of blue Merino that I purchased.  When I soaked the finished yarn the water turned blue because of this and the finished skeins are now not as bright turquoise as I had hoped for but they are still nice.  I was initially a little disappointed but these things happen sometimes, especially with blues and reds, you can rinse and rinse and rinse and think its all done but then someone with a different water supply with different salts and minerals in the water and a different pH level comes along and puts your fibre or yarn in their water and it can start leaking dye again.  The vendors at the Wool Show had come from all over the UK so this is a possible reason, although it still shouldn't have gotten all over my hands.

So, the finished yarn?  It is Double Knit weight with one skein being 119g/313m and the other being 114g/270m.  The final fibre contents, rounded to the nearest half a percent is 79.5% Merino, 6.5% Metallised Polyester, 3.5% Trilobal Nylon, 3.5% Tussah Silk, 3.5% Hemp, 2% Tussah Silk Noil, 1.5% Viscose.

Advent Calendar 2024 Day 25 - Merry Christmas Yoo-hoo

Well, I am one of those people in the world who have never seen Frozen.  I know of that infernal, annoying song, Let it Go, that an adult neighbour caterwauled along to at the top of her awful shrieking voice over and over and over for hours at a time for almost a month none stop before she moved onto another song and ruined that too.  Thankfully she was evicted almost 6 years ago, thankfully a year before Covid-19 lockdown, could you imagine being forced to stay inside with a neighbour like that for that amount of time?   

As soon as I started reading the description out to my family my husband started laughing because, apparently, he does know who this character is and he is immensely funny.  I had to find a clip online and watch to find out who he is and I like him.

All the information can be found in the first photo and if you click on the photo you can zoom in if you need to.

There isn't a string of lights in the clip that features Oaken and obviously they can't use images from the film due to Copyright Law so this is a fitting pattern to use.

I have undone the tightly wrapped little bundles and made them into braids to take any pressures off the fibres and also so that I can see the colours properly and feel the texture too.  This one is interesting.  Yes, there are lots of colours and there are other times when there are the same amount of colours in other blends and I go "eesh, no thank you" but these colours work together for me, although I think I might pair this with 50g of the dark teal Shetland that I just got from the Wool Show last week.

Advent Calendar 2024 Day 16 - Tomte

This one is about Tomte, who sound very much like Nisser from last year. All the information can be found in the first photo and if you click on the photo you can zoom in if you need to.

The design on today's packaging does actually appear to have relevance to the story of the character that the fibre is based on, houses.

I have undone the tightly wrapped little bundles and made them into braids to take any pressures off the fibres and also so that I can see the colours properly and feel the texture too.  I like this one, even if does seem a little busy with the number of colours/shades.  One of the ingredients is dark green Shetland and guess what I bought from the Wool Show the other day, yup, dark green Shetland which might go some way to being put with this .

Advent Calendar 2024 Day 14 - Nutcracker

Today's theme is about nutcrackers and I never realised before that those little men in military type uniform ornaments were actually a practical tool for cracking nuts, I just assumed they were something to do with the ballet of The Nutcracker.  

Growing up the nutcracker in our house was a stainless steel hand held tool made of two pieces with ridged semi circle shapes cut into each one and fixed together at one end on a pivot and you would need brute strength to close the handles together and crack the nut.  I rarely managed it but my own nutcracker these days is a kind of thick walled wooden cup with a thick wooden screw that is turned to trap and crack the nut in the cup, so much easier. All the information can be found in the first photo and if you click on the photo you can zoom in if you need to.

Such a pretty design featuring nature on todays package.  I am equally enthralled and interested in the packaging design as I am with the fibre.

I have undone the tightly wrapped little bundles and made them into braids to take any pressures off the fibres and also so that I can see the colours properly and feel the texture too.  This one isn't overly rough but its not gloriously soft either.  It is mostly grey-ish white with black but there are some subtle colours running through it too.

I've added this photo to show that there are actually colours running through this blend.

Advent Calendar 2024 Day 13 - Lutzelfrau

I'm not German so I haven't heard of today's character but she sounds interesting. All the information can be found in the first photo and if you click on the photo you can zoom in if you need to.

The design on this little packet is pretty, but again doesn't seem to match the character, which is absolutely fine as that is not expected but wouldn't it be nice if they all did.

