Cloning mission #1

Many years ago, I gifted a Holden shawl to my mum, in Malabrigo Eggplant. Though she's a gifted knitter, the financial restraints handled by a single mum raising three kids meant that there was no way she'd ever spend that much on yarn, so its soft, cosy squashableness was something of a revelation. She wore it nearly to death, then accidentally put it in the tumbledryer. Farewell, shawl, hello woollen hanky. 

Malabrigo Eggplant. 

In the mean time, I'd knitted three more Holden Shawls, so when she asked for a replacement, it felt far too little of a challenge. I set about spinning up a special blend of purples and greys that I thought would be perfect, but when I showed the finished yarn to mum she declared it purple. The original scarf, she said, was grey. Definitely grey. And so my cloning mission was set.

The first attempt came out way too mucky and cloudy, but the resulting batt turned out to be an excellent addition to the final blend. 

Much closer! 

While dizzing the first of these batts off into roving, I thought for a moment that I'd actually got the hang of taking it off evening, then of course the wheel of fortune turned and it screwed up. Typical! But the later two were much better and I do feel as though it's a thing I can do now. It's not completely even, but I wouldn't be unhappy to be handed a bundle of this stuff. 

Much closer the Malabrigo, don't you think? The middle one there was the last one I did and has slightly less of the original batt in it, so it's come out darker. Once this is yarn, I'll be using this to make the last few rows as glancing quickly through the project photos on Ravelry, I really like those that have a slightly darker outer. I'm calling this colour blend Definitely Grey, Not Purple.