The sun bursting through this bunch of grapes was so eye catching I just had to make it! Concord has the burst of sunny gold, rich sagey green, and three very different shades of purple.
The fiber is Rambouillet, also known as ‘French Merino’. Although the breed first appeared in Spain, it was fully developed in France by crossing the Spanish Merinos with native French Sheep. The breed was also popular in the United States from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century. I personally like this merino breed wool the best (compared to straight Merino, Targhee, Polwarth, and the like) with it’s fine fiber that has quite a lot of bounce and loft to it, and it also tends to be quite white, perfect for dyeing.
This blended gradient would be great spun straight (as either a regular or N-ply), but would also look great as a fractal. I always encourage you to follow your heart and make the colors do what you want.
Our yarn is a new one to us, Falkland Twist. It’s 80% fine Falkland Merino, and 20% nylon, in a two ply with a good strong hosiery twist and ply. What’s Falkland? It’s a wool pool from the Falkland Islands, the sheep are specially selected for the fineness and whiteness of their wool, as they are Merino type, the sheep look similar to the Rambouillet pictured above.
I dyed this the same way I did last month’s, in a double down and back. This way the colors are more likely to pool up in skinny stripes or wider diagonal striping on socks, depending on your stitch count, gauge, and pattern.
I do have some spots available in Tiger Club, due to the busy-ness of the upcoming season I’ll be adding new members via waitlist only. Please check out the club in the shop, then use the Contact form to drop me a line with what you are interested in, and I’ll get you in as soon as it is feasible!
