January this year was one of the coldest in recent years, and when I saw this picture of mineral crystals, I thought it a fitting theme for Tiger Club. The pale blue is positively icy, and the accents of two deep teals, plus a tan and brown keep the whole interesting.
Our wool is warm and cozy Falkland. In this case, Falkland isn’t a breed, but a location…..fleeces that go into the Falkland Island wool pool are chosen for whiteness and fineness, and is generally in the range of Corriedale. It’s a very nice all around wool, and this batch is especially nice. I dyed this in a layered back and forth, with the darker colors added randomly and the center pale blue added around them and allowed to blend. It makes a very soft look. It really is random, so go with the mottled look when spinning.
Our yarn is Journey, a 4ply sock yarn of Merino and Nylon, at 460 yards per 4 oz. I chose a different path for this yarn, making the colors sharp by sprinkling, setting the colors, then over-dyeing with the pale blue. There’s a twist to the yarn, though…..it is actually subtly striped. I’ve never been thrilled with trying to randomize on a regular sized skein, the randomness just tends to stay a bit too orderly. So I wound this yarn into a two stripes, each making a stripe of 4-5 rows. I speckled one half with the dark blue and brown, and the other with the two lighter colors. I feel this accomplished a more random look, and I’m pretty happy with it. Here’s the same picture, but showing the approximate stripes. Each batch will be a bit different, but this is the general effect. The sample is a 64 stitch tube.
Want to join in the fun? Tiger Club has a few spots open for February. You can find out details and options on our Club page in the shop.
