Chip's Skein

I'm very proud of this! It's pure alpaca, dyed with acid dyes from Fibrecrafts. The fibre is from Chip, an older whether (castrated male) whose fibre is white but on the course side now, I wouldn't want it next to my skin. But it took the dye well and combed out into beautiful rovings, which felt softer and looked brighter than the raw fibre. Okay, it was a lot cleaner as well. I will keep it as singles, plying would muddy up the colours. I've never knit with singles before, I've been reluctant to try it, I keep hearing dire warnings in my head from seasoned spinners about "twisted knitting". But I reckon if you don't put too much twist in to start with and set it well, it should be okay. It was spun at 8:1 and the twist set by putting the bobbin in scalding water until it had cooled (don't panic, plastic bobbins). It's nice and relaxed now - soft, but holds together well.

Need more colours

So, I want to make myself a waistcoat - in something like a kaffe fassett
design. I have several different colours, but probably not nearly enough. You know the problem, they're all nice, but you need more shades and tones. He uses up to 50 different ones in a garment. One good reason why you can't have too large a stash. I thought I could sample and test out the colours by making a simple tube, sewing up one end, felting it and calling it a spectacle case. If nice enough my Mum will probably get it in her stocking. I am knitting it in the round to avoid carrying colours when purling which I hate, so I'm using the 2 circulars method, and it's driving me crazy as the cirs are v-e-r-y long and the tube is quite small. It might be a small project but that's no reason to drive yourself insane is it? I'll try 4 DPs first before I frog it.

Some of said stash has some of my dyeing efforts where I rainbow dyed small balls of wool, by squirting a few colours into the wet ball and letting them bleed together and then steaming them - or did I microwave them? I wish I would make notes.

Lest we forget

For the Fallen
.......

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

.........

Laurence Binyon (1869-1943)

Found! Fibre!

It came to me the other evening that there might be more fibre out in the barn, stored in a chest that we don't yet have space for. So I went and looked, said chest was full to overflowing with all sorts of goodies I'd forgotton about in the 2 years since we've moved. Christmas as come early!

The trouble is I'd been tearing my hair out wondering what to make next, now I'm even more confused. So ignoring the 'new' fibre, I've started spinning up some of Chips fleece that I'd dyed, it's quite coarse, not what you'd want next to your skin, but it might make a smart bag if I felt it, or, I could make a farisle vest aka Kaffe Fasset using Lissie's black? What to do what to do? I should be thinking christmas pressies.