Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Illusion knitting and some Suri fleece prep part 1.

A knitted illusion shawl, this is what you see from viewing the side.

But facing the piece flat on, the design disappears.
This project captivated me and I just couldn’t put it down, even though the knitting requires care and attention on every other row. I’ve been intrigued by the woolly thoughts website for a while and in Steve Plummer’s illusion knitting designs. He has created several Harry Potter film character portraits and so I decided to have a go at ‘Hagrid’ in Flagstaff alpaca 8ply.

I’m also preparing several white Suri fleeces which I may send away for further processing once I’ve decided what I want to do with them, blending etc?
I going to wash it all myself and so have opened up the dirty locks prior to washing. It’s always amazing the dirt that gets trapped right inside each lock. It is fiddly to pull the locks apart, but white Suri is quite difficult to get completely clean without doing this.
These are quite fine micron fleeces with up to 15cms long staples. The twist in the lock traps the dust and holds onto it. Even dirty, these fleeces have a lovely lustre.

To decide on a blend (and I do also love to spin 100% suri) I’ve carded 60g of the washed suri with 20g of 21micron merino and 20g of silk.
The suri qualities are dominating this blend. I may try a blend with more silk and/or more merino. I have a limited amount of this lovely white suri so would like to stretch it as far as possible. There will be about 3-4 kilos of suri after washing.
I picture a few cones of this lustrous fine 3ply weight yarn sitting on my shelf waiting to be woven. Maybe natural dyeing some of it this summer.

On the loom is a 50/50 blend of suri and huacaya 2ply yarn sett at 20dpi. These are some scarves for two alpaca breeders who have had the yarn commercially spun. I have no fear of the warp breaking as the yarn is soft but strong and lovely. Can’t wait to finish threading and weave with it.

3 comments:

Shirley Goodwin said...

That's brilliant, Doe!

Thank you so much for your kind donation, it's very much appreciated.

Celeritas said...

That is amazing! Well done.

Hippie Heart said...

Wow that's so awesome :)