and so it starts.... raw fleece inventory

 I had hoped to get much more fleece washed but its been a lousy summer and when the weather has been good we were generally at the other end of the country!.

I will still wash over the winter if we get some sunny windy days but otherwise the fleece list will stay pretty much the same for the time being.

So ( mainly for my records) the outhouse currently contains a black box of oddments and the following.

Saxony merino   1/2 fleece, more about this in the next post.

bfl/texel    part fleece, a little less than 1/2

jacob 'scrumpy' full fleece

jacob 'okey'  part fleece

ryeland (white) 1-2 fleece

Border leicester cross 1-2 fleece

Shetland  assortment small amounts

Bowmont  about 400 gm

grey romney 3/4 fleece

small bag alpaca

I've seen longer lists over the years !

Indoor fleece washed fleece stash currently unlisted but amount to several pillowcases full waiting to be carded or combed.

The general plan is to process and spin these before bringing more into the workroom.

TDF Day 21 and 22, over and out !

 I've spent the last two days washing yarn, dying yarn, labelling yarn as well as finishing my knitting. 

Result is that I declare 2024 TDF well and truly over for me. All bobbins empty and fibre bags waiting to be refilled .

Its been fun but I need to pick up my lace making and embroidery for a few days.

Thanks to everyone who has commented either here or on Facebook, blog posts will return to the usual weekly round up.

TDF day 20 little by little

Thursday saw me heading down to the local inner city farm with my camera seeking breakfast. Toast and jam and a mug of tea :-)

A wander round then another cup of tea whilst spinning for half an hour or so.

Todays (Friday day 21) jobs will be to ply the lleyn, ply the bowmont, sew in ends and block shawlette and hat ( yep, I knitted a hat ) and dye the Ryeland that I spun a few days ago.

Days 18 & 19 busy, busy, busy

 Hi, I've been busy over the last couple of days, some spinning has occurred on both days.

The bowmont on the Nano yesterday and some more LLeyn on the Ashford today.

Have you ever been asked for handspun yarn that looks handspun? Yep, apparently mine can be too consistant for people looking for 'proper' hand spun . So I'm spinning a couple of hundred grams at lightning speed as a result.

I find I can spin thick , thin, whatever but being asked to leave in the lumps, bumps and vegetation really stumps me.

I have also been washing fleece and even picking up random fleece from doorsteps. long story, but one of the two looks really nice.

                                                  larger bag is ryeland, the other is north country mule

TDF Day 17 Is this shetland worth saving and wash day.

 As the sun briefly made an appearance I decided to get all the TDF spinning washed and on the line, three of the skeins had a detour via the dyepot.

Once dry I bought them in and here they are showing just how much difference washing yarn can make to the original yardage. They are all hanging from a pole across a bookcase and all the skeins were made on my Amish style swift on the same settings.

The blue skeins are LLeyn, the green is NCM, the four cream ones are Ryeland, the white one is bowmont and the black at the end is the wensleydale cross. You can see a very dramatic difference in length between the green and the cream ones.

This is the Shetland that I'm not sure whether to rescue, It was purchased by a friend in 2019 and passed on to me around 2021 as he felt that he wasn't going to bother with it. I've washed some of it, it looks like it has a natural break/rise in places and may need another wash depending on how sticky it is.

After washing, look at those curls, I think that this may take some time to process :-)

I'm going to comb some then spin a sample to see what I think.

Verdict, spins up soft but a lot of effort for a little fibre, one for the 'life's too short' pile I'm afraid.

Day 14, through thick and thin

 I would usually describe my spinning as pretty consistent, I generally know what weight I'm aiming for and and what I will do with it. If I'm knitting fair isle I don't want too many lumps and bumps, if its for a plain hat then variation will add texture.

Day 14 spins show that. The thick spin is NCM spun very quickly, softly, lumpy bumpy included. AAs it hasn't been washed I'm expecting a chunky from this one. It was good to get away from my usual ordered method.

In contrast, the first skein off the Nano for TDF is nice and consistent as I would like to try Shetland lace knitting at some point and I was looking for a practise yarn, not too fine but useable.

Photos taken with my phone so not the best but hopefully you can see what I mean.

TDF Day 13 ............. Coffee !!

 Yep, met friends for coffee, took my Nano and my coffee mug was as big as my wheel, not often that happens haha

We all used to work together many years ago and still get to see each other maybe once a month. They turned up shortly after I took the photo, honest :-)

This was the only spinning for day 13 although I have cast off the shawlette, its needs a few ends sewing in, a good wash and gentle block but its nice and soft and brings the shetland project total up to two shawlettes and six pairs of fingerless mitts.

