Seven Shades Gradients

This soft, gentle colouway was designed for the Halloween Poisonous Plant Box. It is a blend of 2/3 merino and 1/3 Royal Baby Alpaca. Royal Baby Alpaca is now one of my favourite fibres, it has a long staple length, which has a slight shine….but is sooo amazingly soft! The long staple length of the Royal Baby Alpaca will make the blend easier to spin than merino alone, and will add extra warmth and drape to the finished yarn.

This colourway is based on an 1880 painting by a British French artist called Alfred Sisley (1839-1899). He maintained the impressionist painting style (mainly painting outside) throughout his life, and is most famous for painting tranquil landscapes in pale dusky shades.

This colourway was designed for the third instalment of the Silk Roads rolag club. The Taklamakan Desert bisects the two main routes of the Silk Road, with traders having to follow the northern or southern route. At the edge of the desert were oasis trading towns, and still, to this day, the edge of the desert you will find an amazing forest of ancient poplars. These ancient and rare trees are now designated a World Heritage Site. 

This cool wintery blend is made from soft, 21 micron merino blended with white bamboo. The percentages in the blend are 66% merino and 33% bamboo. Also in the photographed blend I have added a little silver Angelina - although you have the choice to include Angelina or not.

This blend is light and open, and is a lovely smooth spin, the final photograph shows the gradient being spun up on support spindles.

The merino in this blend will felt, although the bamboo will not.

This is another of the 'Undersea Aliens' colourways.

This colourway is based on a squid which was nick named the ‘Gorgeous squid’ by the 2016 Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas by NOAA. This squid cannot be definitely identified, and was photographed in waters over 1000m deep, and it was still descending towards the sea bed in some of the deepest oceans in the world.

This is a merino blend, it is beautifully light and fluffy, as it has been carded 4 times to get the smooth gradient effect.

This gradient was produced for the Sampler Box Club. The theme for the box was 'Underwater Aliens'

This gradient is based on a photographs of a pelagic holothurian, or deep-sea swimming cucumber. This is an unusual sea cucumber, as most are a ‘cucumber’ shape living on the sea bed. This one looks more like a flower or jellyfish and was found free floating at 1400m depth during a mission in 2017 in the Pacific

The gradient is made of carefully blended merino and trilobal (to allow the fibres to shimmer) in shades of lavender and lilac.

This gradient was designed for the Sampler Box inspired by pictures of the Solar System. The gradient is based on the artists impression of the formation of the Solar System 4.6 billion years ago. It is thought that our Solar System started off as an area of gas and dust called a nebula. Then, possibly due to a supernova in the area, gravity started pulling the nebula particles towards the centre. Eventually this formed a mass big enough to form the young Sun, with a spinning disc of debris swirling around it.

This colourway is called Ominous because that is the feeling that I get when looking at the photograph of the woodland road. This gradient is made from Corridale fibres moving from mid grey to dark confier green to black.

You will receive 7 mini batts that in total make up just over 100g of fibre.

The Corridale fibres will felt. If you do not wish them to, hand wash in cool water.

For centuries Celtic cultures have carved lamps to ward off evil spirits on All Hallow's Eve. Now pumpkins are used, but in the recent past turnip lanterns were carved out. I did this as a child - and carving out a turnip is hard work! Strained wrists and numb palms were our reward as we ground out the insides using a spoon.

The Grey Wagtail is a charming bird, most often found by clear fast running streams in the hills. As all wagtails, they flit around, seemingly moving their tails up and down constantly. The Grey Wagtail is on the Red List for UK birds. This means that their numbers have decreased by at least 50% in the last 20 years. Happily, due to improving water quality, the range that these birds can survive in is increasing.

I adore this colourway, and was asked if it could be made inot a single gradient. 

This gradient of 7 mini batts is identical in colours to the Antelope Canyon rolags. The rolags are deisgned to make a self striping yarn, this gradient batt set is designed to produce a single gradient moving from peach to violet. If you were to treat yourself to both the rolags AND the gradient, you could make a wonderful fractal yarn.

You will receive 7 mini batts made from 100% 21 micron merino, which together will add up to 100g.

I was asked to put together a gradient set that looks like Spooky Skies, but that was made for Shetland fibres. This colourway is not exactly the same as spooky skies, but it is still spooky! 

The gradient is made up from two natural shades of Shetland fibres and a purple dyed Shetland fibre. The fibres have been carefully blended, the Shetland fibres have a little more bounce, and are a little more open than merino, so the batts will be straightforward to draft and spin.

