Woolly Wednesday for September 2013

Oops - just missed Woolly Wednesday (by 40 minutes as I start writing). Hope it's still OK to join in.

Since last time I've finished this handspun, hand knit cowl which I'm really pleased with. Shame it's been too hot to wear it....

I felt a very strong desire to start some of the other projects that I've already spun for. But these socks have been on the go for ages, and because they're so slow (tiny needles and cable crossovers!) I've been putting them to one side to do other things. Funny how illogical the mind can be....

So I'm very proud of my self-control - I've decided not to cast on anything else until I've finished them. Here's the first one, I'm now on the heel of the second. They're looking and feeling so good, I'm really looking forward to wearing them. A good incentive to keep going!

I have taken advantage of the nice weather to wash a fleece. This is Smiler. I used some of Smiler's fleece last year to make this cowl and it was lovely.

So when offered the most recent fleece of course I said yes.  I've decided to process the fleece, dye it myself and make a cardy. (Definitely thicker yarn this time; I'm cured of my lace obsession!!)

There's a horrible amount of straw here, but it's large pieces and is picking out ok.

Among the straw are some lovely locks! Given the large amount of wool in a fleece I didn't feel too bad about being ruthless when I skirted it. I threw away not only the dirtiest bits but the coarser parts too, keeping probably only about the best half of it.

It's now washed and dried, ready for the carder.

Finished project - Sisterhood Cowl

 Yay, my Sisterhood Cowl is finished. It's always good to finish a project, but I'm also a little sad to finish this one because I've enjoyed knitting it so much.

Lots of plain knitting make this a great project to pick up & put down, or to put in your bag when going out. The lace rounds break this up and add interest. Big needles make the rounds fly by.

There are several ways to wear this type of cowl.

 It was my first opportunity to use my new blocking wires - a Fibre East purchase. They made blocking a breeze. I pulled it out lengthways because there was plenty of width, and I'd used the minimum number of stitches in order to get the garment out of the yarn I'd spun from Yummy Yarns' 'Posh Frock' wool/tencel

Pattern is here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sisterhood-cowl and Yummy Yarns is here: http://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/YummyYarnsUK

Mosaic of the steps along the way:

Woolly Wednesday for August

Once again, the monthly opportunity to round up current and recent projects has arrived.

The Tour de Fleece is for me an opportunity to spend more time spinning without the guilt. I have some lovely skeins of wool to show for it, even if I didn't finish it all before the end of the Tour. First this 200g of various natural shades of Masham wool. This will be a Carousel Tea Cosy.

 Second, this Merino/Cashmere/Silk in 'Foxgolves' from Picperfic's luxury fibre club. The fibre mix is lovely, it's incredibly soft and has a silky sheen. The colours are beautiful too. It was my first try at fractal spinning and I'm very happy with the way it's mixed the colours. It really needs to be worn next to the skin and so I'm thinking a cowl.

On the knitting front, I'm really loving knitting my Sisterhood Cowl. Progress appears slow but that's only because I only occasionally pick it up and knit a few rows. But those rows are very swift, thanks to large needles and a straightforward pattern. It's one that I've picked up and put in my bag because it's largely stockinette with some easy lace rows.

 And finally, a first reveal of something I'll be writing more about. For a recent visit home I'd bought a Schacht Zoom Loom each for me & my Mum. Like everyone else who's tried them, we found them fun and addictive, a great way to use up oddments of handspun.

Fibre East 2013

July 27 and 28 saw the third Fibre East and the first to have an indoor venue. Anyone who visited the 2012 event won't forget the mud, although this year has been warm and dry. Redborne College became very hot at times according to some stall holders. We can't beat our fickle British weather!

The 110 stands were distributed among several rooms inside the college plus some marquees outside.

One lovely surprise was to see that Paul Brittain of Classic Carders now has his electric drum carder ready! Here he is standing beside it.

The day wouldn't be complete without the Sheer Sheep experience, here's Michael doing his stuff. A great day for sitting on the grass with a picnic. He talked about the qualities of the wool from various breeds and how they've been mixed over the centuries.

