Spinning Suri Alpaca...

65% suri alpaca
20% hand dyed merino
15% hand dyed silk
125g

A beautiful fibre blend that I'm spinning as a fine single and will possibly 'N' ply it. The Suri and the silk both add a lovely sheen. Looking forward to finishing this one!

Vintage Yarn ~ In Pinks!

I confess that I broke the yarn diet for a second time, but I had good reason ~ a small stash of vintage yarns that crossed my path, how could I say no?:

87g of Jamieson & Smith 2ply jumper weight in the bottom cake.
94g of the same yarn in a different colour (3 cakes) and a skein of Rowan 4ply Botany. Now don't they just go so well together?

I'm surprised to find that Jamieson & Smith still produce these 2 shades of heathery pinks.





This week's spinning project is ~ black Suri alpaca blended with merino and silk, beautiful fibre. I shall post pics tomorrow.

A Gotland Feece

I've stuck to my self imposed yarn diet that I started way back in January. The only yarn I have purchased has been for 2 swaps plus a further 2 balls to knit a baby hat for a gift. I have not added to my stash in any way shape or form. However, I did succumb recently and bought a bag of Gotland fleece, just a part fleece, not a whole one ~ my excuse was that I have never spun Gotland and 'needed' to try it!

The Gotland is a rare breed of Baltic origin. Their fleece is extremely soft, curly and silvery grey. The Gotland is a very hardy sheep and when the lambs are born they are jet black.
There are approximately 1000 Gotland sheep in New Zealand. These sheep are very curious and friendly, being closer in appearance and personality to goats than to sheep.





On the left are a few locks after washing, unwashed on the right. The grey colouring seems to be concentrated more at the tip end of the fleece. I love the way the tips curl up and also the nice springy crimp:

After washing the locks seem to have a nice lustre to them, the fibre would be soft enough for clothing although it's not like merino soft. I will wash the rest of the fleece and hopefully sample it on the wheel this week.

Dyeing Combed Top~

A productive day so far, in pictures:

Polwarth, 160g

Polwarth, 125g

Merino, 25g knots

Merino & Bamboo Fibre, Bambino, Meriboo ~ Dyeing Fibre for a Gradient Yarn

I bought some natural 80% merino 20% bamboo fibre to see what it would look like once dyed. I wanted a gradient colour scheme:

I've dyed this blend in a yarn base before but never as combed top. I'm in love, it's squishy and soft and I love the way the bamboo takes up the dye differently to the merino. I'm planning on spinning a laceweight 3 ply yarn. Really loving these pinks and purples at the moment.









Here's how I did it:
Divided the fibre into 5 x 20g lots and soaked in cold water + 2 tablespoons of white vinegar.
Mixed up some red, blue and black dyestock.
Pink = 1 teaspoon red dye
Mauve = 1 teaspoon red + 1/2 teaspoon blue
Lavender =1 teaspoon red + 1 1/2 blue
Purple = 1 teaspoon red + 2 blue + 1/4 black
Black/purple = 1 teaspoon red + 2 blue + 1 1/2 black

It's a beautifully sunny Spring Monday here in Selwyn, I even managed to get a couple of hours out in the garden - weeding, tidying and mulching, the work outside never ends whatever the time of year.  These little beauties are springing up all over the garden ~Trilliums. I love everything about these:

The colours of the Trillium inspired me to dye this Polwarth:

I mixed up the deep purple red, yellow and green to match the shades in the flower and painted it onto the fibre, once the dye had exhausted I poured on some other random colours I've had sitting around for ages, this is a great way to use up all your bits of dyestock that are lurking about. It's often surprising how the colour turns out.
This is 200g of NewZealand Polwarth, all ready for spinning into a very very colourful yarn.

Cheese Rolls

Before I moved to New Zealand a cheese roll, to me, was a bread roll or bun filled with grated cheese and eaten as is. If you ask for a cheese roll here in New Zealand this is what you get:

And so I embarked on the cheese roll slippery slope and find myself eating far too many of them. I know they aren't good for you, but eating them gives immense pleasure,  especially on a cold day accompanying a bowl of (healthy) cauliflower soup.









If you don't want to get addicted to these then don't look at the recipe below. You have been warned!

Cheese Rolls:
1 pkt Maggi onion soup mix
1 can of carnation evaporated milk
1 cup cream
1 teaspoon mustard powder
500g grated cheddar cheese (medium to mild)
1 small onion very finely diced.

Put everything in a large microwaveable jug/bowl and heat for 6 minutes in 2 minute bursts, stirring in between. You will be left with a smooth gooey mass. Let it cool and it will firm up nicely.

The best bread to use is a soft white sandwich loaf, I have tried making them with every variety of bread and nothing comes close to the white sandwich loaf for taste and texture here.

Spread one side of the bread slices with the cheese mixture and fold into 3, I toast mine on a sandwich/panini press. They only take a few minutes, when they are nicely browned put them on a cooling rack and put another batch in to cook. You can eat them warm or reheat them later in the oven.

The recipe makes a lot, at least 2 full sized loaves-worth possibly 3. You can keep any unused cheese mixture in the fridge for a few days.

Tarndie Polwarth ...all finished!

I managed to sneak in a little extra spinning time over the last week and got the Tarndie Polwarth finished:



All the skeins together

Natural ~ 95 g, 326 mtrs

Chocolate ~ 50g, 182 mtrs
Grey ~ 50g, 180 mtrs


Beautiful fibre that was an absolute pleasure to spin. The finished yarn is a fingering weight and is N plyed, it's a nice and soft bouncy yarn.