And The Winner Is....

Sorry about the delay in letting you know the giveaway winner but Zoe's computer died and I've only just got back into things following a wild weekend (well, as wild as it gets at my age - although there was a potential riot caused by a mad ferret keeper..... I'll let you use your imaginations....)
ANYWAY....
The winner of Zoe's Hot Pink 3 ply is..... TCN
The winner of Stella's red textured yarn is.... Alex

Thanks to all who left comments and put themselves in for the draw. As always we have made some extra and listed it at a special blog price on Groovycart. You can find it here:

Dyed and ready for part 2 GIVEAWAY

I washed my fleece last week but stella posted instructions so thought I wouldn't bore you with the details again!



I decided to Kettle dye my fleece, which means basically you dye your fibre in a pan. I used 2 methods. The first is pretty simple. I wanted an even overall colour so I mixed my dye and placed it in the pan of water. Being careful to watch over it, Let it boil on the hob gently for 20mins and done!

The next method I used (in the pic) was to try and get a nice shaded green. I wanted the leafs and dark blue for the shading of the water and foilage. so In my pan I place my fleece added some blue dye and then gentley sprinkled yellow over the top.
This gives a very uneven dye. which is perfect as its all the same colour but with different shades.





And heres the result after 4 hours in the kitchen, I have a selection of greens, blues, pinks and lilac. These are still wet so excuse the towel! The colours are all will be blended together in the next stage. This is the exciting part as this will completly change the colours of the wool!



STELLA COLOURS

And bringing up the rear, here's mine. Sorry about photo, but wool is wet and it's really cold outside!

REMEMBER EVER COMMENT IS ANOTHER ENTRY TO WIN THIS YARN!

And the colour is..........

Me and Stella were overwhelmed with the response for the colours. I really like the greens and blues. Stella was loving all the vibrant combinations. We were really stuck for choice.

I came home tonight and wrote all the colours suggestions down. Then my 8 year old picked one out the bowl.....

And it was none of the colour choices we had discussed LOL. It was Monets Waterlillies. I love and know the painting but really had no idea what colours were involved. So Stella and I have looked on the net at the pics. AND for the colours are
Greens
Blues
Purples
Pinks

So we have 4 colours and a painting to use as inspiration. How fab is this! Great thing is it seems to have everyones colour suggestions nearly.

My fleece is clean and ready to go, so the weekend will see the start of the challenge. Let the BATTLE COMMENCE.

A huge thank you to Daneen for your suggestion. PLEASE REMEMBER TO COMMENT FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN THE FINISHED YARN!

It's Up To You!

Yes, Zoe knows my personal demon colors only too well. Thanks for all of the ideas - I've got a few personal favourites in there so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they keep on coming up. Just posting some pics of the wool as it was washed (please note Lurcher is v. stupid he thinks I have a new friend.... either that or he wants to be a wolf in sheeps clothing... Sorry.... Okay my computer stupidity has got the better of me, so I'll explain where the pictures should be and what they are. Jim is sitting on the fleece before it's been sorted for washing.
Above jim is the sorted, unwashed fleece. Lots of grass and dirt. It's best to wash it little by little, so it's then sorted into 500g pieces and washed (top left). This is done with Orvus paste, a baby bath, V. hot water and a lot of patience! You have to soak the wool. agitating it in any way just makes it felt. The first soak takes out most of the surface dirt. Then it's repeat and repeat until the wool is clean. Then a couple of rinses later, you're ready for the next step. The wool is spun out in an old twin tub I keep outside and finally spread out in a hammock to dry in the sun (ever hopeful of a British summer, but we've had a few nice days up here recently so I grabbed my chance! Then the work begins!!!

PLEASE REMEMBER TO POST YOUR SUGGESTED COLOURWAY FOR CHANCE TO WIN 100G OF YARN

Thick and thin or SOCKS

Not done much so thought I would do a little experiment, ARE you a thick and thin, or more a sock?



Available on MISI

Or maybe this is your bag


Lovely thick and thin wool, soft and lovely, available on MISI

Love to hear what you are?