Spinning Jelly

Well, That took a bit of time! I thought I'd just start spinning a little of the jelly fibre to get into practice and see how it was spinning up. Hours and hours later...... still spinning. The toilet roll idea didn't work as I'd made the slivers so fragile, they kept snapping as they tried to unravel. The easiest method was to actually unwind the ball in a pool on the floor so it could run freely as I spun. Well, whatever works!

This was very theraputic while waiting for plumbers and insurance people to deal with our sewage leak. I could just close the door, put on a talking book and - spin. No distractions and hours would be gone when I looked up again. And, lots of spun yarn on the bobbin! My original intention was to split the balls into two piles, spin up two bobbins worth and then ply both threads together into one yummy yarn. That is why I split the roving so fine so I could have two laceweight yarns ply into something around fingering weight.

Of course, after taking hours to get one bobbin done, I changed my mind and decided to ply with some shiny embroidery thread I got on Ebay a while back. It feels rayon-like and is quite slippy but has a gorgeous shine which catches the light.

Hours later..... I have a plied skein of yarn! The embroidery thread seems a little light in places but was the closest I could get for now. A variegated quilting thread would be interesting to use - note to self. But I still have the other half of the jelly roving to spin so maybe I can try something different for that half. The first skein weighs about 75gms and is closer to a laceweight yarn in thickness - or should I say, thinness:-) I think with the shine factor, this could knit up well as a fancy lace shawl. I haven't knitted up a shawl in laceweight yet so I don't know if 75gms will be enough. If not, I may have to spin the rest up the same for a bigger shawl. Anyone know if I have spun enough?

I'm having a little break from spinning before I start the rest of the Jelly roving as it's very time consuming and exhausting concentrating for that length of time solely on one thing. Saying that, knitting complex lace shawl patterns does have the same effect!! I find I get engrossed in following the pattern and the wider the shawl gets, the more time passes and before I know it, it's time for bed! Hence a very late/early blog post today:-)

Tomorrow, a little dyeing and maybe some more knitting but right now, I'm off to sleep, g'night...... zzzzzzzzz.

Fibre Adventure Club!

Last week, I was reading Debbie's blog from DT Craft and Design and she mentioned that she was opening more spaces in her sock and fibre clubs. Usually I can't afford to find a year's subscription all at once so I've unwillingly stayed away from these things, but with these ones you can buy 3 or 6 months as you go which is great for people like me. So, of course, I jumped at the chance! Having never been in one of these before, you wonder whether you will like the colourways that will be popping through your door. I love pretty much all colour but I'm very selective about what I do buy. From what I've seen on Debbie's blog though, I knew I would like whatever colour she picked as she has such an eye for colour.

I joined the Fibre Adventure Club rather than the roving or the sock club as I liked the idea of getting lots of different types of fibres and playing! This month is Kingfisher - yummmm! Just gorgeous. In my 100gms this month, I have some rare breed Jacob's fleece, Bluefaced leicester, Silk noil and silk throwers waste. The silk will really add shine and act as highlights to whatever I make this into. Now I have it I'm thinking, spinning or felting or both? You also get a very detailed leaflet with all the information on each fibre. I really like knowing how each fibre handles and these notes are very thorough - thank you Debbie!

It is interesting to see how each fleece takes the dye differently. The roving is a lot paler than the jacobs and the silks are much more colour saturated than the wool. Oh, it's going to be so much fun experimenting with all this lovely fibre! Roll on next month:-)

Spinning worsted style - or the short draw method

The last few days I've been learning how to spin using two methods - the short draw and the long draw. Until I read a book on spinning a few months ago, I didn't know there was more than one way, I mean spinning is surely spinning right? Well, it all depends on your fleece and how it is prepared for spinning. Roving uses short draw, and carding tops into rolags uses the long draw method. After watching this video I found out I use the short draw method with rolags!!!! So I decided to set myself the challenge of trying them both out - properly:-)

The top video shows you how to spin using the short draw method. I tried this one first because it works with combed roving and I have some lovely dyed roving but can't use it til I get the hang of this.

Yes, my lovely roving from Fibreoptics and Needleworks pleasure respectively. And now I've been learning how to use it. Okay, not straight away with the good stuff though! I've been experimenting with some undyed merino - still very yummy - and I'll dye it when I've finished. I tried to spin this before with mixed results just before my wheel broke and I never got back to it. I was still feeling my way back into spinning - still am - so I resorted to using the method I knew I could do, working with tops and carding it into rolags.