I have undone the tightly wrapped little bundles and made them into braids to take any pressures off the fibres and also so that I can see the colours properly and feel the texture too.  I love this one. It is so fine and soft and the colours are so rich but also softened by the creaminess of the both the Soy Bean and the Tussah Silk.  I would love to get some more of this.

Advent Calendar 2024 Day 9 - Knecht Ruprecht

I have never heard of this character and the spelling is a little bit confusing to me, I kept reading it as Rupert, but it isn't helped by the fact that the main heading in the booklet has a spelling mistake in the fact that there is a K before the last letter of the first word when it should be a H. All other instances of the word are spelt correctly, as far as I can tell.  All the information can be found in the first photo and if you click on the photo you can zoom in if you need to.  

I wonder if the design on this packet is meant to represent the children in the tradition.

I have undone the tightly wrapped little bundles and made them into braids to take any pressures off the fibres and also so that I can see the colours properly and feel the texture too.  It's nice and soft quite smooth so I have no idea what I will pair this with right now but I do notice that this is the fourth fibre on the bounce that has been quite dull and in the grey/browns kind of range.  I do hope we have a nice colourful one soon.

Advent Calendar 2024 Day 5 - Loathe Entirely

This one is Loathe Entirely and even as I read it I hear Jim Carey's voice in my head as "The Grinch" and I am imagining that it is going to be some kind of green or maybe a green with splashes of red and white.  All the information can be found in the first photo and if you click on the photo you can zoom in if you need to.

I do like the designs on the little packets though.  Each one is different and this one features fir trees with berries and cones.

I have undone the tightly wrapped little bundles and made them into braids to take any pressures off the fibres and also so that I can see the colours properly and feel the texture too.  I like this one and it will probably be paired with another bump from either this or previous years' advent calendars.

Advent Calendar 2024 Day 3 - Cindy Lou

This one is about the sickeningly sweet Cindy Lou Who from How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  All the information can be found in the first photo and if you click on the photo you can zoom in if you need to. I've never read the book but I am familiar with the film starring Jim Carey as The Grinch.

I do like the designs on the little packets though.  Each one is different but I'm not entirely sure how this berry design fits in with the character.

I have undone the tightly wrapped little bundles and made them into braids to take any pressures off the fibres and also so that I can see the colours properly and feel the texture too.  I like this one, a lot, and its so soft too.

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 the 12 Days of Advent 2019

Spurred on by my recent spinning of the previous years' 12 Days of Advent set of fibres I decided to tackle this one which was produced the year after and was the last one that I purchased from that particular supplier before I parted custom with her.  It seems that I didn't make such detailed notes about the different options available that year on my stash page for this fibre but my chosen pack was called "Frost Fair" and the inspiration for the colours is the picture below.  Having said that I have discovered that I did, however, write a blog post about the options available back in the day and that can be found here.

The main braid is 60% 18.5 micron Merino, 20% Yak, 20% Tussah Silk and the 11 x 20g smaller packets are all 14.5 micron Merino, which is also known as Ultrafine Merino.  The original post that I wrote showing all of the fibres in my pack after I opened them can be found here. Apparently, according to the notes that I took from the supplier at the time, the colours are all on a theme but I haven't managed to work out what that "theme" is yet.  Answers on a postcard to...

This time I started with the main braid first and I spun this over-the-fold and chain plied due to the short Yak fibres and to try and keep colours together as much as I could.  It's lovely and soft and spun up to sport weight 102g/293m.

I spun all of the 14.5 micron merino fibre bumps in the same way, over-the-fold and chain plied.  I did have a few problems along the way with it breaking on me during the ply and this was due to it being underspun in parts.  I'm not a fan of such fine Merino, or at least not the stuff from this supplier, the fibres were very short in parts which didn't help in keeping the yarn in one piece.  Personally I prefer something with much more body and more hardwearing.

So this...

became this

All of the Merino spun up to sport weight.  At some point in the future I will figure out what I will make with it but I doubt that I will use all of the smaller merino bumps together in one project.  I'm glad it is all spun up now though because about half way through it began to feel like a tedious chore but I was determined to push on through and complete it.

