What does the word 'teddy' conjure up for you? For me it's soft, cuddly, comforting and huggable.
Let me introduce you to Teddy, a gorgeous blend of superfine merino, baby camel and mulberry silk (60/20/20). It's a new fibre that Marianne over at Picperfic's Fluff-n-Stuff has just brought into her Etsy shop. I lent Marianne a couple of shawls to use on her stand at Fibre East recently (you can read all about her weekend at Fibre East here!) and she very kindly sent me a braid of her new fibre as a thank you when she returned the shawls to me. This is in her Lovehearts colourway.
I was itching to spin it as soon as I set eyes on it, and managed to spin it up during the Tour de Fleece. I spun it up as a single, very similar in fact to the Darling fibre that I spun up and used to knit my Citron shawl recently. It was just a delight to spin; Marianne's fibres are always so well blended and this was easy to draft. It was like spinning a cloud of marshmallows!
I fulled the yarn by immersing the skein alternately into hot and cold water, before giving it a jolly good thwack and snapping out the skein between my hands. Then it was hung up and left to dry. I ended up with a rather pretty skein of around 450 metres of light fingering weight yarn.
Next began the search for a pattern. I knew that I wanted a scarf or a cowl because of the softness of the yarn. It felt so luxurious, just perfect for something snuggly to wrap around once the weather gets a bit colder. Marianne came up with a lovely suggestion, the Botanical cowl.
It was a super quick knit, driven partly by my need to see the pretty pastel colours of the yarn emerging. The ribbing at the top and bottom stops the edges from curling in and the eyelets add some interest.
It can be worn as a longer, single loop like this ......
...... or doubled up for extra cosiness around the neck, just perfect for chilly autumn mornings.
The colours in the yarn are just so pretty.
The cowl used up less than half of the yarn, so I decided to knit a Drop Stitch scarf with the rest, as I thought it was the perfect pattern to show off the colour changes.
I've still got quite a bit of yarn left to knit, so will show you the finished scarf another time.
I bet you'd love to try some Teddy wouldn't you?! Well, one of you will be able to, because I'm having a little giveaway! One lucky reader will win a braid of Teddy fibre from Marianne's shop. Marianne is such a sweetie, she has said that the winner can choose a colourway and she will dye it up especially for you! So what you have to do in order to be in with a chance of winning is become a follower of my blog (if you aren't already), take a look in Marianne's shop, (it's probably worth a look in her sold items too so you can see all the gorgeous colours she dyes!) and leave me a message telling me your favourite colourway. I'll pick a winner using a random number generator at 9pm next Monday, August 6th. It's open to anyone, anywhere! So what are you waiting for?! Good luck! xxx
29 comments:
I haven't got up the courage to try fulling singles I've spun - maybe in a few months! I have to be honest and say that the drop-stitch scarf pattern has never appealed to me, but seeing your pretty one has made me re-think (and DD1's just said 'ooh - pretty' when I showed it to her).
As for Marianne's colours, I'm drawn to the limelight colour. It looks such a fresh green.
Teddy couldn't help but be special as that is my dogs name and boy is he special!!! I really like the lovehearts colorway and also pink roses that I missed by a gnats whisker. If I pop over to the shop quietly do you think I can sneak that lovehearts into my basket?
What beautiful yarn and fibre and I love your finished items. 'Pink Roses' is just my cup of tea. :) What a great 'Give Away'.
I was gifted some of picperfics lovely fibre - I haven't spun it yet, but have cuddled it a lot! Looking forward to spinning that soon.
Thank you for the opportunity, I love the Teals and Xen colourway, blues are my colours of choice.
It's a tough choice - lots of lovely colours - but I think Greenious is my pick. You did get a lot of yarn from your braid!
OH what an amazing yarn - as a complete newbie to spinning - I only use a drop spindle at the moment - I'm wondering if you could have left the yarn in its unfulled state or does fulling it set the plie better? Or is it purely the effect it gives?
I loved all the colours but especially the jewel colourway.
It is so hard to pick a favorite color but angelic is such a beautiful mix of pastels that I think that is my favorite.
You did a beautiful job spinning and knitting your yarn.
Just one thing though. It is extremely difficult to leave a comment. This is my third attempt and if it doesn't work, I give up!
Oh spliced sunshine and angelic are to die for!
I love mariannes fibre but have to generally avoid the shop so I don't go bankrupt!
I love the black pearl colourway. Looking at Mariannes shop is dangerous though. I spent far too much at her stand at Fibre east.
I adore your drop stitch scarf in this yarn. Those pastels are just yummy. :D
It's amazing to see it go from fiber to a finished object. Very pretty.
The teal colorway got me right off the bat and then the highland color- because it's blue. : )
So many pretty fibers. Love them.
Your spinning is gorgeous, Helen. Love both scarves!
Wow! so many gorgeous colors! The Sliced Sunshine really caught my eye. I can see a shawl in that. So pretty!
Easy..girlie brown. I love this colour way and want mittens made out of it for the winter.
Thank yu for the invitation to visti your blog, it is very nice and I have enjoyed looking around. Marianne dyes beautiful fibre and mixes fantastic pinks and pastels. My favourite ever colour of hers is "peacockish". I still have mine and stroke it. To me it is near perfect.
Your spinning and finished project are absolutely beautiful. It's definetly hard to pick a favorite colourway of Marianne's, but I love the "Georgia" colourway, it's simply gorgeous.
Gorgeous blog post.....you have done my fibre proud!
Ah, that is so pretty.I love the cowl and especially in the scarf as they show up the pretty pastels.
Cheers
What a beautiful colourway!
Thanks for sharing.
Yours knits up beautifully
I love this scarf. I was even more amazed to find out it was done with singles! How exciting!! I normally leave things on the bobbin for - way too long - before plying them. Your spinning is just awesome and you have a way with stirring such excitement in the TDF group. It would be hard to choose, but I love anything with greens and blues. I am going to try to get some singles done so I can try a scarf before the cold weather hits. We've been complaining about the heat wave for so long it has to end sometime.
Thank you for being such an inspiration!!
well what a gorgeous cowl/scarf you knit up! and so quickly too!
marianne's shop is gorgeous, i'm torn between "sliced greens" and "olivia."
what can i say, i love green :)
-melissa
I love the colours and I bet this fibre feels like heaven. Marianne does beautiful work.
The drop stitch scarf is perfect - partly because I know how super easy and super clever it is. I can see how lovely it would be in Marianne's Jewel colourway. I have been on the waiting list for her fibre club for a year now. Still waiting patiently!
Ooh both those projects are amazing!
I think Black Pearl is my favourite.
Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous!!! What more can I say. I love all of the colourways. Ros x
Beautiful colours - looks good enough to eat!! That cowl is just lovely.
I find it so hard to choose because so many of the colourways are amazing, but I think sliced greens goes down as my favourite. x
These are both lovely - I love the pastel colours (genius to include the sweets in the photos) and I think the drop stitches really show off the handspun singles beautifully.
No doubt at all about my favourite picperfic colourway - Black Pearl - black and purple are favourites of mine and look great together.
What a lovely giveaway and a lovely scarf I think that the Black Pearl would make a super scarf for my new daughter in law.
I'm late to the party...so who's the lucky winner?
WOW is that gorgeous! i just want to reach my hands in there and squish it. stunning work!
-cmvs
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