Five Shades Gradient sets

My dog, Albie, loves spending time watching the birds when at my Dad's house. The birds that arrive most often are some very large, and almost tame Wood Pigeons. They eat some much bird seed that I am surprised that they can still fly!

Despite their slightly 'bird brained' nature, they have a beautiful, soft coloured plumage. Gentle greys fading to a dusky pink. So, I decided to have a go at replicating their lovely colours.

The Azure Tit is a cute, tiny bird found in deciduous woodland in Russia, Central Asia and China. It is the eastern version of our own pretty Blue Tit.

I loved the fluffy plumage if this little bird, so I have made this blend a merino / llama blend, to give the spun yarn a slight halo. To maintain accurate colour shades, I have made the blend a 75% merino : 25% baby llama mixture. All of the batts have been carefully blended three times to make certain that the merino and llama are completely blended together

This colourway was designed for the 'Beauty of the Beastly' themed box. These beautiful little crabs have the common name of Vampire Crab as they have yellow eyes. These tiny crabs (about 1cm across) live on land, in the rainforests of Indonesia.

This gradient batt set is made from 2/3 merino blended with 1/3 tussah silk. This gives the  fibre, once spun, a beautiful sheen with lovely drape.

This colourway is the final one released from the Halloween Poisonous Plants Box. This intensely coloured gradient is based on the shades of the Blue/purple Morning Glory flower. The gradient is made from shades of 21 micron merino - beautifully soft!.

The Morning Glory flowers themselves are not toxic, but the seeds, if eaten can be. The seeds contains lysergic acid amide – a chemical similar to LSD. Therefore, the main symptoms of poisoning are hallucinations and diarrhoea.

The merino in this blend will felt. If you do not wish them to, hand wash in cool water.

This blend was made for the 'Study in Blue' rolag club. The inspiration photograph is of a Holly Blue butterfly.

The Holly Blue lays it eggs on the base of Holly flowers and on Ivy. The caterpillars eat the holly and ivy plants, and then pupate over winter. The adults are seen during spring and summer, often sunning themselves at the top of bushes with their wings closed.

I love the vivid spring like colours in this photograph of an uncurling fern. Despite, from a distance the photograph looks like it is mainly a bright lime shade, if you look closer there are a number of shades of bright greens from the mid rib, to the deeper shades in the smaller leaves.

This gradient is made up of 21 micron merino and is blended with 20% light grey Shetland fibre (sourced directly from Shetland).

The addition of the Shetland fibre gives the batts a much more open texture, and a bit more body and 'bounce';

I saw this beautfiul photograph of a Calla lily, and I loved the perfection of the spiral, and the beautiful fresh green shades graduating into the spotless white of the main petals. So I decided to have a go at capturing these shades.

I carefully blended together 21 microm merino and Lotus fibre to make these batts. The batts follow the sizes in the Fibonacci sequence. The smallest (deepest shade) batt is 8g, then 13g, then 21g, then 34g and finally the white batt is 55g - which adds up to a total of 131g.

This gradient batt set was put together for the 'Warning - When I am an old woman I will wear purple' box.

The gradient is based on the vibrant colours of a Fuchsia flower, moving from scarlett to purple. The blend is 3/4 merino and 1/4 tussah silk. The silk giving a wonderful shimmer, it will also give any yarn you produce a wonderful drape and strength.

This mineral inspired colourway is based on a ‘composite gemstone’ called Mohave Turquoise.

Mojave Turquoise is made using natural turquoise nuggets. The natural chunks of turquoise are combined together (with a bronze matrix) The purple variety has been dyed before the combination. These dyed and natural pieces are then compressed using a hydraulic press – the so called, block stone can then be cut and polished.

These batts are exactly the same blend as the Ravenwing rolags. They are made from blending 1/3 tussah silk with 2/3 soft merino fibres. Each of the shades is blended three times to ensure an even mixing of the silk and merino, without the production of nepps. These batts will easily spin into laceweight yarn.

I am offering the colourway in batts for those (including myself) who want to spin a single continuus gradient, rather than self striping yarn.

I found that there was a rose called the 'Bloom of Ruth' and was blown away by the beauty of that bloom. In memory of a dear friend with that name I decided to make a very special blend. As the rose only has the centre petals coloured pink, I decided to make a new type of gradient with the batts becoming progressively larger as we moved through the colours.

A good coffee drunk in good company is a true luxury.

These batts made in the Cafe au Lait colourway reflect this luxury. The fibres used in this colourway are 21 micron merino, tussah silk and two shades of eri silk - red eri and yellow eri - some truely luxurious fibres!

Each batt is carefully blended three times through a drum carder, to ensure that the silks and merino are evenly blended throughout.

These rolags are based on the colours found in different types of malt whiskey.

The colours start with a buttery gold, moving through warm spice to russet to finally a deep, rich reddy brown.

Each colour is made by blending together soft merino fibres with trilobal and Angelina. Each batt is put through the drum carder 3 times to ensure a smooth colour blend, and even blending of the Angelina and trilobal.

The batts are then taken and then placed on a blending board in a gradient pattern. Only then are the rolags produced.