Hopefully back to proper spinning tomorrow.

Day 8, spinning as a reward.

 I woke up yesterday with a sore throat, not what I wanted but not too unusual as a combination of chronic cough along with hayfever sometimes plays havoc this time of year. The good thing was that Ian is away from the weekend so I didn't need to speak to anyone at all :-)

I had planned to go to knit group but cancelled and played a game of "if you tidy a room and mop the floor then you can spin" you can see from the amount of spinning that three floors were mopped haha.

In the evening I added a few more rows to the shawl and combed out some more Shetland.

As for today, day nine, I'll see how I feel after doing the weekly shop. I may venture out with the Nano depending on the weather.

TDF Day 7, short and sweet

 Quickie post today, yesterday (day 7) was a spinning day, the last of the prepared Ryeland is now spun making the Ryeland total so far 400gm ish.

I took my Nano to knit and natter and finished the 25 ish gm of Bowmont. I have another knitting group later today which I rarely get chance to show my face at and will take either the Nano or my knitting. Depends on how I feel and if its raining I may not bother fighting my way into town.

Last night I settled down with the scrappy shawl, this is all oddments of Shetland spun on the Nano and left over from other projects.

last night I sorted through the bag of the Lleyn cross, this is the last of the fleece from last year. Again around 400 gm to spin.

Back to the spinning wheel :-)

TDF Day 6, Pots of tea, coffee and Museums

Today was a little different as I had to renew my museums friends membership at the Ruddington Framework Knitters Museum which is just outside Nottingham. The website link is here and this video explains things a lot better than I could.

As it was a quiet day in the museum, after a cup of coffee I was able to wander around the machine shop on my own and take photos.

and one of the machines so you can see the whole thing.

I also popped over the road to the village museum as it is only open two hours a week ! like many small museums, its an old school house containing artifacts rescued from various buildings.

The chip shop caught my eye, abandoned when the owner went to war in 1941 it was rediscovered in 1985. the owner had lived a recluse since returning and after his death, family members were astounded to find the cip shop still in the parlour exactly as he left it in 1941, fat still in the fryers, money in the till and his coat hanging up. The fryer, counter and all the other implements ar now in the museum.

The pharmacy cupboards etc were rescued from being destroyed when the chemist was refitted so they form an interesting corner.

The museum  is very hands on, things are passed down off the shelf to you, children have mole hunt map ( looking for the stuffed toys)

Looking through an assortment of pegs, dolly pegs, gypsy peg with the tin bindings, I found these. Anyone know why they have a hole in them?

A very small amount of spinning was done over coffee at the museum

TDF day 5 catch up

 Day five was an 'at home' day, household chores and admin needed attention. I even put a few more rows on the scrap shawl.

I also had chance to glance at a book that I picked up at the guild at the weekend. Its instructions to knit a gansey but more importantly it also takes you through each step by knitting a sampler ie a miniature gansey. I may just have to have a go at this :-)

The six bobbins of ryeland are now plyed, another bobbin has also been spun.

and this may be as close as I have ever come to having the same amount of yarn on each bobbin.

Day six is just starting with me packing my backpack ready to head out to a couple of local museums one of which is only open two hours a week so fingers crossed.

TDF day 4

 Good morning, yesterday (day 4) was more talk than action :-)

I spent most of the day with friends, charring, drinking tea, a little spinning but not much.

The nano has been in action as I made a start on the bowmont 

and I managed to start plying the Ryeland but after a while it seemed like a good idea to start looking for campsites for September instead haha.

Day five plan is to ply and skein the bobbins.

Future plans include a couple of trips to nearby places of interest so stay tuned x

tour de fleece Sampling the Bowmont

 Disclaimer.... I love combed fibre in spite of the amount of wastage and having seen these photos, I've realise that the last time I dropped my camera might have done more damage that I realised.

Bowmont Fleece.

I have had a bag of Bowmont in the past, the locks were really short and to be honest I didn't get very far with it but when I spotted an advert for some on Facebook, I thought that I would give it another shot. I ordered my usual 1 kilo ( I generally buy at least a kilo of any fleece so I have plenty to play with) thinking that it would be a good spin to have on my Nano during TDF this year.

Beautiful clean fibre, I washed a good handful as soon as the rain stopped and started to play with it.

I'm aiming for a light 4-ply once plyed. Before washing.....

After washing .....

After washing, 16 wpi which is about where I want to be  with this. I'm hoping to knit a shawl or two with this. Its lovely and soft and I think it will block out nicely but I haven't tried that yet.

Small sample with 3mm needles.

Todays forecast doesn't look so bad so I'll probably pop some more on the line.