Spinning up an old 12 Days of Advent set from 2018

Yesterday I finished spinning a set of 11 silks and a main braid that I started spinning on 16th July for the TDF2024 challenge of spinning something that you find tricky, your arch-nemesis.  This set was from way back to Christmas 2018 and was a set put together to celebrate the 12 Days of Advent (or 12 Days of Christmas if your prefer) by a supplier that I no longer use.  This is not an Advent Calendar, which run 1st to 24th December, this is to celebrate the 12 days after Christmas to 12th Night. There were a few different options available at the time, which I wrote about here, and I chose one called Pine Forest, as those colours appealed to me more than some of the brighter, bolder, or gaudy colour options.

The main braid is really soft and an interesting medium grey colour with splodges of dye along it which match some, but not all, of the colours of the Tussah Silks.  The set is designed to be used together in one project, or at least most of it together in one project, and there are plenty of patterns available that use a main yarn together with smaller amounts of other colours.

So although I spun the first two skeins of silk on 16th and 17th July I didn't spin anything else until 7th August as I was away or busy doing other things.  The Tussah Silk was all spun first, over-the-fold and plied as a standard 2ply yarn.  I used the same over-the-fold method for the main braid too with, again, the standard 2ply.  With hindsight I kind of wish I had spun the main braid as one big single and then chain plied it to keep the colours more together but it's done now and I like it as it is anyway.

The colours of the silks, starting with the pale blue in the 12 o'clock position and working clockwise around are: Sunrise, Fir, Milk, Storm, Twilight, Wood, Cloud, Tuareg, Fog, Thyme, Paradise.  The main braid I have called "Pine Forest", after the name of the entire pack, and the fibre content is 50% Corriedale, 25% Yak, 25% Rose Rayon.  All of the yarns have spun up at 16-18wpi, which is the range for Light Fingering weight.

I am very happy with the way the entire set turned out and I am no longer scared of spinning 100% Silk and I found spinning over-the-fold to be quite enjoyable.

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2024 Stage 17

The Cycling: Stage 17 is 177.8km of a mountain route that starts in Saint Paul Trois Châteaux and ends in Superdévoluy.

The Daily Challenge: If you're passing Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux it only seems right to drop into their famous truffle market.  Ply a dark fibre with a light to make a contrasting marl.

Suggested Fibre: For this, we'd pair Black Truffle with Wensleydale.  As well as spinning fibre, it's a great cheese combo.

What I did

I had already decided that I wasn't doing today's challenge, or any more of the challenges unless they fitted in with the fibre, when I chose to start spinning the fibre set I started yesterday.  Not only that, but we are about to go on a long weekend break away with our two teenagers in tow so with last minute laundry washing, organising and packing tomorrow and travelling on Friday, once I've collected our youngest from their last session at college until after the long summer break, I won't have time to do any more spinning this TDF.

So, today's spin was more Tussah Silk and it was Day 3 of the 12 Days of Advent.  A dark green Tussah Silk called "Fir".

This one took me about 30 minutes less to spin than my first mini skein of Silk.  I think it's turned out slightly better and a little more even as well.

This one is 20g/96.8m and I managed to not get myself in a tangled mess at the end of the plying this time.

Knowing that this is the end of my TDF journey this year my total TDF spinning lengths, taking into account the individual singles and the plies, amounts to 7,296.78m (which is about 4 and a half miles).  I know that doesn't sound like much but considering how much spare time I actually have during each very busy day it is actually a lot of yarn spun.

These are all my TDF2024 spins together, in order, starting from top right to left then bottom right to left.  I will do a quick write up of the next few and final days of the TDF route and challenge info, but of course there will be no spinning in relation to them.  I hope to be able to carry on spinning my silk packets over the 6 week summer break, but who knows what could happen, I take life one day at a time at the moment.

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2024 Stage 16

The Cycling: Stage 16 is 188.6km of a flat route that starts in Gruissan and ends in Nîmes.

The Daily Challenge: A little bit of a tenuous link to our song today... Nîmes is twinned with Preston in Lancashire and Lancashire is the home of fictional duo Wallace and Gromit.  Our song of the day is the Wallace and Gromit Theme.  Spin something that you find tricky - grab your fibre-arch nemesis and conquer the challenge!

Suggested Fibre: We've opted for Carded Fawn UK Alpaca Sliver because its soft and short, so we really have to pay attention!

