Handspun Corridale/Alpaca Cardigan in the Making

Seems I am not very prolific on my blog at the moment - much of my time is being taken up with my online women's wellbeing magazine Brandlady.com. I have been updating and streamlining the article submission area to make it easier for writers to submit their work. And also adding a few things to the magazine.

One addition is "In the News" which is being hosted by Clare Hudd of A Krafty Catch. She will report on items of interest specifically relating to women, the new "Army Couture" currently taking pride of place.

On the knitting front, I'm still awaiting delivery of my knitting needles. Having discovered I needed the 5-set DNP's for the socks I am planning, and not the usual 4-set, and of course finding nothing in town, I proceeded with haste to Ebay where of course I found what I was looking for and duly ordered the item, via Hong Kong. Now it's a waiting game, with impatience running high, and patience running low.

It's weird having no knitting on the go, but I refuse to start anything else or will become sidetracked. This time I'm determined that is not going to happen!

In the meantime, I've been hand-carding and blending more of the corridale and alpaca for the next project, and spinning some along the way. The challenge will be adding the 'slubs'. Slubs in themselves are easy, but these are no ordinary slubs. These slubs are a different colour, in fact they will be of white alpaca, against the 'denim' blue of the main thread. It will be interesting to work, but fun.



The spinning process of hand-carding and blending is a time consuming, but worthwhile one. Starting with the blue base and a small amount of the white alpaca, blended until most of the white is absorbed into the blue corridale.

The resulting colour is a few shades lighter than the original blue, giving a mellow shade that will be enhanced with the planned 'slubs'.

Finally, enough has been carded and prepared for the next lot of bobbins. So far, one and half bobbins in a fine lace-weight thread sits ready for the next stage.

And this is BEFORE the cat decided to sleep on the prepared rolags and squash them again!

From now on, I will make sure the lid is firmly in place!

The 'therapy' is not just in the knitting, but also in the preparation and spinning, providing the atmosphere is relaxed and not all up in the air.

Now, all I need is the time to sit and spin...