Mill Membership

I'm a mill member at John Arbon Textiles

 My membership spinner package,

Mini skein (knit by number), card/needle gauge, 2 buttons, 200g top

and a cute project bag.

This top included is absolutely fantastic.

200g Top

Captain PolD'arles

80% Organically Farmed Polwarth

10% Merino D'arles driftwood

10% Merino D'arles chestnut

This top is simply amazing soft and bouncy processed to perfection, no nepps.

It's pure pleasure to spin this fiber.

The natural colours are gorgeous.

The resulting yarn is beautiful.

212 grams, 2 plies, 992 yards of bouncy soft yarn.

This was delight, I can recommend this mill for their great tops, way better than the most well known large companies tops I have spun so far.

This is my own opinion and this is not a sponsored post.

Lavender Merino

This was a TDF prize

from: Fiber Detours Boutique

Ashford

100% Merino Lavender  100 grams

Really soft but I found the fibers were quite irregular on the short side.

Not what I'm used to from Ashford.

 It was a little tricky to spin fine as there was some very short fibers mixed with longer ones,

 after washing the skein I whacked it good to full the fibers, I think it turned out ok.

Made almost 400 yards. The color is nice and it is soft as a baby skin.

I don't know yet what I will do with it yet.... back to the wheel for more spinning.

Christy's Challenge part 2

Of course I couldn't wait long to start knitting the beautiful yarn.

I have picked the same pattern I have knitted last as it was on the list of patterns to choose from.

Dragonfly wings by Boo Knits

It was just a perfect match for my yarn.

I have started it on Friday September 4th as it was a long weekend I knew I could be done quite fast.

It was finished by September 9th.

The blocking went well and with the weather collaboration it was dry in about an hour.

I just love how it turned out, feather light with a nice drape.

It took me a while to post it as my computer was having hiccups now it is fixed, I'm glad to have a geeky son that could help installing the hardware for me and clean the dust bunnies.

Now it runs like new.

Christy's challenge...

While browsing on Ravelry I found this challenge.

I received about 100 grams of beautiful Cotswold locks.

Already washed and ready to card.  I decided to card instead of combing because most of the locks were a little too short and It would have wasted too much and I would have ended up with a very skinny skein.

I turned it into a huge batt.

Started spinning away...

and plied...

Then it went for a colorful bath...

Here is the resulting skein for the contest entry.

I really love how it turned out beautiful and lustrous.

Now I wonder how long I'm going to be able to wait before I start knitting this yarn...it's just so tempting.

Just a little spinning

I have been back to spinning.

This is some fibers prizes from the TDF 2015

team Fibre Detours

Northern Lights in violet colorway.

Here is my resulting skein,

73 grams, 2 plies, 208 yards.

This was fun to spin, the colors are nice, the poling is good and pleasant to the eye.

It makes me think of the palette from some Monet's paintings.

Dragonfly wings

Few months ago I have participated to a giveaway from:

www.plutoniummuffins.com

I have won

a skein of Knit by Numbers

by 

John Arbon of Fibre Harvest

link to the yarn at John Arbon.com

This yarn is 100% merino, it is dreamy soft the twist is just perfect and the colour is yummy.

I have been looking for a while at a beautiful shawl/wrap from Boo Knits

Dragonfly wings

and it is a free to download on Ravelry

It was the perfect timing I would be a little short on yarn but in my stash there was some of my handspun merino/silk darker but would work perfectly to make the border.

Lucky there was some pearly pink beads too and I was having enough to complete the project.

Here it is blocked/drying no sun... so I guess the beauty shots will have to wait.

This pattern was a charm, very well written usually I use the charts but this time I just kept going with the written instructions, it looks absolutely gorgeous and it is easy if you know how to use YO to increase and K2tog to decrease, I used a 1mm crochet to place the beads on the stitches easy as pie.

Tour de Fleece finish line...

It was my first TDF

After a difficult first week start it went like a charm.

I really enjoyed the challenge and now I have a lot of yarn to pet and to choose some nice projects to enjoy.

Crossing the finish line and stumbling with that bounty.

This was my last stage, some white english leicester I combed and a little bit of corriedale left over.

Next year I will make sure I have some washed, dyed and ready to spin fleece for this event if I'm participating, it is more rewarding and pleasing to spin something I have prepared, no more bad surprises when it's too late to get something more appropriate to really enjoy spinning that many days and hours.