Sunday 19 February 2012

Miss Havisham's Veil


I recently caught up with our recording of the BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations which was shown over Christmas, but I didn't watch at the time. The book has a strange place in my heart as it was one of my O- or A-level texts (to be honest I can't remember which!), and as I have got older I have grown to appreciate Dickens more and more,- although I haven't actually gone back to reading any of the novels! The BBC, as you would expect, delivered a wonderful interpretation of the book.  I especially liked the moody, misty Satis house with its covering of dust and cobwebs.  It so happened that I was spinning some BFL wool with silk at the same time as watching the series - I had dyed the wool up in a batch before Christmas....




Here is the roving drying; the grey is the second from the right, next to the green.  The silk element is darker than the wool and I particularly love that effect.





I love how it turned out and will try this combination again, and maybe spin a singles yarn.  The dyes are a mix of some Charcoal dye from Tall Yarns 'n Tales and a Landscape dyes called Saltmarsh - the Saltmarsh lends a slightly greeny-blue tone in places.

Here is the resulting spun yarn:




I spun the wool straight from the roving and attempted to create a fine lace yarn, but I still haven't got there - sadly it isn't quite fine enough - practice is needed I think....