Come On You Reds! (aka Stella's Wool)

Well, here it is, better late than never! Red was a real challenge for me as it's usually a colour I blend with others, but I've had fun with it and discovered just how beautiful red can be (new convert to red!). Wish the pics were more accurate with the colours, but that's digital cameras for you! I've been mad busy for the past couple of weeks, so I decided to hand paint roving to create my red wool. I chose to use some South American lustre tops, really soft with a bit of a glow to them. I painted my roving with 3 shades of red, getting ever deeper. I love the heathering effect you get with painted roving, so, the wool isn't technically "red", but is what I call Ashes of Roses - the colours move from the palest of pink to a smokey red/grey/purple colour.

When it came to spinning I decided to add some texture to reflect the textured colours, so I spun a thick and thin single, and the plied it back with a fine spun single. The pic below shows the thick and thin single on the bobbin.

The wool is a beautiful soft chunky yarn which would look great knitted up.I loved doing it so much that I'm going to paint some batts in a different colourway to see what the effect would be.
All that's left is to pick the winner!