Bombay Stores inspiration.

I didn`t buy much at the Bombay Stores stop on SkipNorth, but I did leave with an impression of dazzleing colours. Pink is the navy blue of India, preferably with a bit of gold added on! I lived in Madras for three years when I was a child, and I remember all the brilliant colours.

So when I was buying fibre at Wingham Wool Work the next day I bought a lot of pink. I wanted gold lame thread as well, but would have had to go to Texere for that and they wouldn`t open that Saturday for us, alas. (They had an Open Day planned for the following Saturday.) However when I was trying to fit all the new stash into the cupboards I found some pale gold lurex Pingouin chainette that I think dates back to the 80`s! So I stopped trying to fit a quart into a pint pot and pulled out the S10 instead to try a test skein.

Recipe is ...one single of the brightest pink merino I bought at Winghams carded with antique gold silk noils. The other single is the same merino carded with variagated purple-pink silk noils. (I knew I was keeping the despised noils for some reason.) I plied the two singles together with the lurex chainette....it`s the first time I`ve tried adding a commercial yarn to a ply and I think it came out remarkably well. (Was inspired to do this by the alternative spinning class at SkipNorth....bad influence, that Nic.)



It`s only a ten yard sample skein but already it`s giving me BIG ideas. Royal blue and turquoise with silver lurex? Lime green and lemon yellow with pale yellow gold? Oxblood red and cafe-au-lait with a bronze thread? Possibilities are endless. I like a bit of sparkle in a yarn....must be the childhood influence.

Anyway, from the frankly gaudy to the undeniably underwhelming...I finally finished spinning up the first batch of Ouessant fleece.



I`ve got about 800 yards now of something roughly equivalent to 4-ply Shetland...in fact, I bet most folk couldn`t tell the difference between it and Shetland. It has the same sort of matt springy feel to it. Nice dark not-quite-black, still with the odd bit of straw present but what the heck...so has Noro. I`ll pick it out as I knit. I have the last third of this little fleece to go so hopefully will end up with about 1200 yards...enough for something, though I don`t know what at present. Not very inspirational. I did however learn how to spin on the Mazurka using this fleece, and how to spin a supported long draw. So very much worth doing, I think.