Tour De Fleece 2016

In spite of spinning for the duration of the Tour de Fleece, I somehow forgot to share the results!

My second big project of the Tour was to spin this Extra Fine Merino from Hedgehog Fibres.  The colour way is mostly grey with little flashes of vibrant colours; mostly pink and green/yellow with some little hints of blue.  The fibre really is super soft; not at all compressed or fulled by the dyeing process, and practically spins itself. 

The finished yarn is 275 metres / 165 grammes of 3 ply, approximately DK weight yarn. 

I have had a particular project in mind before spinning this fibre & wanted to spin some complementary contrast yarns in shades close to the wee vibrant flashes of colour in the fibre. I've been rooting through small amounts of fibre in stash, and have spun a few bobbins full of singles in various shades. Some of the shades are not quite right, & have been set aside for another day.

After another dig through the fibre stash, I realised that I had the perfect deep pink shade of fibre;   I dyed a blend of 70% merino, 30% cashmere from World of Wool  dyed during last year's Tour de Fleece. Unfortunately, I have discovered that my fibre dying techniques are far too.... felty. Perhaps I boiled the pot for too long, or rinsed out the fibre too soon; the fibre was quite compact & felted, especially at the ends. I was able to tease out & pre-draft most of this into a spinnable condition, with a little time & effort.

L-R:
Merino/cashmere blend from World of Wool; dyed by me; 40g/73 metres.
Green/Yellow mystery fibre from Hedgehog Fibres Itsy Bitsy Fibre bag; 36g/ 47m.
Peacock & Teal Merino from Oliver Twist; 53g / 30m

The finished yarns have already worked their way into a project with lots of soothing garter stitch. More on that - hopefully sooner rather than later!