He was shearing to order and letting spinners choose their fleece while still on the sheep.

My own haul included some long-sought-after blocking wires, some alpaca walking socks and as if I needed more fibre, 'Northern Lights' wool/silk from Freyalyn and some amazing black alpaca from Longdrawjames.

Review - spinning wheel drink holder

I've long thought that this device is very clever and have finally gone ahead and bought one.

It's been very hot here in the UK over the last few weeks which has coincided with the Tour de Fleece. While spinning on these hot evenings I've discovered that my drink has had to either sit on the floor (in danger of collecting loose fibres) or on a surface out of reach.

At 16.70 pounds sterling I did think it a little pricey, but have changed my mind now that I have it - it's much more substantial and better quality than I'd assumed. They're sent from America so the postage adds on quite a bit as you'd expect.

The acrylic is thicker than I'd expected and on my 'Ashford Traditional' cup holder the hook is cleverly cranked so that it sits snugly on the angled beam and the drink is (more or less) level. (Versions for other wheels have different methods of attachment.)

My usual spinning position is a bit incompatible - I sit at an angle to the wheel with my limbs stretched out and quite a length of spun yarn between me and the flyer. In this position my knee is in danger of knocking the drink, so I'm having to adopt a different (possibly better - certainly more normal) posture - squarer to the wheel and more directly in front of the orifice.

It very happily takes a glass of wine, beer / cider bottle (above), G&T and tall OJ (below)

The only thing that I can't fit in is my mug of coffee / tea. The makers offer a 'cup handle slot' option which would do the trick, but I didn't think it through when ordering. I'm going to try and find a coffee mug that fits or find a clever way of fitting a normal mug in the holder.

The makers are FBN plastics, and their shop is here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/FBNPlastics

How to deal with a braid of dyed fibre

Mum asked me for some tips for spinning a special braid of dyed fibre. I'm posting publicly in case these thoughts are useful to others too.

1. It always seems a shame to undo a beautifully braided coil of fibre, but it has to be done! You'll probably find that the length of fibres is actually a tube and you may even spot a seam. carefully open this out into a wide flat ribbon.

2. I find that it really makes the following steps easier if you split the fibre vertically. Whether you split into two, four or eight, or whether you split at all depends on how you're planning to spin and how you'd like the colours to be distributed (see my notes on variations later).

3. However many times you've split it, I find that the fibre really benefits from  a lengthwise stretch, either by 'snapping' or a gentle tug. The idea is to separate the fibres which may have become a little clingy with their neighbours. The trick is to pull less than you think you need to, and move your hands along a little bit each time.

4. Again, where you go from here depends on how you're spinning. For my last few projects I've been spinning fine, even and as worsted as possible. I've found that continuing to pre-draft into a 'pencil roving' really helps. The fibres are  now so free that they spin like a dream! (There's a great video about pre-drafting from Sara's Texture Crafts here)

Variations:

Spinning from the fold. You'll want to split vertically only once or not at all, and then after step 3 pull off a staple length or so to fold over your finger.

Longdraw from rolags. David of Southern Cross Fibre has made this great post which shows how to make rolags from a dyed braid.

Fractal spinning. The more times you split lengthways, the quicker your colours will repeat in your singles. Fractal spinning means splitting your yarn differently for each bobbin of singles to achieve certain stripe effects or to balance your colours better in your finished 2-ply. There are different ways to do this for different effects, but for starters, split your yarn lengthways once, spin one bobbin from one half. Split the second half again before spinning the second bobbin. This way the colours will change twice as quickly on the second bobbin.

Do you prepare your fibre differently? Do you have anything to add to this? Let us know in the comments.

Tour de Fleece day something

Something like two weeks in with one week left to go and I'm really pleased to have finished one of my goals.

This Masham wool in four natural shades (it was a neat plait when I bought it) was a Wonderwool purchase from Adelaide Walker and destined to be a sheep carousel tea cosy.

What has really interested me about this project is that the different colours have quite different characteristics. The white was very straight and lustrous. You can see from the picture that the yarn get progressively more bulky as the colour gets darker. Noticeably more bouncy and elastic.