what to knit with the camel

Couldn't wait to spin some more of my camel/merino/silk mix but what to knit with it?

I made a sample, trying stocking stitch and a lace pattern - both looked good and felt very soft. it's lovely next to the skin, so I thought a scarf might be good. I picked Mini Mocha Jasmine Lace Scarf

It's always nice to find a stitch on a pattern that you haven't come across before. This time it was the picot cast on (and the picot bind off is waiting for me) which makes a lovely wavy edge.

spinning newspaper

I've seen newspaper 'yarn' but not tried making it. I received a question about it and curiosity got the better of me.

I went for the 70g top-whorl spindle and it worked fine. I found that I couldn't give it a good twist and let it spin as you do with wool, I guess something slightly heavier would be good but anything too heavy and you'd run into problems with the paper tearing I expect.

I had to keep one hand on the spindle and keep twisting it while 'scrunching and feeding' with my top hand. It was quite a fast process.

As I worked I found that it could take quite a bit of twist and looked better with more twist. The 'yarn' starts to get a bit 'springy' when it's got more twist in it.

Note the way I cut the paper to save too many joins - ie one continuous strip from one sheet.

It's not terribly flexible, I guess it'll be easier to weave than spin.

a camel, a sheep and a worm

This was a bit experimental but I love the way it's turned out - I'm going to have to card and spin loads more and make something special from it.

I wanted to try mixing camel top (which is quite short) with something longer - it's 70% 'white' camel, 20% white merino and 10% silk. I carded and carded so that the fibres are really mixed together well, pre-drafted and spun it short draw so that the result is really smooth, silky and well-packed.

Not sure that the colour has come out very well under the flourescent lamp but in real life it's a lovely pale.. well... camel colour, all silky and lustrous.