Handspun Yarn

I've been spinning quite a bit lately, and the more I spin the more I love doing it. Its so rhythmic and gentle that you can't help relax and enjoy it. I can even watch a little bit of TV now, once I've got used to the feel of the fibre and how its spinning up. 

I just thought I'd share with you some of my latest creations. Probably two years ago I went to a show and bought a bag full of odds and ends of Merino - I had no idea what was inside the sealed bag but it was going fairly cheap and I couldn't leave it there. Since then it has sat on a shelf in the shop stockroom, moved to Wales with me and sat on a shelf in the craft room. I decided it was time to do something with it, so I opened it and found a whole mish mash of colours in varying amounts. Some of it was a yukky brown which really was too yukky to use but the rest was a mixture of colours with a whole lot of black there too.


 I decided to spin the black first to see how much there was, and then I spun all the small amounts of colours onto one bobbin - they looked so pretty and I realised that plied with the black they would look lovely, and I was right! A little skein of rainbow yarn that looks just like Liquorice allsorts - beautiful. I wish I had had more of the colours to make more of this - so bright and cheerful I really like it. 

Next I had to use up a whole load of red fleece, so I spun this and also plied it with the black. Such a contrast with the red against the black, actually quite stunning if you like bold and brassy! I am a fan of red, so I love it.

With all the black used up, I turned my attention to the navy blue. As I loved the contrast of the red and black, I thought I would try another bright combination and so I used up the white and the silver fleece and plied it with the navy. Again, such a stark contrast made for a lovely bold effect. 

I'm loving all these bold contrasts, and am thinking that this is where I may head for most of the yarn that I make. Not to say I won't be spinning up some other colour ways - its Wonderwool in a few weeks time and who knows what delights I will come away with from there. And there's also all my alpaca fleeces - natural colours only for those beauties, but I shall also be on the look out for bright bold coloured fleeces to contrast each other once spun into yarn. 

All of my handspun yarn is available on this website with more being added all the time now. I just hope you like it as much as I do! 

Happy knitting/crocheting/spinning/making

Tina xx

A new home for the Alpacas...

So my Alpacas came to live with me last August, in my own little field at the back of the house which was just amazing to be able to go down the path and be there with them. I really was living my dream! 

Unfortunately, the water board dug up the road in front of us and this seems to have changed the water drainage from the mountain and now my little piece of heaven is a flooded muddy brown slippery mess that is not capable of sustaining any sort of livestock on it. 

I had to move the Alpacas pretty quickly as I was concerned about them slipping and hurting themselves and so managed to get a field just down the lane - sadly the farmer put her rental prices up so high that I had to look again and luckily the lovely farmers from the neighbouring pig farm offered to over winter them in one of their fields. So that's where they have been since last November, with the knowledge that this was just a temporary home for them. A bit of a trek down to the field twice a day but over the winter it has been really lovely to get up and get the fresh morning air on my face and start the day with a walk (I've even enjoyed walking down there in the rain, wind and snow!)

Now though, Liz and Andy need their field back and so I have been looking for somewhere else for my fluffy little ones to live. As luck would have it, another really lovely person who has been looking after a smallholding nearby has let me have use of the fields, stables and yard that she has been caring for....stables and a yard - total luxury! No more climbing over a barbed wire fence to get water from the stream, and a place to lock the silly Alpacas in if there's frost or snow (they sleep out in all weathers and you can tell - they are all so so very dirty!)

Look at the state of him!!

There's a couple of downsides - the farm is even further away than the current field, not really a problem as I walk past it every day with the dogs, but it does mean I can't just 'pop' to see the Alpacas, and the fields have been a little neglected and the drainage is very bad so they are quite wet. However, there's lots of grass and I can move them off if its too wet into the stable yard, where they will be safe and dry. 

The upsides are plenty: Dry areas, a stable, running water, storage for food and hay (I have to carry it with me at the moment), plenty of grazing, and a pretty badger faced sheep called Maggie who already lives there! I can't wait to get them up there, get them dry and see how much they like it. AND (and this is the best news!) I can have MORE ALPACAS there if I want to!!!!! (and oh yes, I really want to!) So watch this space - if it turns out to be suitable for Alpacas, I might just get two more............I'm excited even thinking about the possibility!!

I'll post some photos when they are there, but for now here are some pictures of the new fields and stables..

Lots of love
Tina xx

Spinning....

At last things are beginning to settle down and I have found even some more time to spin (Yay)

I've had a lovely stash of fibre just waiting for ages to be made into yarn, so I have been totally in my element making a dent in it - I'm about a quarter of the way through and am determined to get it all done before we get some dry weather, as then I will be making a start on my alpaca fleeces, and once I start on them I doubt I will have time for anything else for a while.

I have decided through my choice of fibres to spin that I have quite a colourful taste - although a lot of them don't spin up as I think they will, I have quite a bright 'pile' sat here in front of me and its quite lovely! Its all listed on the website for sale, and I sold two skeins just by putting the photos on Instagram, which for me is amazing as I consider myself to be very new to spinning and I see so many spinners producing such lovely yarn.

I like to keep a little bit of texture in my yarns - there's the odd 'slub' here and there and I think this gives the yarn some added texture and interest. I'm saving up for the equipment to spin art yarn as I really do love the uniqueness of each and every skein.

Anyway, back to this latest batch of yarn - I learnt to Navaho or Chain ply, which is a technique to make a three ply yarn from a single ply, and is also used to create colour effects with multi coloured fibre. None of the skeins listed are Navaho plied, as I got the technique but not the tension......I now have a couple of skeins of really really twisted yarn that I either need to rescue or throw out for the birds!!

In my last blog I showed you some colourful fibre that I was about to spin - here it is all sun, washed and skeined and ready to go into the shop

I'm off now to start on some more spinning, so I hope you are all doing what you like to do the most too..

Happy knitting/spinning/crocheting or other stuff (ing)!

Tina xx