Minty-Green Sock Yarn

Ah, the winter. When it is dark by the time I get home, so all my project pictures are bad. Sorry, I haven't been good about keeping you all up to date on my projects recently, but I guess that just means that I have lots to write about this month.

Work on the shawl continues, and I have started a scarf that my brother commissioned for his new girl friend. I'll try to go into more detail in the future, but today I am just going to update you on a spinning project.

As you may or may not remember, I bought a few ounces of gray angora at the alpaca festival a few months ago. I have heard that angora is so warm and fine that, with few exceptions, it works better when blended with wool. Well, wool is something that I have plenty of for blending.  I pulled out some leicester locks from my seemingly never-ending supply and washed them.

However, I didn't want another off-white yarn. I could have spun it and then dyed it, but I have heard that the dyes might not penetrate all the way into the center of the yarn if you don't dye in the wool (aha, so that's where that phrase comes from!). So, the plan was to dye as much wool as I could fit into one jar a dark green (turns out to be 1.5 oz.) and then fill another jar and dye it turquoise. Well... you can see how the dyeing came out:

Wool being dyed in the jars

Still wet, but pretty similar to the color that the wool ended up

The green dye that I got is much brighter than I was expecting. After I took that picture, I put it back in the dye pot for more green. It got darker, but it is still neon. Part of the problem is measuring the dye. The package instructions say to use 1/4 oz. of dye per pound of wool. If I am dyeing 1.5 oz. of wool that is a very small amount of dye, and I don't have a way to measure it. So I am guessing. On the other hand, the water has been running mostly clear, so I think that means that the dye was almost all taken up by the wool, and I put enough vinegar into the mix. The turquoise is closer to blue, but at least it is a pretty color that I would wear.

Well, not to be deterred, I started blending the wool with the angora on my hand cards. Again, I didn't have a very good way of measuring the mix, so it is only approximate. But I think I am getting better at making rolags (aside from the matted angora balls):

Rolags of green wool and gray angora, blended

It's still a bit bright, but after being mixed with the gray, the wool is a pleasant mint color.

A rolag mixing the green wool with the angora

I, of course, couldn't wait, didn't do any planning, and just started spinning the stuff. It is incredibly soft, but I think it is pretty strong as well. I was so pleased at how fine the fiber was, and how thin I could spin it, that I think I spun it a bit too fine:

wool-angora single, with quarter for size comparison.

My current plan is to make a 4-ply so it will at least be laceweight. At the rate I am spinning though, I'll probably finish by December.  Maybe. And, if a swatch turns out strong, maybe I will make some socks. Though I keep saying that, and I still haven't made socks in years. So this might be clothing eventually. But for now, it is entertaining me at least.

Spinning fine, warm, neon yarn