But after watching this video I realised I had missed out a vital step of preparation - splitting. The whole idea of splitting is to take the roving and split it lengthwise all the way down. Now if you want a super chunky yarn you could spin it now but I definitely don't! So I split each length again - now 4 pieces. Still this is too thick for me, so again I split - 8 pieces, split again, 16 pieces. I stopped here and tried spinning this thickness but if its still too thick, split!

You have to even the thickness along each length you split so it will spin evenly. I found a really good video on You Tube that shows this method of splitting and preparing the fibres -

It has made my life a lot easier now I know what preparation I should be doing before spinning and I learn visually so this is great. And here is my work in progress....

I've done twice this amount now but it only weighs around 22 gms. This single yarn can be fixed as is or can now be plyed - two yarns together. As my first effort isn't as even all the way through and gets very thin in places I think I will ply this together to make it stronger. I don't know what with as yet. Maybe my undyed spun fleece straight from the sheep? But each fleece will take the dye differently so it could be a lovely contrast - or not!!! I could also spin it together with a thin manufactured yarn to eak out the roving as it's not very cheap to buy, or I could spin another bobbin of the roving and spin two equal thicknesses of yarn together. That is my preferred method and I will get a sturdier yarn.

So, still some short draw spinning to do then on to mastering the long draw! I think I'll save some of my dyed fleece for that experiment. 100gms on the nose and I didn't even weigh it! Onwards and upwards!

Poseidon and Firestarter

Got a killer of a headache today so not much knitting is being done that requires any concentration - or maths! But I can show you the progress I've made knitting my new sock yarn as well as my newly dyed fleece and yarn from yesterday's dyeing sesssion. The fleece hasn't taken the dye as intensely as I would have liked but I'll try a different way of dyeing next time to see if I can do better. If anyone knows a surefire way of getting rich colours, I'd be pleased to hear:-)

I dyed two more skeins of sock yarn, aiming for more semi-solids than stripes this time as I started knitting the emerald green yarn but it is too stripey for more detailed patterns and just fights it as you can see.

The stripes on their own are very nice but the lace is just lost. This sock pattern is called 'poseidon' and I even watched the new version of the poseidon adventure while knitting it. Ah, well, all ripped back now.

So this aquamarine semi-solid is made especially to handle lace or cabling patterns on socks. I was aiming for these greeny/blue midtones but I think it would be really nice in deeper more peacock or petroly blues as well - yum. Note to self:-)

This one is called pink orchid, lots of subtle tones of pinky reds and plummy purples. Hopefully this will be subtle enough not to be too stripey! No plans for this yarn as yet but I have just got Cookie A's sock book at the weekend so it may be destined for a complex pair of cookie socks:-) Here's a good review if you are thinking about buying it. I was recommended it - which is the best review of all!

The orange mango stripey yarn is also being knitted up as we speak - well, when the headache decides to shift:-) On the sock needles at the mo is Firestarter designed by Yarnissima. It uses a self striping or plain yarn and adds cable detailing up the sides of the sock - lovely. It remains to be seen whether my yarn is bordering on too stripey!!

I've just started the side cabling but there isn't much to see as yet. It may well have to be ripped back but I'll knit a little more first before I decide. Still loving the stripes though:-)

All we need now are some sunny days without rain so I can sit outside and get in some quality knitting time! Enough rain already!

Carding the fleece and spinning

It's been a while since you've heard anything about the fleece I was washing so I thought I'd give you a little update on its progress. Some of the fleece has been cleared of all the little twigs and bits that didn't come out during the washing stage but it's such a long, boring process that I'm breaking it up into stages:-) So I started to card the smaller amount of totally clean fleece into rolags - small manageable rolls of prepared fibre - ready for spinning. The idea is to get all the fibres evenly carded in the same direction so when you are spinning it makes it easy to pull out and create an evenly spun thread.

There we are, nice rolags in a row. I don't make them too big or it gets a bit unwieldy on the carders. Better to have lots of small evenly carded ones:-) I've been doing this outside as the weather has been lovely today but after a while I got a bit too hot so I took my little pile of rolags inside and decided to see just how much thread they would make.