What I did

Well, I didn't watch 2 hours worth of instructional videos last night for nothing.  I decided to tackle my arch nemesis fibre.  Silk.  I'm not talking about Silk in a blend.  I'm talking about 100% pure Silk spun on it's own.  Fine, flyaway, slippery as hell, easy clumping Silk.

I have a very particular set of fibres that I have been putting off spinning for a very long time.  It is a 12 Days of Christmas set that I got in 2018 from a past supplier.   I wrote a couple of posts about it at the time here and here.

I am starting with the first 20g bump of Tussah Silk from the pack and will spin over-the-fold.  The main braid was the first day and the Silk started from Day 2.

I haven't soaked the finished yarn yet, I will do that when I have all of the silks spun up, but here is a photo of my first skein of handspun 100% pure Silk yarn.

It wasn't as difficult to spin as I envisaged but I did get a little tangled up at the end when I made a small Andean plying bracelet as one bobbin had a bit more on it that the other one and the Andean plying bracelet slipped over my hand and off right towards the end.  It's not perfect but I'm pretty happy with it and at this point it is measuring up as 19g/97.5m but that might change slightly after a good long soak sometime in the near-ish future.  I'm certainly happy to carry on and spin the remaining 10 bumps of Silk.

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2024 Stage 14

The Cycling: Stage 14 is 151.9km of a mountain route that starts in Pau and ends in Saint Lary Soulan Pla D'Adet.

The Daily Challenge: We love a good board game and if they're your cup of tea then the board game festival in Pau is the place to visit (if you're not cycling through!)  Time to up the ante; get something finished.  (We're pretty sure that finishing a packet of biscuits counts too).

Suggested Fibre: You're spinning to finish something - anything!  Grab what you need and go go go!

What I did

I spun the second single of the second skein and plied and although I am very proud of the 4 blends that I dyed and put together myself I am really pleased that they are finally spun and finished.  It has been a long journey and a lot of hard work.

This spun up to sport weight and the skeins are 97g/203m and 95g/205m.  The fibre content is 76.5% Llandovery Whiteface Hill Wool, 9.5% Tussah Silk, 5% Hemp, 4.5% Silk Noil, 4.5% Trilobal Nylon.

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2024 Stage 13

The Cycling: Stage 13 is 165.3km of a flat route that starts in Agen and ends in Pau.

The Daily Challenge: We've gone from the umbrella capital of France to the prune capital of France!  They've even got a show.  We're going for a simple one; spin something purple.

Suggested Fibre: Bio-nylon Plum, this biodegradable synthetic fibre will surprise you.  It has a soft handle and doesn't squeak!

What I did

I continued to spin what I started yesterday and spun the second single and plied my first skein.  I also managed to spin the first single of the second skein.  I don't have any additional photos to show off at this stage.

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2024 Stage 8

The Cycling: Stage 8 is 183.4km of a flat route that starts in Semur-en-Auxois and ends in Colombey Les Deux Églises.

The Daily Challenge: The town of Semur-en-Auxios used to have a lot of mills supporting its industry, but the building of the Lac de Pont dam caused a change in the river which meant it was no longer powerful enough to run the mills.  Introduce a bit of texture to your spin, extra points for river-theming it.

Suggested Fibre: All of our Sari Silks will bring texture to s a spin, and River Rapids is quite thematic!

What I did

I spun and plied the next two singles of my Llandovery Whiteface Hill blend "Evening at the Bay".  It contains texture and is river themed.  I think the lighter blue parts of the Silk Noil looks like whitewater rapids in the river of blue.

This is spun to sport weight and the skeins are 99g/218m and 98g/204m.  The fibre content is 75% Llandovery Whiteface Hill Wool, 10% Tussah Silk, 6% Trilobal Nylon, 5% Hemp, 4%Silk Noil.

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2024 Stage 7

The Cycling: Stage 7 is 25.3km of a time trial that starts in Nuits Saint Georges and ends in Gevrey-Chambertin.

The Daily Challenge: Gevrey-Chambertin was originally known as Gevrey.  It added the name of it's most successful vineyard to the town name and others soon follow suit.  It is well know for it's burgundy wine production.  Pick any fibre you like, you've got the length of the song "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" by Daft Punk (3 minutes and 42 seconds) to see how much you can spin!

Suggested Fibre: Your choice!  Pick something you know you can whizz along with.  We'd go for Natural Bluefaced Leicester.

