Each month, we dye a brand new, unique colourway for our Spinning Fibre and Sock Yarn Clubs. We’d like to share what we sent out to our members in September:
Colourway // Open Hands
All through my teens and early 20’s I remember being fervently passionate about a great many things and was devoted to the idea of making a career out of each and every one. For a while there, I was convinced I could make it on Broadway singing and dancing in musicals. I enrolled myself in tap dancing lessons and watched all the Gene Kelly movies I could get my hands on. Later, I was adamant that I would become a fashion designer and filled journal after journal of sketches and clippings from “The September Issue” of Vogue. I was sure I had predicted the grunge trend of the 90’s. It was somewhere in my sketchbooks. And finally, I believed I could satisfy my love of music by becoming an opera singer. None of these things came true, despite my passion and fervour for them. Over the years, I’ve had to learn to hold my plans and wishes with Open Hands and a patient heart, trying not to painfully wrestle and brute force those dreams into reality. Instead, the things that have actually happened in the past 10 years, I never could have dreamed of and they have made me happier than I could have ever imagined.
Yarn // CashLuxe Spark
CashLuxe Spark is just like our beloved CashLuxe Fine yarn with a sprinkling of sparkle! This yarn is 80% superwash merino, 10% cashmere, and 10% sparkling stellina spun up into a 3-ply fingering weight yarn. Each 115g skein has approximately 400 yards which is typically enough to make a pair of women’s medium socks. This yarn is a new addition to our line of knitting yarns and is also available online in all our 100+ colourways.
Fibre // Superwash Targhee
Targhee is one of America’s youngest sheep breeds, having been developed in 1926 at the US Sheep Experiment Station in Idaho. Targhee is bred from Rambouillet, Columbia, Lincoln, and Corriedale crosses to produce a dual-purpose sheep (meat and wool). Targhee sheep are bred to have 1/4 long wool and 3/4 fine wool characteristics. This wool is approximately 23 to 23.5 microns and has been treated with a superwash process to make the wool “easy care”.
Targhee wool has a matte finish and feels spongey, making for soft and lofty handspun yarns.
We’ve been trying to get our hands on some Targhee for spinning for ages now and were so excited to discover this superwash-treated Targhee. I’ve long heard that Targhee is a fine wool similar to Merino but has added hardiness and sponginess, making it a great candidate for lofty woolen spun yarns.
With this braid of superwash Targhee, I’m interested in spinning a traditional 3-ply sock yarn. But in this case, to take advantage of the spongey nature of the wool, I plan to spin each singles with a woolen drafting method (like spinning over the fold) to introduce more air and loft to the yarn. Consider making “fauxlags” for woolen spinning. Simply tear off small chunks of fibre and roll into tubes with a knitting needle. Spin from the end!
See what we spun
Rachel Smith of Welfordpurls is joining us to spin up each month’s fibre club and write about it in a new series of guest posts on this site! See what Rachel has spun with this first batch of Superwash Targhee here »
If you’d like to see what our members are making with their Club yarns and fibres, have a peek in our Ravelry group here »
