Last time here I promised photos of some fibre which happened to come home with me. Sorry it isn't a very good photo but it is enough, perhaps, for you to get an idea of them.
The white fibre on the top-right is 100gm of carded polwarth. I have wanted to try out some Polwarth for quite a while but all the previous rovings I have seen had a bit too much vm in it for my liking plus they seemed a little too coarse and scratchy. This roving isn't too bad on both counts so it was allowed to join my stash!
The pale fibre at the bottom of the photo is 100gm of very fine "honey" merino. I think the "honey" they refer to on the bag is the colour - a moorit colour. I don't know what the count is for the merino but it seems to be fairly fine. I just liked the colour!
On the top-left is a darker lot of fibre. This is 100gm of a merino/soy silk blend that is named "fudge". Again, the colour? I could have bought a pure soy-silk roving but felt I would try out the blend first. I have started spinning this into a fairly fine yarn which I think I may navaho ply. I have noticed that it needs a fair bit of twist (I'm not a technical person so I won't even try to say what ratio I'm using or how many twists per inch etc. I'll leave that up to those who know about such things!) which, I suppose, is the merino content.
All of these fibres came from a Blenheim carding firm, Rotocard. The link is for their email address as I don't think they have a website. They do sell some beautiful coloured fibre. I especially like their wool/mohair blend. The present owners have only had the firm for about a year and have carried on with the past owner's colourways. I am hoping they will maybe bring out some new ones in the future.
Well, that is the very little bit of spinning news. I have done a little knitting in the last week as well. I wanted to try out something simple while we travelled north to celebrate our youngest son's 20th birthday. The journey takes about 1 1/2 hours so there is a little time to knit. I thought I would start a pair of Pocketbook Slippers. This link is for the adult sized slippers but when I first found the pattern there was also a pattern for Wee Ones, which are the ones I knitted.The slippers are so tiny that I managed to knit the first one and part of the second. Not bad for someone slow like me! The colour is rather off on my monitor - it is a really rich, deep red which I really love. I used some leftovers of Naturally Tussock, aran weight. I really like this wool and have used it for slippers before. I guess they don't look a lot like slippers but the foot goes in the space one of the "handles" makes and the ribbing on the bottom stretches to accomodate quite an amazing range of sizes. I intend making a pair in the adult size one of these days.
You may have noticed that I haven't said anything about the lovely wool/angora blend yarn I balled up and sampled recently. That is because I haven't even finished casting on for that yet! I am still afraid that I won't have enough yarn for my size. So I am procrastinating yet again! Yes, there is a story behind my procrastination habit - Many long years ago, when I started high school, I took Latin for the first two years (don't laugh! My mother made me do it - she wouldn't let me take french and typing like I wanted. I had to take french and latin instead). In the week we were expected to cover our exercise books so they would stay tidy. Of course, I didn't get around to doing it in time and had to write out lines - procrastination is the thief of time. Only, I had never heard of the word procrastination and didn't know what it meant. I thought that the teacher had said proscrastination is the theme of time! It has been ever since! Ha ha!
In the meanwhile, I have bought some pale pink mohair to make my daughter some fingerless wristwarmers from Wendi Dunlap, a hat and a scarf (patterns still to be decided). A bit strange considering we are heading towards summer do I hear? A little, maybe, but my daughter is going on her OE to England in January - going from the middle of our NZ summer to the middle of an English winter! I don't think she really has any idea what it could be like. Being a good mother, I have been a little concerned about her ability to stay warm - hence the wristwarmers etc! I have finished the first wristwarmer and am about 1/4 of the way up the second. Photos later. I must say the first one is lovely and cosy!
On Saturday we will be going back up north for a double birthday celebration dinner for our son and his fiancee. Maybe more knitting will be done in the car on the way up. Time will tell!
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