Purple Power

I added a bit more purple to my lace-weight alpaca yarn. Here's the result.

The original yarn is on the left, overdyed yarn on the right. I wanted to add a bit more colour without obscuring the subtle variations. I think I achieved that. Now I've skeined  up all the yarn I have left and am ready to overdye it. I think I'll try to repeat what I just did for half the skein and add a bit more oomph to the rest. That should give me the effect I'm after. In any case, I know I can't end up with something I won't be happy to use with this yarn and colour combination. 

Better than Expected

This piece has a long and somewhat odd history. It's turned out better than it deserved to, really.

It started with a lovely lace-weight alpaca yarn, which unfortunately only came in muted blue and purple tones. My preference is for brighter shades, but the fibre was nice enough that I overcame my reluctance. I started on a feather and fan lace scarf. After about half a metre of knitting I flagged and stopped.

The project sat in my to-do box for many months. I pulled it out a few weeks ago. I felt bad about it, but couldn't convince myself to restart the lace knitting. On the other hand, I respected what I had done too much to pull it out. Then this idea popped into my head. Could I turn it into something else?

First I added a bit more length in garter stitch. The next step was to block the lace to make it look its best. That happened yesterday morning. As soon as it was blocked I was happy to have saved it. I stitched the short end of the garter stitch section to the side of the feather and fan section. Here's the result.

I like it. In fact I almost love it. Yes, I would prefer it to be a bit brighter, but I'm sure I'll wear and enjoy it as it is. And I have enough of this yarn left to try overdyeing it to spark it up a bit. There's a 100 meter skein in the dye pot as I'm typing. This story will be continued. 

Rocks

I finished spinning the red rock wool-silk yarn.

I had 50 grams. As I wound it off the bobbin I measured 410 metres. That's equivalent to my commercial laceweight yarn, so I'm reasonably happy with my result. And it's a sweet glossy soft, fine yarn. There was a fair bit of variation in the colour of the tops I bought. That has evened out to some extent with the spinning and plying, but it's still going to be a bit of a surprise as it knits up. Now I just need to decide what to do with it.

Achievement

It's been more than a year since I bought my tiger myrtle drop spindle at the Southbank Market. I bought some of Charly's angora-merino tops at the same time. We've been a long way together, my drop spindle and I: public transport, cafe's, car breakdowns, doctor's surgeries, . . . we've seen them all. Don't ask me how many hours, but it's been time that would otherwise have been wasted. In fact, drop spindling has enriched my time and relieved what would otherwise have been tedious or frustrating moments--oh, and in case I was in your company while drop spindling, let me quickly say, some delightful moments too!

Now look:I've spun my way through all this delicious fibre and it's ready to ply. I'm not enough of a purist to ply it all on my drop spindle. The first attraction of drop spindling for me is portability and plying vast lengths of tightly spun lace-weight yarn from two little bobbins in not portable. I'll use the wheel for plying and set myself up with a new batch of fibre for my drop spindle. Hmmm, what to choose? I'll ponder that over a cup of coffee while I gloat over my beautiful bobbins. Or maybe I'll just gloat for now and choose later.

A Kilo of Happiness

I've got the house shut up in anticipation of another hot day. I was on the phone when the dogs started to bark and jump at the door. I wasn't expecting any visitors . . . then I remembered the cone of lace weight cashmere-merino yarn I'd ordered from Charly at Ixchel. I managed to get the parcel into the house without letting the dogs out, or too much hot air in--that was quite a feat. Then I carefully opened the parcel to find this: I'm spinning up some angora-merino on my finest drop spindle and I've nearly done 50g. It's a pleasure to spin, but there's no way I'll get to a kilo, which is how much is on this cone. Charly usually sells it in her own unique hand-dyed colour-ways. But this gives me a chance to do my own thing. I love to make my own colours. I'm looking forward to this kilo of happiness going a long way. For now I'm getting joy from just looking at it and imagining the possibilities.