Another Way to Make Tweed

I made another tweed and wanted to share it with you. I purchased a Shetland mixed wool from a friend. The wool is softer than most Shetlands; however, it was very full of VM. For the non-spinners, this means vegetable matter, which is twigs, straw, grass, and anything that can be attached to the wool fleece, (yes, it can also be poo). I scoured, (spinner term for washing the wool in very hot water to remove the greasy lanolin, some dirt, and some VM), and dyed the wool violet. I dyed the wool with the intention of getting light and dark hues of violet. I then combed the wool mixing the hues a little and mixed a very soft white Merino wool into this mixture. With all of the VM, it is hard to not mix the wool very well, but I want to leave quite a lot of variation from white to dark violet. I have pictures of the wool in various stages of preparation. Even though I tried to spin fairly smoothly, it is hard to spin a very fine wool without some lumps, or nips occurring. I made the yarn 2-ply or two stranded. I hope this post is helpful for new spinners and shows another way to achieve tweed yarn. For non-spinners or advanced spinners, I hope this post is something interesting to view and read. Dawn