Spinning up The Thin Blue Line

I'm working on getting some of the fibre club braids spun up, working from the oldest that I have and working forwards.  This one is from just over a year ago called The Thin Blue Line.

This is another one that I managed to get another 300g of recently, this time from someone else's destash.  I spun it from the end, worsted style but spun it fairly thickly, to worsted weight and I have four skeins which total 381g/424m. Washing and rinsing this took forever as it kept bleeding dye into the water, as is often the case with blue fibres, but I kept rinsing until it bled no more else I will have dye leak onto my knitting needles and hands when I knit with this.

Its 62.5% Merino, 25% Sari Silk, 12.5% Bamboo Rayon and is soft and squishy and you just want to cuddle up with this.

March's Fibre Club Letter

March's Fibre club letter has arrived and I have to be honest, I have never watched the Oxford/Cambridge boat race, so I have no idea of what shades or tones to expect.  I am just not into sport at all.

The letter reads:

This year will be the 5th anniversary of the combining of the men's and women’s Boat Race. Now if you’re in the UK you’ll know exactly which Boat Race I mean, but for those outside the UK here’s a little background information. 

The Boat Race is an annual rowing race between Oxford and Cambridge Universities. The men's race first took place in 1829 in Henley on Thames, and then in 1836 moved to its current course in London on the Thames. Excluding the time periods of the World Wars the men's race has been held every year since. The women’s race first began in 1927, though it took until 1935 for it to be a true race instead of a judged competition based on rowing style. In the early years Cambridge didn’t have a University Women’s Boat Club, as only Newnham College (an all girls college) offered rowing. In 1941 the Cambridge University Boat Club was established when Girton College also offered rowing. The race was then held annually until 1952, when a lack of funding for the Women’s Boat Clubs meant that neither team was able to compete. The race begun again in 1964, boosted by the number of women who were now admitted to many of the colleges of both universities.

For much of its history the race had been held separate from the men's with the venue alternating between the River Cam in Cambridge and the Isis (the name for the stretch of the River Thames by Oxford). In 1977 the race moved to Henley on Thames, as part of the Henley Boat Race, where the men's lightweight teams also compete. Finally in 2015 the women’s race was moved to the same 4.2 mile (6.8km) course as the men's race. That year the television audience for the women’s race reached 4.8 million viewers. The race is held around Easter every year, though has no set date in the calendar as the River Thames is tidal, and at certain points in the month the tides don’t allow the boats to race. This year it’s scheduled for 29th March. 

The boats themselves are rowed by 8 competitors with a cox who can be of either sex. It’s a gruelling year of work to get ready for the race as all the rowers are current students of both universities. The team members are traditionally known as blues, and both team colours are blue. Oxford row in dark blue, and Cambridge in light blue (with a hefty hint of green if you look at it with a colourists eyes!).

We’ve therefore got an extravaganza of blue in your fibre this month. The merino has been naturally dyed in Italy using Indigo and Weld. It’s softer than the usual merino at just 19 microns, and the sheep are non-mulsed. The Viscose is processed in Germany before being dyed in Italy.

Blue is one of my favourite colours, so I am happy already, and it seems like it will be a mixture of different shades of blue with some green thrown in.  I can't wait for this one to arrive.

Spinning the yellow Jacob Wool

I don't know why I have sat on this blended fibre for a couple of weeks before spinning it but I've spun it now and I'm really happy with the results.  The final fibre content figures are: 48% Jacob Wool, 41% Merino Wool, 6% Hemp, 4% Trilobal Nylon, 1% Angelina.  Adding the Merino has given it a much softer hand and its is gorgeously soft and shimmery, although my photography is struggling to show off the shimmers and glitters.  There is 147g of double knit weight yarn here but I've yet to decide what it will end up being knitted into exactly.

Combing some Suri Alpaca

Way back in 2015 I bought 200g of Suri Alpaca fleece from someone in Gloucestershire.  The fleece came from a female Suri Alpaca called Shimmy.  She must have sent me more than 200g because even after washing the dust and dirt out it still weighed 208g once it was dry.

I've put off working on this because I've never worked with fibre this long, silky and slippery before, most of it is between 5 and 8 inches in length.  Time to stop being scared of it and just get on and at least prepare it.

There are lots of different shades in this fleece and most of it could be easily separated from the other shades and so I kept it this way as I combed it so that I would have hand combed nests in different colours which gives me more options than just blending it all together.

At the end of combing I have 160g left.  Its incredibly soft and silky, very much like long human hair in terms of texture and apparently incredibly difficult to spin on its own as there is no memory to this fibre, no elasticity and you need plenty of twist to keep it together but not too much else it very quickly turns rough and rope textured, but not enough and it will stretch and fall apart. 

From doing some research Suri Alpaca is OK on its own if you want to weave with it but not so much for knitting or spinning, it has good drape but is likely to loose shape completely quite quickly so is better blended with something that will provide grip and elasticity, like wool, merino perhaps.  I do have some small amounts of merino in similar shades of brown so I will compare those and order more if necessarily and then make a gradient yarn in a blend of Suri Alpaca and Merino but I will have to cut the Alpaca fibres in half to make them similar length to Merino so that they will blend.  By blending with Merino it not only will it improve the finished yarn but will make the gradient go further meaning that I can make a much bigger shawl from this.

Spinning up Peak District

This is one of last years monthly fibres, Peak District, that I have on subscription.  I have 100g a month of a surprise fibre, which pushes the boundaries on what fibres blends I spin and also the colours that I spin.  If I only ever spun my favourite colours then I would only ever spin greens, turquoise/aqua/teal blues and purples.

With this one, the opportunity arose to buy some additional fibre and so I bought an extra 300g making the amount of this I have up 400g.  This is a textured fibre braid and coupled with the fibre content the advice is to spin this one from the fold to trap more air in and make it a bouncier and softer than if you were to spin it worsted, which is my usual spin method, and that it would be lovely as a thicker yarn, around about aran weight.  I've been spinning 10 years and never spun from the fold but I've been reading up a bit lately and watching some short  instructional videos to try to increase my repertoire of spinning skills as its easy to fall into a rut.  So the result is a thicker than usual yarn with bounce, and that is why I made sure to get extra of this fibre as 100g of thick yarn won't go very far, a hat if you're lucky.

This was measuring up at aran weight before I gave it a bath and then it plumped up to Super Bulky/Chunky weight and I've already picked something out that I will knit with this.  It totals 385g/320m, I managed to lose 15g somewhere, no idea!

February's monthly fibre is here!

After the letter arrived and I Googled the drink I was expecting something a lot darker but you know what?  Despite the fact that is in the "pink range" of colours, I actually don't mind this one.  I think its because it's not a pink pink, its not a "Barbie" pink, its a coral pink and I can live with that.

This is Singapore Sling and its 50% Merino, 25% Rambouillet and 25% Baby Camel and is nice and soft.

Blending again

A few days ago I combed some yellow Jacob wool and today I have finally made my choices using colour choice tools to help me make that decision and blended some extra bits and pieces into it.

Main photo is Jacob Wool with sunshine yellow merino, a blend of four greens merino and purple angelina underneath and then Elderberry merino, Saffron hemp and Caiprinha trilobal nylon (firestar) down the right hand side.

 I've not worked out the final fibre content just yet, would be pretty high on the Jacob and Merino though.  I didn't use all of the trilobal nylon in this as a little goes a long way and that is what is giving the fibre the shimmery glow.