Gradient Yarn

Here are the promised pics of the gradient dyed yarn in my Grandfather's Rose Garden colourway.

The yarn is 10ply Bendigo Woollen Mills "Luxury", machine wash merino.

Gradient yarns are fiddly to dye! I wind off ten 10g mini skeins, tying each in two places, and not cutting the yarn - so when the finished yarn is wound into a ball it will be one continuous thread which changes colour slowly as you knit or crochet.

I'm very particular about the colours - I set up 10 dye cups on my bench and get the colours just right on paper, then after the yarns are dyed I sometimes overdye one or two mini-skiens to get the graduation just right.

Gradient yarn like this would be beautiful used in a shawl or wrap, a cowl, a beanie, or in my personal favourite a baby vest or dress which is knitted in one piece - like the ever popular Milo.

I'll tell you a secret - I'm actually working on a couple of knitting patterns to suit gradient yarns like these :-)

Grandfather's Rose Garden

I've been busy over the last few days - my youngest son just started Kinder 3 days a week so I suddenly have some spare time for the first time in years! I used it well by dyeing up a storm, and this morning I carded a batt from my favourite fibre, Tassie lambswool from the Spinner's Guild in Battery Point. I named this colourway In My Grandfather's Rose Garden, the colours are straight out of my long and happy childhood summers.

As well as  dyeing the lambswool tops, I have been painstakingly hand picking over a superfine fleece I purchased locally, and removing all the tiny bits of  vegetation before dyeing it.

There's something so beautiful about locks don't you think? The fine wave of the crimp, the delicate softness, the curl at the tip...

I wanted to make a batt with both the prepared tops and the fleece, and somehow preserve the locks a little - I didn't want them to be fully carded by the drum carder (or "mulcher" as my older son calls it!). 

After some trial and error I found a technique that worked - painstakingly adding the locks directly onto the large drum  (rather than feeding them in on the small drum) and then running the packer brush over them. I'm pretty happy with the results - what do you think? I added some silk too because I just love the shine and the water-like squiggle of it...

A close-up of the locks in the batt. I apologise for the poor photography - my dear, wonderful, waterproof camera is not, as it turns out, waterproof anymore and died a sad death at the beach last month...