After Jenny Hopper's excellent explanations of intimate blending (even arrangement of colours) and random blending (uneven colours) the day was devoted to colour blending on handcarders, board carders, drum carders and using a picker, for both wool and hair fibres, and spinning the results.

Keeping in mind the upcoming Designer Yarn of the Year competition, we left with a challenge bundle of fibres, tencel/merino 60/40, cotton, tussah silk, tow flax, huacaya alpaca, suri alpaca, mohair and 26µ merino, half of each we are to dye our chosen colours, before next meeting when we will blend and spin the fibres. The other half of the fibres will be blended and dyed after spinning. The yarn results of the dyed-before-blending, spinning and the dyed-after, will be evaluated at the next meeting.

Caroline Baker