With Wensleydale in hand, I knew I wanted to make a gradient for the fiber this month, and I must have the beach on my mind because this picture stood out. Is it sunrise or sunset? I went with First Light. 😉
Here’s that Wensleydale gradient, from bright coral through to grey then black. I used my dappled gradient method, so it isn’t crisp color stripes, there’s some back and forth between them.
Wensleydale likes to be spun thin and in a worsted style, smoothing the ends in while you minimize the amount of twist. This fiber is longer and has low crimp, so less twist is appropriate and keeps it from being ‘pokey’ or itchy. This will make a lovely lace yarn, or try boucle.
The yarn was a bit of a conundrum, but I settled on Targhee. It was a nice smooth and creamy canvas for the coral, grey, and black. I went really impressionistic on this one and used a hot dapple technique to create a random pattern on the yarn. This is actually much more involved than simply painting! There are at least 3 sides to the yarn….top, bottom, and inside, that need to be randomly….but systematically speckles with the liquid dye….all while up to a simmer. I’ll admit I appreciate this technique more in winter than summer, but fortunately my dye studio is in the cool basement.
As you can see, even with a system, each skein comes out a bit differently. I had some odds and ends of a different yarn and made myself some…..here is how mine is turning out in a sock tube swatch….
I’m pleased that it’s coming out in a mottled pattern as I had planned. I think this would be fun in socks or shawl or whatever paired with any of the 3 colors in it. I have some coral made up for toes/heels/cuffs for mine. If you want a mini to match, let me know!
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