Botticelli's Girl
Now that the November edition of the Phat Fiber box has gone on sale, I can share my newest available colourway - Botticelli's Girl.
This colourway was inspired by "Portrait of a Young Woman", circa 1480, by Sandro Botticelli. I chose this painting because I was very drawn to the combination of auburn, russet and brown with the contrast of the blue sky through the window.
The colourway is handpainted in the same colour progress as in the paining, working from top left to bottom right - blue, peach, auburn, red and brown.
I was so taken with the colours on the test version that I barely gave myself time to take photographs before I spun up a couple of samples and knit some swatches.
From L to R: 2-ply, both samples, chain-ply
The colours in the 2-ply blended together pretty well, even with a bit of marling. To spin this sample, I split the top into about 4 pieces lengthwise, spun them end to end, and plied from both ends using an Andean plying bracelet. So no attempt was made to line up the colours at all. You can see that the warmer colours play very nicely together, with the blue giving a bit of contrast, even though it's been softened a bit by the plying with a warmer colour family.
The chain ply was so squishy and soft that I carried the skein around with my like a pet for a little while. The colours are much purer, and I think they would be great in a pair of socks for someone of the male persuasion, or as a great stocking cap kind of hat, with a tassel at the top.
I didn't do a true 3-ply sample, but I imagine it would blend the colours even more then the 2-ply. I'll have to try it out and see if it makes a good sweater yarn.
The BFL is, as always, a true delight to spin, and makes a fantastically soft and bouncy yarn for just about any project. If you're interested in this colourway and it's sold out when you look under the BFL listing in the shop, please do contact me and let me know that you'd like some. I'm going to be dyeing this up repeatedly over the next month, so there should be minimal delay in getting your fibre out to you.
Happy spinning everyone!
R xx