Soon after I learned to spin and weave, I started dyeing my own fibre. There is nothing quite like being able to dye a yarn the exact colour you want for a project. In our new home I do not have the same amount of space as I did before. So I am going back to the drawing board….or should I say blending board….to create my own colours. Back in the early 1990’s I made a blending board from carding cloth I bought from the Howard Brush Company. When we moved I decided to sell my homemade blending board in attempts to destash and reduce the amount of fibre and fibre tools I would bring into our new space. Within a year however, I realized I had made an error in judgement and reintroduced a blending board into my spinner’s toolbox.
The three colours shown here are the edge colours for another Énbarr shawl (seen in the banner photo on this website). The main colour of this next Énbarr shawl will be an aqua coloured Alpaca/Merino blend from Chaotic Fibres. The edge colours for the shawl are a sea glass green, a deeper-waters blue-green and a mussel brown colour. The edge colours were blended on a blending board using some dyed-in-the-wool Merino purchased from Penelope Fibres, a bit of the main colour (the aqua alpaca/merino blend) and various mulberry and non-mulberry silks. Can’t wait to see how the shawl knits up!