In Which the Pirate’s Custom Blend Arrives.

After a wait which seemed like a very long time but was in reality only about three weeks, my custom yarn blend from World of Wool has arrived! Here it is still in the bag, which gives a pretty good idea of the eventual overall colour once it’s all spun up and the individual wools are blended together. I’m expecting (and hoping for) something on the desaturated teal side of green, with a few heathered pops of pink and lime here and there.

They vacuum-sealed the bag for minimal shipping space, and when I opened it up the wool took a deep breath and spread out quite a bit. Close up, you can see the eight different colours that I chose. The fibre is 50% Corriedale, 25% Merino, and 25% BFL. It feels a little bit stiff – somewhat less soft than I was expecting, but then, I chose the Corriedale for sturdiness rather than softness. And, to be fair, I’ve been spinning that yak-silk blend, so maybe that’s thrown me off and I just need to recalibrate my softness-sensors.

Since I was already paying for international shipping, I added some undyed wools to my order. There’s a sampler pack of Shetland in 50g each of four natural colours, with which I might get ambitious and spin into laceweight for a shawl, and then I got 200g each of Suffolk and Southdown, both of which I’ve heard are excellent for handspun socks.