These rolags were designed for the Rolags Club. The inspiration was 'Nature's Wonders' -and the photograph used was one of Antelope Canyon in Arizona during the sunset. During this time of the day, the sandstone turns the most amazing shades.

These rolags are made from soft 21 micron merino, which is carefully blended into 7 different shades. These colours are then put onto the blending board and made into gradient rolags.

This is a Halloween inspired colourway, based on the inspiration photograph

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/637540890976052275/
A dark, woodland scene, with the moon shining from behind the clouds, giving off an earie pinky purple hue. This gradient is made from beaufully soft 21 micron merino in shades of beige/ grey moving through purple to the deepest brown/black shade. You will recieve 7 hand blended batts of fibre, which together make up just over 100g of fibre.

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

I have a cheeky little family of bluetits that frequent my birdfeeders. They fly in at high speed, grab a sunflower heart, and more often than not, head off to the nearest bush to hide.

They are so charming in their blue, green and yellow plumage, so here is a gradient in homage to my cheeky little friends.

There are 7 hand blended batts, which together make up just over 100g of soft squishy 21 micron merino fibre. The gradient moves from soft lemon yellow through pale green to a bright cheerful blue.

These fibres will felt.

This is the first colourway to come out of my lovely day at the Eskdale show. I call it 'Fellside Matriarch' as the Herwick lambs start off black and slowly turn a brownish red and eventually to a soft grey as they get older. The ewes that have won all of the ribbons must be at least 2 years old.

These ewes are extremely important to the flock, as they are the ones that are 'hefted' to the fell. When the ewes and lambs are returned to the fells after lambing the ewes 'teach' their offspring where their territory is on the open fellside.

This gradient batt set is inspired by the colour of bluebells. Bluebells are not, as the name states, blue. They have, in certain light, lilac and pink hues.

This gradient batt set is made of 66% 21 micron merino in shades of grey, lilac and violet and 33% baby llama. The baby llama was to give a soft etherial feel to the blend, hinting at the soft misty light seen over bluebells at dawn.

If you would like to see some of the inspiration photographs that I used for this blend see my pinterest page;

https://uk.pinterest.com/carolhodgson201/bluebells/

I am a huge fan of BOO KNITS designs on Ravelry. She has just released a new place holder for a MKAL that starts on May 1st 2017. Her inspiration was the Wave-Gotik-Treffen festival in Germany, and the placeholder picture made my imagination fizz.

To see the place holder and find out about the MKAL go to

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/just-be-you

I have come up with this gothic inspired gradient moving from deep burgundy to the deepest midnight purple.

From a distance, even on lovely sunny days, the fells either direction are rarely clear. Instead they look beautifully mysterious in shades of blue/grey.

This set of gradient batts moves from silver grey to dark grey/blue to echo these mysterious colours. These 7 blended merino batts can be felted or spun in a variety of different ways. My personal favourite way of spinning these sets is to split each batt in half, and spin in order to make a two ply gradient yarn, as shown in photograph 4 (in Solway Moods gradient).

I have purchased some gorgeous Shetland fibre from Jamieson and Smith on the Shetlands. It is a much finer fibre than I have had before, with less kemp.

So I have taken the beautiful, natural colours, and blended them together with approximately 25% natural (honey coloured) tussah silk. The batts have been well blended together to ensure that the fibres are completely mixed.

The gradient moves from white, in slow, almost imperceptible steps to moorit.

You will receive just over 100g of hand blended batts in the Gentle Shetland colourway.

This gradient works from a bright spring green, through a deep forest green towards black, just as if you were looking deep into a thick forest on a bright day.

The gradient is made from soft 21 micron merino fibres, that have been carefully blended together to produce gradual colour changes. This gradient batt set can be spun up in a number of ways. It could be spun up as a single, one batt spun after another. The single could then be N-plied to keep the colours distinct, making a 3 ply yarn.

This gradient moves through shades of blue, reflecting the colours of the sea (on a nice day!).

This mini batt set is carefully blended to ensure that there is a gentle colour change throughout the gradient. The set contains 7 batts that can be spun up (or felted) in a variety of ways.

My favourite way of using these sets is to unroll the batts, split them in two, and spin two a two ply gradient yarn, see photograph 3. Photograph 4 shows how that yarn knit up with a gentle, smooth colour change.

This gradient works from a bright red, through a mellow cherry red towards black, just as if you were looking into a large bright poppy.

The gradient is made from soft 21 micron merino fibres, that have been carefully blended together to produce gradual colour changes. This gradient batt set can be spun up in a number of ways. It could be spun up as a single, one batt spun after another. The single could then be N-plied to keep the colours distinct, making a 3 ply yarn.