These absolutely unusual and beautiful yarns come to us all the way from South Africa. The fiber artist, Alida, was recommended to us through fiber friends in England and we loved her yarns. Alida spins every skein of yarn by hand and she also hand dyes the fiber. We asked Alida to write a biography about herself. She is a most interesting woman, and is the only person in her entire town to own a spinning wheel:
"I live in a small town called Worcester in South Africa, about 70 miles from Cape Town at the root of Africa. It is in the Cape Winelands. Over the mountains is the Great Karoo – a San word meaning rocks or thirst – which stretches a thousand miles to the north.
This is where the Merino sheep are bred from which my yarn is spun
I am 57 years of age, I am divorced, I have two children,son(32) and a daughter(27). Both are married and I am granny of two boys.
We first lived on a farm where I started in 1986 breeding the Il de France sheep. I processed it from the raw fleece. But today my circumstances have changed so now I do the Merino wool which is a beautiful wool to work with, fine and soft.
I spin the yarn on a old fashioned looking spinning wheel(Ashford) and then dye the Rainbow colors which I love doing very much because it is really interesting to see how the colors blend together
I am currently busy teaching a lady to spin so perhaps one day she will be able to spin for me. Yes I am the only person in Worcester, South Africa that does the spinning of wool. "
Are you interested in knitting with some truly unusual and gorgeous yarn? Each skein of Rainbow Hand Spun and Hand Dyed is 100 grams or 3.5 ounces. There are approximately 120 meters or 130 yards per skein which is a lot for handspun yarn! The knitting weight is an approximate heavy dk / light worsted with a recommended knitting needle of size 7-9 mm or US size 8-9. All of her yarns are spun from pure and soft South African merino wool.