What I did

Well, I'm certainly not doing today's challenge.  I only ever done one of these "spin as much as you can in a given time" challenges once before and it was such a pain in backside trying to measure how much I spun and I got into such a tangled mess in doing so that I refuse to participate in those kind of challenges anymore.  

Following on from what I started yesterday, after I plied the Saffron Sunshine, and spun the first single of my next chosen fibre I spun the second single and plied them together.  This the third of my Llandovery Whiteface Hill blends and this one is called Evening at the Bay.

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2024 Stage 6

The Cycling: Stage 6 is 163.5km of a flat route that starts in Mâcon and ends in Dijon.

The Daily Challenge: Dijon is the birthplace of Dijon Mustard - if you hadn't already guessed.  But did you know, in 2022 there was a mustard shortage as Dijon's main supply of mustard seed from Ukraine and Russia was reduced due to the war.  Instead, seed had to be produced from Canada.  This is an easy peasy lemon squeezy one today - spin something yellow!

Suggested Fibre: Corriedale Mustard is the obvious choice; it's yellow and a nice, fast spin.

What I did

Oh wouldn't you know, my current spin also fits today's challenge, kind of, as I consider the colour of my blend to fit in with the mustardy-yellow range of colours.  Did I plan my spins this way?  A hill breed yesterday and something yellow today, oh yes I certainly did!

I plied the second set of singles today and the photos of the finished yarn actually represents the true colour (because I took these photos using my Canon camera and not my phone!).  This is spun to double-knit weight and the skeins are 82g/171m and 86g/177m.  The fibre content is 77.5% Llandovery Whiteface Hill Wool, 8.5% Tussah Silk, 5% Silk Noil, 5% Hemp, 4% Trilobal Nylon.

After I finished this yarn, I spun the first single of my next spin, which I have chosen to spin for the Stage 8 challenge.

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2024 Stage 3

The Cycling: Stage 3 is 230.8km of a flat route that starts in Plaisance and ends in Turin.

The Daily Challenge: Beneath Turin there are supposedly three alchemical caves, one of which may hide the elusive Philosopher's Stone.  You can't visit these caves as their location is only ever known by three people at a time - and these people don't know each other so they can't share it!  Turin is shrouded in a lot of magical myth and mystery; we fell down the rabbit hold and had to be forcibly dragged out!  Our first non-spinning challenge of this tour!  Share your favourite myth/legend - it could be something local to your area, lesser-known, or just something that you like!

Suggested Fibre: Myth, a lightly textured amber-coloured blend of 33.3% Merino, 33.3% Tweed and 33.3% Bamboo (the remaining 0.01% is a mystery)

What I did

Well, the fibre I chose to start spinning yesterday was picked to fit in with today's challenge and Rudolph is certainly both a myth and a legend. I plied the two singles that I spun yesterday of Rudolph's Nose from the 2021 Advent Calendar.  The finished yarn is wonderfully soft and I have 101g/363m of sport weight yarn.  It is 25% Shetland Wool, 25% Tussah Silk, 25% Bamboo, 25% Bio-Nylon.  

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2024 Stage 2

The Cycling: Stage 2 is 199.2km of a hilly route that starts in Cesenatico and ends in Bologne.

The Daily Challenge: Bologne is home to one of the oldest universities in the world. Alma Mater Studiorum was founded in 1088 making it 936 years old!  In the spirit of learning new things today's challenge is to use a new technique.  This could be for spinning, plying or drafting - it could even be something you've recently learnt and want to practice.

Suggested Fibre: Dusty Brick - a warm orange blend of 75% Shetland and 25% Bio-nylon.

What I did

I'm not doing today's challenge but I made a start on spinning a 100g braid of fibre called Rudolph's Nose, which was the Day 16 fibre in the first fibre Advent Calendar that World of Wool produced in 2021, and you can read about the fibre by clicking on the highlighted link.  The reason that I have picked this fibre is because it fits in perfect with tomorrow's challenge about myth's and legends, and of course Rudoph is a both a myth and a legend. The different fibres are very subtly slightly different shades, not massively noticeably, but probably just the difference on how the same dye looks different on different fibres types. Two of the fibres in the blend actually fit with today's suggested fibre of Shetland and Bio-Nylon and Rudolph's nose also has Tussah Silk and Bamboo.

I managed to spin two singles today and this will be ready to ply tomorrow.