Shepherdess Cowl - part 2 - more dyeing, happier result

The second time you try something, you take what you've learned the first time and leave what wasn't right. I'm much happier with this skein.

Previously we'd been using a fairly coarse and hairy fleece, so for this second go I've picked the best bits from a much better fleece. Mum & I sorted all of the fleeces given by our sheep-owning friend. This is to be a cowl for her.

No waste at all; after washing this all went straight through the drum carder and produced the most wonderfully soft and fluffy fibre. I don't yet know the breed (I will find out) but it's well on par with bought roving.

I tried spiral dyeing this time, remembering to make sure that the dye has penetrated the wool leaving no white bits. No need to explain spiral dyeing, picperfic has a great tutorial here. Here's one of my spirals:

Just two colours used - scarlet and black. There are some paler areas, I don't think there was enough dye in one of my spirals but I really like the resulting grey and pale red. In addition there are some lovely deep red colours where the red and black have combined in the dyeing and while spinning.

This yarn is navajo (chain) plied. Partly to achieve the slightly chunkier yarn that I need for the chosen project, partly to keep the colours concentrated and partly because I like the way it evens out my inconsistencies better than 2-plying! It's so soft I want to keep squishing it!