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:

All Done! BOTH NOW READY

Heres Mine (Zoe's) Yes later than expected sorry. Had a busy weekend, the hubbys birthday. Anyway I wanted to have definate colours and colour changes. I blended the greens and blues, then the lilac and pink. I then spun part of each giving random colour changes throughout the bobbin. I did the same with the second bobbin and plied them together. So in parts you get greens/pink greens/blues etc. My mystery fibre was....Angelina fibre. I wanted to add a bit add a bit of sparkle to represent the shimmering of the water. I added it to the pale blue. So the sparkle appears in random places throughout the skein. I didn't want to overdo it. So here it is AGAIN.

Its not had a wash yet but it looks like a DK.

Ok, wool is finally here. I'm putting mine up first (Stella) Hoefully Zoe will put hers up shortly. I have spun two variations of Monet as I couldn't make up my mind which way to go after I had blended it. The first is a blue/green - After blending, I held the two rovings together as I spun them to get a more painterly effect. The second is more of a blue with hints of green, the two rovings blended on the carder and then spun. I don't know which I prefer, but the lucky winner can choose the one they like the best. My mystery fibre? I decided that I wanted shots of brighter colours throughout the yarn and I wanted to give it a bit of sheen too. i chose to space dye a few mawata silk hankies with the pink and lavender I had used on the wool (the dyes attach differently to silk) and then chunk them up and lightly blend them in. This gives the flashes of colour I wanted plus adds a bit of texture to the yarn. My Monet is 14 wraps per inch (approx 4 ply weight) and should knit up on size 3mm - 3.5mm needles.

Its nearly finished GIVEAWAY

Ok so we are nearly at the end of the challenge, heres the story so far.
We will have the finished yarn on the blog on saturday!
Remeber to comment for your chance to win!


Zoe's after one carding.



A little look at the blended batts



One bobbin full



Stellas fleece..

This pic is after one carding.



Here it is blended together.


Stellas yarn is now already for the weekend, just waiting for me to finish. Mine will be ready for Saturday so watch this space.....

Just for added interest Me and Stella decided to add a mystery fibre of our choice. Neither of us know what the other person as added.

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!

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

It's up to YOU! GIVE AWAY

Between me and Stella, we have about 18 years experience of spinning. We have spun everything from the BANANA FIBRE to wool Possum to cotton. We thought it would be great to have a challenge. This is where you can help we will both spin the same wool Blue faced Leicester cross HOG which means its a lamb, the first shearing. SOFT BEAUTIFUL and SUPER to knit with. We are going to dye it the same colour, then spin it up. This will be posted each week over 4 weeks or so. You can follow our progress from start to finish. Now the exciting part. Me and Stella live miles from each other so only speak on the phone. So we thought it would be great to see what we come up with, will it be the same or different? EVERY PERSON WHO COMMENTS will be entered to win the YARN SPUN. SO 2 people will receive 100g of the yarn. The more you comment eg each week the more chances to win.

YOUR FIRST CHANCE TO BE ENTERED. What colours should we use? PICK 2 or 3 COLOURS which you think we should use. Its your choice.