New yarn, new colors

We recently received a new yarn from Classic Elite - this is Cricket, which is a 60% cotton, 40% linen blend DK weight yarn.  I think this will make some great spring & summer tops.  The pattern booklets for spring weren't available yet, so I can't show you the designs they've come out with just yet. 

 There were some new colors in Firefly as well - yummy jewel tones.  That red is HOT!  A friend of mine used to say that every woman should have a red sweater.  He may be right. 

 And a new lovely shade of Silky Alpaca Lace.  It's called Beach Glass, which seems appropriate for this dreamy muted shade of green.

Plying options

Saturday when Anita came in to teach the beginning spinning class, she tossed me a hank of heaven.  She brings in lots of examples of hand spun to show her students, and this was a new one.  She plied a strand of hand spun wool with a some Rowan Kidsilk Aura.  It was exquisite!  I wish my photos had feel-o-vision so you could touch this too.  She said it's VERY loosely plied - you're basically throwing the plies together onto the wheel. I seem to always forget about the possibility of plying your hand spun with a commercial yarn.

The brushed mohair of the Kidsilk Aura lends a bit of halo that gets tempered by the smooth ply.  I really liked it!

Thanks for sharing, Anita!