I found this tiny piece of fibre – just a few grams – when clearing up after Woolfest, in the general vicinity of the Fyberspates stall.
So I got in touch with Jeni & we decided I should spin it up as a prize in Andy‘s Mirasol Raffle at the IKnit Day. I wasn’t really sure what it was – wool & some plant maybe. It spun nicely and was very, very strong. The end result, when plied, was about 35wpi, but it probably could have gone much finer. The main trouble was that by the time I’d got used to it, there was none left!
As I spun, the colours started to remind me of something. Many years ago, we went on a holiday (our first holiday together!) which, if it had been packaged, could probably have been described as “The Ice-Creams & Castles of Wales”. The photos were all castles, arty angles of bits of castles (in so far as any photo taken with a camera which came free with the car insurance was capable of artyness…) and us noshing ice-cream in front of castles. In Criccieth, there was a very fine castle and an even finer ice-cream shop.
And this was the colour of the mint ice-cream I had! I imagined the winner of the skein making a tiny mat on which to put their crystal glass of mint & plum sundae on a lazy summer afternoon in the garden…
And then disaster struck. I washed the skein and when it had dried, its shine had vanished. I really should have tried harder to work out what the fibre was before washing it, so I could have done it properly. I tried re-washing and thwacking it against a chair (Jeni’s suggestion), but nothing, not a glimmer. So it’s turned from a luxurious little thing to a complete booby prize.