Blending in

I've been doing a little experiment, inspired by a post by the Yarn Harlot who was trying to spin to match a commercial yarn for a Berroco project. I made the same project she was spinning to make and had some of the yarn left over. I'd made it in a charcoal Berroco Cuzco yarn which is a lovely 50/50 mix of alpaca and wool.

That got me thinking. I spun a gorgeous silver alpaca roving for my Mom a few months ago. It was stuff I'd gotten from Karen, my friend here in Springfield who carries all these wonderful fibers. I wondered if I got a pack of the silver alpaca and a pack of grey wool, maybe I could spin them together and get something like the Cuzco from it, I would be able to mix it and the charcoal for a project. I got a strand of the Cuzco, pulled it a apart and studied how it was spun and followed her lead. Of course, I was actually looking at Cuzco, unlike the Harlot who was actually looking at a different Berroco yarn. I don't judge, it's something I might have done (and probably have done).

I was too impatient to blend it properly so I decided to put a strip of each together and blending as I went. Here's what I've got so far.

I'm still not so sure how it will ply up because I haven't been able to get it as even as I would like. But I think it will work all right. It's been a little tricky blending as I go because the alpaca, being much slipperier than the wool likes to draft faster than the wool. I am going to go ahead and spin all the singles before I start plying so I can blend them together better.

She got a beautiful yarn that she's decided to do something else with so I'll see if I can get the Cuzco she was shooting for.