This is how much 3 rolags made - not bad. I thought it would take me a little bit of practice to get an even thin yarn but the problem was more spinning too thin! I tended only to get uneven lumps when I had missed a lump in carding so its more the carding technique at fault than the spinning, I'm glad to say. I played around with the tension on my wheel and the more pull I gave it the more likely my overly fine yarn would snap. So I'll stick to a lot of treadling for now until I feel more proficient. As long as I get enough spin in so it doesn't unravel when I ply.....

10 Rolags in and I'm on a roll! My spinning technique is getting better - more even but also generally thinner than when I started. I will have to practice deliberately trying to achieve specific thicknesses of yarn - lace, fingering, DK, aran weight etc. I think I'm thinking once this is plied then it will be twice as thick so don't make the single too thick but at this rate it won't be thick enough!!

The other problem I was having was the fleece was a bit sticky. I read that this is a problem when too much lanolin stays in the fleece so it looks like either using salt doesn't work or I didn't use enough. I deliberately didn't de-grease the fleece as the lanolin was meant to make spinning easier. So either I de-grease the remainder of the undyed fleece and spin it, or I de-grease and dye it now before spinning. I'm leaning towards the dyeing myself as spinning off-white is getting a bit monotonous!! Imagine selecting all the subtle colour variations to spin together! A colour paradise!!

But I am already prepared:-) I ordered some Synthraopol (de-greaser) from DT Craft and Design a few days ago and it fortuitously arrived this morning. Perfect timing, I think.

It may take a few days for me to get the fleece de-greased and dried, dyed and steamed but watch this space:-)

Washing fleece for spinning

Well, guess what I have spent my weekend doing?! I was lucky enough to get five free fleeces last friday - unwashed - and of course I wanted to get going straight away. They looked reasonably clean in the bags, three are lambs fleeces and two are from older sheep. Of course, I forgot to ask what type of sheep they were but I'll try and find out. It was forecast beautiful weather over the weekend so I thought perfect for washing my fleece! So I picked a bag at random - think this is a bigger adult fleece - and laid it out to see what I had. BTW, it is advisable to do this OUTSIDE!! They stink!! Unwashed fleece tends to smell strongly of lanolin, the natural grease in the fleece as well as 'animal matter' I think is the polite way to describe dried poo! Maybe a baking hot day didn't help as it was a bit ripe:-))

One large fleece laid out full. That is a lot of potential yarn! Since this is my first full fleece I have no idea how much this will make. Maybe spinning will just eat it up. And it will depend on how thin I spin too.

Anyway, I gemmed up on how to wash fleece. I learned sooo much online. I learned that everyone has contradicting methods:-) And I learned that it is vital to get as much crap, twigs and such out of the fleece before you wash it and especially the 'animal matter'!! You cut it off, as it's never going to be worth saving!! And as the only place big enough to wash this fleece is my bath, I really don't fancy decorating it with animal poo. Pulease! I shudder to think of the hygiene issues:-))

But the most important thing I found out is that you wash the fleece differently for spinning compared to felting. Who knew?

So my golden nugget of information for you today is if you want to felt the fleece you must get rid of the lanolin and the best thing to use is dishwater tablets or washing powder - but NOT soap! If you want to spin it like I do then you need to keep the lanolin in - as it makes spinning easier - so you can't use soap, washing powder etc AT ALL. So how do you get all the dirt out? You use SALT. Salt? Yup. I thought okay, lets give it a try and if it doesn't work then I can always use a little washing powder after.

So here we have my fleece soaking in a bath of hot water with added salt. Enough water to cover the fleece and give it room to expand a little so the dirt can escape. As to how much salt, I just guestimated and poured a bit along the length of the bath for the first few washes. If the muck is coming out then its working!

The key to not felting your fleece in the bath is you must not stir, agitate, squeeze or otherwise prod, poke, swish or cause friction of any kind. WALK AWAY! Leave it alone and let it do its stuff on its own. This is very hard people! I wasn't sure if it was working so I had a little push here and there and then I got impatient and tried a little swish. Okay, one little swish won't totally felt the whole thing but it is very hard not to disturb the fibres when you pour the water out. You want to automatically squeeze the dirty water away. I must admit to forgetting here a few times and this will be the main cause of felting if it happens. If you have the room and a big enough container, you can lift the fleece out and refill the tub so the fibres aren't agitated. But I didn't and it was fine and dandy.

