Fall Foliage Series

overall
impression

E: Awesome sauce, stunning colorway. I would like a couple of pounds in my spinning basket right this minute
CK: These are my colors. Nothing makes me happier than a lovely orange braid.
J: Beautiful color, spectacularly puffy and soft
K: Really beautiful colors and the feel is to die for
R: Color is inventive and sophisticated and fiber is soft yet holds shape well

E: spicy perfection, perfect browns, perfect reds, perfect everything
CK: burning leaves on a September Saturday
J: spiced plums
K: autumn colors
R: like a happy face

E: I stripped the roving in two and spun it up end to end
CK: I split the braid in half. The first half I split again and spun from the end. The second half I split into quarters. I wanted a gradual color change with a minimum of barber pole. No entirely successful, but I’m really happy with the resulting yarn.
J: stripped it into 8, spun exaggerated thick and thin
K: Split in half lengthwise, spun one half end to end, the other divided into 3 lengthwise sections and spun them end to end
R: short forward draw

E: 2 ply
CK: 2 ply
J: single
K: 2 ply
R: 2 ply

E: 8
CK: 9
J: 5
K: 9
R: 10

E: hot soak, cold soak, thwackity thwack, hung to dry on the fence in the sun
CK: rinse and whack
J: warm soak and hang
K: hot soak and hang
R: hot water

E: The colors once plied up are fantabulous. Love love love. The lights and the darks play really well with each other. And the red is grand.
CK: I expected a little more fight from the silk. It’s a glorious blend and I was surprised at how easy it was to work with.
J: I spun this thick and thin and misjudged the staple length a few times. There were spots that the thick drifted apart as I was winding offf, but I just spit spliced it together.
K: It spun up very quickly and easily. I hardly had to fluff it at all.
R: the colors made plying a delight

E: I would make a sweater for me.
CK: The drapiness of the knitted swatch made me swoon. Even my son said, "Hey! That’s really pretty!" I would absolutely love a lacey cardigan sweater to wear when it starts getting cold in the fall.
J: a sweater
K: It would make yummy hats, mittens, scarves or a beautiful shaw -- anything you’d want to wear while crunching through the fall leaves.
R: socks, hats, sweaters -- a very practical yarn

These batts contain wool from sheep named Fuzzybuns, Booger, Adele, and Juniper.  A mix of medium & fine wools from New England, and some natural alpaca from small farms in Oregon where I grew up.  I've also thrown in a little silk, carbonized bamboo, firestar, and angelina for sparkle and shine.  I'm waiting for the day when sparkle will grow on trees

$7.00/oz

overall
impression

A: great batt!
C: it looks like a grab bag of fiber
J: I love this art batt so much I took two helpings and spun it two different ways.

A: fun batt to spin
C: not my cup of tea
J: festival of fun

A: end to end worsted
C: picked up bits and spun a thick and thin single
J: loosened it a little and spun it fat low twist from end to end / corespun over handspun

A: single
C: single
J: n/a

A: 10
C: 5
J: 4 / 5

A: soak & weighted hang
C: warm bath, hang
J: soak and hang

A: I was surprised at how nicely it spun up and how much I like the knitted fabric
J: fantastic adventurous spin

A: soft enough for mittens or a hat
C: a pocket on a sweater
J: hats, accents to bigger pieces, a super bulky cowl

merino

Maple Leaves

overall
impression

A: soft and lovely batt
C: Sooooo soft and airy
CK: I wanted this batt from the first moment I saw it. We were meant to be together this yummy orange and me.
J: sexy softness and meandering colors

A: practiced my long draw from the fold
C: 1 thick and thin ply and 1 thin ply
CK: I split the batt in half (widthwise) then split those halves in half. Then spun it as it came.
J: Split the batt lengthwise into 4 strips, spun English long draw finer than usual for me. I was originally going to make this a three ply to make a round yarn, but got so caught up in the long draw, I forgot. I got he yarn to be rounder than the average 2-ply by over plying slightly.

A: 2 ply
C: 2 ply coiling the thick parts around the thin
CK: 2 ply
J: 2 ply over twist to roundness

A: 8
C: 6
CK: 14
J: 8

A: soak, whack and hang
C: hot wash and hang to dry
CK: wash and whack
J: soak and hang

A: Spun up easily and nicely. Iit was a soft and cushy batt that made soft and cushy yarn.
C: There were parts of the batt that were a little compacted making it harder to draft than I expected.
CK: It spun a lot finer than I expected. I was able to get it quite small without trying very hard. I love smooth yarns and with a batt it’s rare to get something so well prepared that a smooth yarn is the result.
J: it was a tiny bit compacted around the edges. I spun it long draw and there were a few thick spots that wouldn't have happened if I had prefluffed the edges

A: soft and cozy mittens or hat
C: hat, scarf, anything soft yummy yarn makes
CK: I would love to make socks from this batt. It wanted to be spun up incredibly finely and a cabled yarn from this batt would be wonderful.
J: scarf to snuggle

overall
impression

E: workhorse wool
K: Such beautiful subtle color variation. Lovely!
R: Color is deep and rich, texture is bouncy with a lovely crunch.

C: semi worsted short backward draw
E: worsted
K: Split in half lengthwise, spun one half from one end to the other, divided the other half into four lengthwise sections and spun each from one end to the other
R: short forward draw. The fiber is stocky but still easy to draft

C: 2 ply
E: 2 ply
K: 2 ply
R: 2 ply

C: 9
E: 9
K: 11
R: 9

C: hot soak and hang
E: hot soak, cold soak, thwack, hung to dry
K: hot soak and hang
R: hot, hot water

C: I tried heavy worsted, but I didn’t like the feel of it at that weight, so I spun fingering weight, which I liked much better.
K: It spun like a dream, basically just sat and spun it up
R: the kemp in fiber was new to me – there wasn’t a lot and it was easy to remove, if you wanted.

C: outerwear, mittens
E: a rug
K: Would be perfect for outerwear or beautiful slippers
R: Husky sweater, blanket, market bag, basket

blue-faced leicester

overall
impression

A: a nice spin
E: subdued cloud of colors. Soft and muted BFL
K: so pretty, and such subtle color blending.
R: color is glowing, pastel with out being cloying

A: soft and lovely
E: mellow late August garden
K: morning clouds
R: silky

A: end to end worsted
E: After splitting and fluffing and predrafting I spun it straight up from end to end. I was aiming for a bulky fluff with a nice tight-ish twist.
K: Split in half lengthwise, spun one half from one end to the other, the other half divided into pencil roving pieces and spun randomly
R: short forward draw

A: 2 ply
E: 2 ply
K: 2 ply
R: 2 ply

A: 12
E: 8
K: 10
R: 10

A: soak and hang
E: hot soak, cold soak, thwack, hang to dry in the sun
K: hot soak and hang
R: hot, hot water

A: surprised at how nicely the colors blended
E: The colors once knit were gently subdued
K: I really loved the placement of the colors on the wool and worked hard to have my yarn reflect the look of the roving. It needed some fluffing but once that was done, it spun like a dream.
R: the spinning was unsurprising but I was surprised that when I knit my first swatch with a textured stitch -- all the natural luster of the fiber was lost

A: anything – hat sweater, mittens, cowl
K: It could be anything but I would make beautiful shawls with it
R: baby outfit, hat, lacy sweater