Spinzilla Team HSN UK Visit to wool processing mill

From a crafter's perspective, it's fascinating to see the familiar scouring and combing processes happen on an industrial scale. It's also heartening to see a large business working so ethically. They're proud of their environmental credentials, with all waste (dirt, grease, noils) going off to serve useful purposes elsewhere.

Friday's visit to Haworth Scouring Co was a 'spin-off' event from last year's Spinzilla.

The first year that the yardage competition was open worldwide (2014) I spun 'rogue' because there was no UK team. For 2015's event I registered a UK team linked to Hand Spinning News. What happened next blew me away. The team filled up within a couple of days (25 spinners max). There was such a spirit between team members during a gruelling week's spinning (the most active team forum by a long margin) and we ended up coming seventh out of around 70 teams worldwide, all of us meeting the 'monster mile' and a grand total of 146,336 yards or 83.15 miles.

Martin Curtis of Curtis Wools Direct / Haworth Scouring Co sponsored our effort by providing real Shetland top for us to spin,

He very kindly also offered us a tour of his mill. Besides being a fascinating day, it was the first time that many team members had met in person!

We saw fleeces being opened up, shaken out and then being passed through a number of tanks of detergent.

The mill also has a combing plant, turning the snowy-clean fleece into beautiful squishy top for spinning. I gather that most of this goes to the carpet industry; wool carpet being more environmentally-friendly, healthy, comfortable, non-compacting and not necesarily more expensive than synthetic fibres. Some of the wool goes to make garments and the noils (shorter fibres) into bedding.

Longdrawjames and Freyalyn testing the wool by twisting small amounts between their fingers. There was a funny moment when Martin did the same and looked around expectantly. "Usually when I do this, people are impressed", he said "...but you lot being hand spinners, I can see that you're not...."

potamousse's other half took this excellent picture of the team, or most of those that were present, with our Spinzilla team pinnies.

We had the opportunity to buy some real Shetland top and other fibres. I'd gone intending to buy more of the white to spin, dye and weave into a tartan blanket-scarf. However, after seeing how the natural fibres look when woven, I chose a selection of natural colours.

For the genuine 'real Shetland', contact Martin's son Adam of the Real Shetland Company. They're not really geared up to supply smaller amounts for hand spinning, but depending on what you want, Adam may be able to help or to pass you onto a retailer.

a camel, a sheep and a worm

This was a bit experimental but I love the way it's turned out - I'm going to have to card and spin loads more and make something special from it.

I wanted to try mixing camel top (which is quite short) with something longer - it's 70% 'white' camel, 20% white merino and 10% silk. I carded and carded so that the fibres are really mixed together well, pre-drafted and spun it short draw so that the result is really smooth, silky and well-packed.

Not sure that the colour has come out very well under the flourescent lamp but in real life it's a lovely pale.. well... camel colour, all silky and lustrous.

'Aqua' fibre

I love my job. It was a very pleasant hour yesterday carding this corriedale for somebody.

It's called Aqua. My 'recipe' is 44% green corriedale, 44% blue corriedale and 12% natural white. Also traces of cheesecake and lavender. The blue, green and white are well-blended with the yellow and purple added later in the process.

At first the blue and green appear as separate colours, but on the second or third pass they start to mix together, so even when you look closely you see a lovely turquoise colour rather than separate blue and green. There's still some separation after three passes, and the knitted yarn will still have a slightly heathered look but I don't see any point carding further than this because the colours will start to go 'flat' and you may save yourself the hard work and buy spearmint corriedale.

Jo's Socks. Step 2 - Carding

After sitting outside for a day in perfect drying weather, the fibre is dry, clean and sweet-smelling.

But first another pic from yesterday. Because I'd taken out the dirtiest stuff, and the best locks looked very clean, I didn't expect to have such thick brown water, but here it is:


Carding is quick, easy and fun with one of these:


We now have about 150g of extremely bouncy and soft fibre. Less than I'd expected at this stage...


The pattern is to be Stashbusting Lace Socks from June's Yarn Forward, and if the claims made for yardage is correct, and if I spin to the right WPI, then there won't be any need to dive into the bag of 'seconds'. I'll certainly take the suggested precaution of dividing the yarn exactly in two before starting the first sock.

Dying to get dyeing now! But that'll have to wait until Saturday.

Blue Friday

Posting on behalf of Mum (whippetsgalore), who's been blending more colour on her drum carder for spinning and enjoying it. She says "The first is my sample of 2 mixes. Not quite Aqua, so I've called it Blue Lagoon. The other one is Bluebell. I am very pleased with them; I find it much more fun spinning with mixed colours."