Ile de France Sample

This is a three ply sample I dyed the other day left from the skein of 194 g painted yarn.

 

I had spun two bobbins for the two ply and this was leftover so I chain plyed it to get just enough for a two by three sample. 

I used 4.5 mm needles and garter stitch. 

I found out how lovely this simple sample would be for a cardigan. It's not particularly soft, but it sure feels like it would wear forever. I can't see this pilling at all or catching on anything. 

I'm really impressed with this one. I want to make a sweater in this yarn. 

Fine Fleece

A Fine Fleece

I took 100 grams of raw fleece, scoured it, and hand carded it. I then spun it into a 2 ply.
It was sitting close by when I finished dyeing the skein below and I had some dye leftover I was going to discard. I decided to use it on this sample skein. It is a really pretty blue and very soft.

100 g of raw fleece after scouring became 66 g of clean fleece.
66 g of clean fleece became 61 g of plyed yarn, loosing some to second cuts, etc.

Ile de France 194 g

I had to dye a little more. This I prepared a little differently.
I flick carded the scoured locks to remove veggie matter. Then it went through the drum carder.
By now it was looking really nice. But I then hand carded into rolags and spun it using point of contact backward draw.
Before dyeing, I soaked it in hot water and TNA soap (like Synthrapol) and plenty of dirt came out still. I soaked it again and rinsed it, then it was ready to be dyed.

Exciting Package

I had this come in the mail today.

Then I opened it. 

I opened it further yet. 

Can you see the crimp?  Isn't that something special!!

Let's take a closer look...

Let's give a little lock a wash and see what happens. 

Now compared to one that's right from the box. 

Nice fleece. Very nice fleece. I lost count at 16 crimps per inch. 

What breed is it you ask?

I can only say it is from the fine wool category and that's all I know. And that it is Canadian grown.

I'm not going to take the whole thing out to look at until Friday, then I will give it a closer look and start washing it, but I'm very pleased indeed.