Black Gold
I've been busy. I've got tons of little projects in my sidebar to finish up! I'm doing overtime on spinning here as well, trying to spin up fiber before starting on my knitalong project. You remember me talking about this, right? Stranded: the Colorwork Challenge will officially start on December 1! The buttons have been made--check back tomorrow--and we're starting to put more content. In addition to the KAL participants, we'll have a number of drop-down lists of resources: online tutorials, books, online stores, and links to various articles. Are you excited? I am!
Fiber: Crosspatch Creations Black Hills Gold (NM series 3, dye lot 5a). The label says "Wool (Kenya [Romney and Montedale] and India Ink [Merino and Romney] crossbreds), Rayon, Bombyx Silk and Tussah Silk." A partial bag, so no idea on how much fiber I actually got.
Vendor: Gifted by Andrea, who in turn got it from last year's SCHG show and sale from Custom Handweaving.
Yield: 282 yards
Weight: A highly-textured worsted
I had so much fun spinning this! It's an eclectic combination of wools from Joan Contraman's two sheep (Kenya and India Ink, such wonderful names) with rayon and silks. The label states that black is the sheeps' natural color, but of course it's not a true black, but a very deep, burnt umber brown. The shiny, slippery rayon and silks in chartreuse, gold and orange flowed at a different rate than the wool, which made it difficult to achieve a consistent single. But then...
To heck with consistency! Oh, that bothered me for... about a second. Fuck the consistency, the twist, the intended project, the blah blah blah, just spin it. Which is what I did: gabbing away at Julia's meetup, discussing the election with friends (where I overtwisted during a heated debate--uh), listening to BF play Spanish music on his guitar. Happy times, happy skeins.
Smell-a-vision would not be good with this. It smelled--and not faintly, nuh-uh--of sheepiness and silkworminess. Oof. Dry, it's perfectly fine, but I'll break out the lavender Eucalan when I knit something out of this!
Touch-a-vision, oh! If only you could reach through the monitor and pet this. If only, if only...
Gorgeous! The colors are amazing- and I'm sure even more so in person. I hope to see it and touch it (but maybe not smell it) in person! Oh, and yay for the KAL! :)
Love the colors and texture of it! Wish I could squeeze it from here. :)
It's wonderful. I am hoarding some Crosspatch Creations in the stash for the just the right time. It's beautiful stuff before it's spun too.
How neat! I love the dark "background" and the texture - you named it right - Black Gold! I'd love to see how it knits up!
I'm so excited for the Challenge - I'm rushing my socks and sweater off the needles so I can start!
Love the colors. Maybe this weekend I'll finish spinning up my batch, too!
Oh goody, the colorwork knitalong! I've been waiting for this to appear since you mentioned it to me (I think in a comment). I must knit myself a pair of We Call Them Pirates mittens, and if I have enough time, another fair isle hat for my boyfriend cum fiance; fair isle hats fit him best, and are the warmest and most durable. Good stuff.