A Little Summer Knitting

Spinoff 2015 project. Wool & silk

I have been reading my last issue of Spinoff - Spring 2015 - where a narrow knitted scarf was being knit from some exotic blends made into a fingering weight yarn.

A little while later I found in my stash a ball of 3 ply fingering weight i had spun up last fall. Two of the plies are indigo dyed wool and one of the singles was an emerald green silk I spun. 

This seems like the perfect project for it. Here it is in progress.

Three rows repeated. Easy and interesting. 

Gansey Sweater

I finished my Gansey. Darned in all the ends, washed it and now I am ready to block it. It took 7 x 100 gram balls of Wendy 5 ply Guernsey yarn.

The pattern is from the booklet:

Now to wait for a cool winter day to wear it. 

Pattern and booklet are available from: www.Morayfirth-partnership.Org

Cochineal on Romney

Cochineal with alum mordant & cream of tartar for buffering on Romney. The top photo is fibre having been combed, but dyed on the scoured wool in its uncarded state. 

The bottom photo is from the first dye - one alum mordant, the other with oxalic acid from rhubarb leaves ( center sample). 

The next photo is the same dyebath, possibly the fourth use of it on Romney, Merino top and silk hankies. All alum & cream of tartar for mordant/buffering. The last one was dyed July 18/15. This trio will be blended into batts.

One can see how the different fibres take on the dye differently. Yes it is getting lighter.