Well, here I am again after a little break.  I haven’t been posting, but I have been active, with spinning, weaving, family and guild stuff.  I had quite a lot of fun.

On the spinning front, I spun a nice light fingering weight yarn from an 85% alpaca, 15% bombyx silk fibre from Kensington Farm Alpaca.  It was clean, but there was some vegetative bits in the roving, so it was some stop and start spinning to remove the debris.  It turned into some very nice yarn after all was said and done.  I spun 358 yards from 50 gms of fibre.  I will work it into a lace shawl.

The yarn is very soft, and warm to the touch.

I have been weaving again after having naked looms through most of November and December.  I wove a shawl from some of my handspun yarn.  This was 100% merino from braids dyed by indie dyer Kinfolk Fibres.  I spun two dyed fibre braids into a gradient yarn, moving from turquoise through green to purple and then back to green and turquoise.  It finished at 712 yards.  I used this as warp for a wide scarf/shawl, set at 16 epi, 18 inches wide in the reed.  I used a small twill on 8 shafts, a balanced 3/1 twill against a 1/3 twill, using 2/20 silk from Jane Stafford Textiles in “lime lights” colour.  The scarf has excellent drape and is light weight and soft.

The colours in real life are much more vibrant.  The silk catches and reflects the light, and the shawl is wonderful around my shoulders on a cool night.

For those who have asked, I have designed a January towel, in a Swedish Lace pattern, and will weave it in snow white mercerized cotton.  I am working towards completing the towels by the end of January.