Once I got to three washes, I felt the fleece wasn't going to get any cleaner being packed in like it was so I halved the fleece and let the fibres open out more in the water. This helped get the rest of the muck out and the water was running clear. (I didn't add salt to the fourth wash as I saw it as more of a rinse) Once the water is clear then you are done and out it goes to dry - if you have a scorchingly warm day. If not, you can spin your fleece in an old pillowcase or a laundry bag as long as it is closed so the fleece doesn't go everywhere in the machine. If you have a spinner, or a machine that can do the spin cycle only, then this is fine to get the excess water out your fleece. If it is going to add water then this is a no-no. It will cause friction which we don't want.

I used the warm weather to dry mine so I haven't tested the spin cycle myself yet, but I have used my washing machine to spin my dyed wool yarn with no felting at all, so I am confident there should be no mishaps. But I will test a bit before I put a whole fleece in.

Now my fleece is dry, I'm picking out the remaining twigs and such that I missed and it is looking lovely and clean. I'm sure these would come out in carding but as I'm doing that indoors, I don't want all of that on my carpet - call me pernickity:-) Once I'm finished this process, I can get to spinning!! I can feel the lanolin still in the fleece but it's not as greasy as before and the fibres feel - moisturised is the best word to describe it. I think this will spin up a dream.

So, one fleece down and four more to go.

Knit, knit, knit....and a little bit of felt......and a tiny bit of weave......

I'm back!! You think you'll be away for just a little bit and before you know it 4 or 5 months have gone by. Where did it go? What have I been doing?

Well, not a lot of creating, I'm afraid. Saying that I do remember a spell of making 13 aprons and baking lots of cookies around about christmas time, a pair of crocheted slippers for a birthday girl, arranging and rearranging my 'new' work space.......

But now, a few things I have been toying with.

This felted piece is primarily merino fleece with some shetland thrown in the background, some wensleydale curly bits and some white silk cobweb layering on the top. I would have liked to stitch on top but I was in a hurry to make this card for mother's day. To be honest, I feel it might have been overkill anyway, but I do intend to experiment further when I get a break over the Easter holidays. I'd forgotten how much fun felting can be - roll on Easter holidays!

Have also been busy knitting again. After having a spate of crochet, it is a pleasure to get back to knitting. After seeing the new beret 'Verity' on Ysolda's site, I decided this was the challenge that would get me back into knitting. And I have really enjoyed it! A perfect opportunity to watch favourite films and savour the time relaxing doing something you can fully enjoy. I must admit feeling guilty for actually sitting down so long though.....

Anyway, what you want to see - pictures! The light was very poor and the magenta yarn tended towards red when photographed, ah well.

The pattern did say to use Aran/worsted weight yarn but all I had to hand was double knitting and I was too impatient to have a major hunt before I could start. So I knitted the biggest size to cater for the reduction the DK would cause and it pretty much worked. The only difference is it's slightly softer and has a less crisp, defined look to it than the picture on the pattern.

I know I don't have much Aran weight up in the loft so I'm trying again knitting two DK strands together. I know, this could turn out to be so rigid that it could stand up on its own, but as I am thinking this could be my sister's birthday pressie and it's still very cold in the north of Scotland, maybe a good solid wool beret is just the thing.
Look away now Gwen!

Results so far....

I've made the bowl of the hat and just need to knit the band at the front. It's in linen stitch - good for a strong, non stretchy band - but a little bit more time consuming! Had to stop watching the TV for this bit as I kept losing my place!!

A close-up of the lovely leaf shape the YO and Slip stitches create.

A very clever pattern that looks lovely and is a joy to knit. The new cable one that Ysolda is presently knitting looks good too.

I'll also be moving my large dobby loom over easter to a new home - from a collapsed pile in the shed to being actually put to gether again. When I moved, I had to give up my workshop and it's quite difficult to just 'store' a large industrial loom! So I might find myself getting side tracked into 16 shaft jacquard patterns sometime around april/may!

Some pics of the loom before....

(When I mean big, it is about 9ft high and at least 2 metres square without the pedal - which is about 9ft in length as well. Yes, I am mixing my metaphoric measurements!)

John up the ladder trying to bolt everything in place...

The dobby mechanism perched on the top - very heavy.

detail of the fly shuttle

Of course, it has only been about 15 years or so since I last used one of these things, so I'm hoping it's like riding a bike......

Off to swot up on weaving - could be a while...... ( not another 5 months though!!)

ciao,
elaine