Last week I was lucky enough to score some of the new fibre now in stock at The Natural Dye Studio. In fact, I begged for some - I have always loved Amanda’s colours and since I’m trying to focus more on spinning and buy less yarn this year, NDS fibre seemed like Christmas in July!
My first impression as I tipped the fibre out of the squishy post bag was that this was incredibly soft and fluffy. Incredibly. I’ve had a lot of hand-painted roving and tops through my hands and almost all of them have had some varying degree of compacting (not felting, just squishing down) from the dye process. Amanda has managed to produce something soft, buttery and as light as air.
Given the poofiness (technical term) I was able to use a drafting technique which I love for shortish fibres, but which doesn’t work very well without a lot of fluffing up of the fibre beforehand. It’s essentially a point of twist draw combined with a short forward draft. Hard to explain without pictures, but imagine drafting forwards as for worsted, but allowing the twist far back into the fibre mass to draw out the fibres instead of pinching them with your forward hand. It’s very fast, and with a bit of practice produces a nice even single with a fair bit of air in it.
This particular colourway (Midnight Ocean) was dyed for long colour sections so I decided to chain-ply to keep them distinct. You can see how the yarn graduates beautifully from soft green through blue to a deep indigo.
Finished, with a bit of whacking, the yarn is deliciously soft, poofy and buttery with just the hint of a halo of fuzz. Tempted? There’s some great colours up now in the NDS shop and I’m really hoping there will be some left when I head up for the Open Day this weekend!
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July 24th, 2008 at 9:35 am
WANT!
July 24th, 2008 at 9:55 am
Would look nice in a moebius….cast on 80ish stitches….away you go!
July 24th, 2008 at 10:25 am
Wow gorgeous, heads off to look!
July 24th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Stop saying those things! You’re going to make me want to spin….:-)
July 24th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Of course you want to spin! You really should stop resisting you know - it will be less effort in the long run.
July 24th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Wow. That is just miraculous looking. I’ve really got to learn how to spin. Some day.
Your socks are really cute too!
I hope your heatwave broke. Too hot is just - too hot. Ugh.
July 25th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Wow really amazing work - I do adore this wool.
Shani
July 25th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
Gorgeous!
July 26th, 2008 at 8:13 am
Nice work Diane! I think I could wear those colours. Narrow scaf or simular to wear with the dark suit you saw me in the last time you were home.
Have to keep my neck warm since the accident.
(DaD rule: share a meal with someone else once a week)
DaD
July 26th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
Ooh, lovely. I already admired it on Ravelry, but I’m drooling again now. And as soon as I saw it on Ravelry, I did head over the NDS to ponder their fibre. I see they’re doing a club, too…..have to think about if my pennies can go that far, it sounds like a great treat, though!
And I love hearing about how you spun this. I want to take lessons from you, I feel so ignorant and inadequate as a spinner! I’m hoping in the fall that we move to a town that has an active guild, and maybe I can learn something…..
July 27th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Gorgeous!
July 28th, 2008 at 4:28 am
Oh Lordie is that beautiful! Ok, now I really want to spin….
July 28th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
I’m so impressed by that yarn! I would like to learn to spin like you do it!! Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!!!
July 30th, 2008 at 12:31 am
Oh, that’s gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous. <3 The colourway! And you spin so well.