Tour De fleece day eight.

Hi, a very wet start to the day, almost decided not to go out but at the last minute we checked the weather forecast and headed over to a ukulele festival at Warwick.

We eventually ran out of the rain after 30 mile or so and remained warm but overcast for the rest of the day. It was just a local fest with local clubs performing along with one or two guests. As the Tdf is taking place I took my wheel.

As usual many conversations developed, the clown had a chat about learning to spin on a spindle as a child and doing french knitting. A lady told me about her childhood on Shetland,  a polish lady told me that her great,great grandmother was a spinner. Two elderly ladies looked really surprised as not only had they not seen anyone spinning for years, apparently I was the second spinner they had seen in the last hour or so. I would love to know who the other spinner was ! The rest were the usual questions about how it worked, where did I get the wool from etc.

I did get some spinning  done as well.

Tour de Fleece day seven

Hi, this has been my first day without spinning :-( not through lack of inclination just a simple lack of time to get any done.

Still its Saturday tomorrow and hopefully I'll get chance to play with one of the spindles.

To make up for it, here's a photo or two from the isle of Skye earlier this year.

Craft demo at the Clan Donald centre, I called in and had a spin and met this lovely lady.

 The recipient of my first handspun and knit kep, looking very pleased with it ( and rather warm wearing it in the shop) His shop Skye Batiks has kept me in trousers for many years.

Tour de Fleece - day six

I know, I was going to prep and spin the Jacob but I got distracted by a section of ryland fleece that I had washed just to see how it came out.

Seeing as I had washed it, I had to prep and spin a bit just to see what it is like?

The biggest problem is the tips, just the ends. I think I will either use a dog comb or brush just to remove them before any other prep.

It spins beautifully in spite of having to pick out the odd tip.

I think that this may have to be the next fleece to be washed.

Tour De Fleece day 5

I finally got round to plying the herdwick,  I spun as much as I could bear to and will save a lock or two to go with the knitted samples. The remainder is probably destined for the bin.

I didn't get round to washing the gifted fleece, will hopefully catch up with that tomorrow.

I couldn't resist having a quick spin of the Jacob now it's all dry. The fleece will be separated into colours and graded for fluffiness.

As I use Jacob in my fair isle knitting I will spin a good size skein of each colour aiming for a 4ply thickness

Tour de Fleece day four

Hi,
Today, as well as being up to my elbows in cold sheepy water I have been trying to comb some more herdwick between getting up and going to work'

My plan to sit and sew in some ends on my knitting at lunchtime worked and this fishermans kep is just in need of a tassel now :-)

I am now trying to comb and spin some more so that I can get this sample out of the way.

The last of the jacob is on the line along with some ryland. A friend at work has passed on a carrier bag containing ryland/suffold and some oessant to play with. I will report back in these later once I have given them a wash.

I think that's about it for today, I hope to get a bit more spinning done before I go to bed.

Tour de fleece day three

Horrible Herdwick,

Just why would you want to spin this?? Coarse, no crimp to speak of and thick black kemp fibres!

I picked up this section of fleece on the Isle of Skye earlier this year simply because I had never spun it before.

After washing I've been attacking it with my wool combs, with a bit of care and at least 4 passes of the combs the fibres separate - not completely but enough to get a feel for the slightly softer undercoat.

When I pull the fibres off the combs, I try to pull just the grey ones. I've found it impossible to remove all of them although a few can be pulled out when spinning.

I'm spinning this quite thick with a very small amount of twist just to see how its turns out. It will be a very small sample square that is knitted from this fleece!


Watch this space!!

Tour de Fleece....day two

Hi
Sometime ago I bought a 3 kilo bag of mixed Charollais/beltex raw fleece off ebay. It was an impulse buy as I was just interested to see what the fleece was and how it spun and it was cheaper than buying smaller bags of the individual fleece.
After sorting it into the two different fleece types, I assumed that the short fleece was the charollais and the long one beltex although this didn't match up to the breed info I found on the net.
I eventually got an email back from the seller to say that she thinks this bag has texel in it instead so I am now assuming that this is still the charollais but the longer locks are texel. They are both whiteish so I've started with the charollais??

The Jacob that had been soaking overnight is now washed and on the line and the buckets have been refilled, two with jacob and one with ryland.

Quick update....bobbin wound off into centre pull ball, plyed and skeined. First breed sample complete and waitimg to be washed.

Tour de Fleece Day One

Hi,
I am going to attempt to blog daily on my process this year, if nobody reads this then at least I'll have a record for myself!!

 Day one got off to an unusual start, I had noticed a post from a fellow Ravelry member who said that she was on a narrow boat and had picked up her spindles but had forgotten her fibre so would be spinning the longest, thinnest thread until it ran out ( which would not have taken long)

After a few messages it became apparent that she was travelling up to the Beeston-Nottingham canal so I said I would drop down with some fibre to keep her going. Looking for the easiest was to get to the canal, I decided to catch the train on Saturday morning.

 Its always a bit strange getting on the london train to just go one stop taking about 5 min!!

 But I did get to sit down and its been so long since I've been on a train that I didn't realise that you can now plug in phone and laptop charges!

 

I wanderd down to the canal and found the right boat, we had tes and a good chat about spinning and life in general. We will be meeting up again the next time they pass through :-) I then wandered round looking at the boats, wandering if it would be the life for us? maybe not, we like to travel and explore and would get frustrated at the slow pace.

So it was back to the station and home, dropping in on my optician on the way back to get my computer glasses mended.

And the spinning??? I managed to grab an hour in the evening and also popped some more fleece into a cold soak. The jacob that I had left on the line was also nice and dry.

This concludes day one, more tomorrow.  xx

Tour De Fleece. ....

Hi

Every year the spinners on Raveley run a spinning challenge alongside the Tour De France.

Starting and finishing on the same days as the cycle race, taking rest days and facing additional challenges like spinning something difficult or new to you. The is a personal challenge rather than something that you have to turn up and do.

It's been a while since I've taken part (2013 I think ) but the mountain of fleece is growing almost daily so I've given in and joined a team.

My goal will to be spin as much as possible and hopefully sample as many different breeds as possible so will be madly washing and prepping as I go. Hopefully I will get some of the Jacob and mystery caramel colour fleece washed this weekend.

Spinning will be mainly on the wheel but I'm also thinking of spinning some of the white Shetland on a spindle as it's so soft and fine. I have a small bosworth which won't take up much space plus I can take my time picking out any remaining seeds.

Freshly washed Jacob drying under cover outside the back door.

Wet and soggy.....

Hi,
Last Saturday we went over to East Bridgford Village show to provide a spinning demo for a friend who has a nearby farm and always shows a few animals for the children.

The weather forecast was bad and the ground already soggy from days of rain. The fire engine drove onto the showground and promptly sank into the mud even before the rain had started. Fortunately this being a village show  meant there was a display section labelled tractors and the owners were more than willing to see which one was capable of pulling a fire engine. In the end it took three of them to pull it out.

We started off sat on a rug in front of the sheep pen. The gate opened at  11 on the dot as did the skies and we beat a hasty retreat under a large canopy.

This set the theme for the day, dark skies and very heavy showers.

The animals proved to be a big draw as usual, the sheep greeted most visitors except when it was raining. This prompted questions.. why don't you put the sheep under cover. ..look at that brown one ! 'That brown one' was actually a miniature Shetland pony and actually smaller than a sheep and in a separate enclosure. Although this wasn't helped by a certain person trying to convince people that she was a rare breed sheep.

We were kept very busy as the local primary school had just reached the part of the syllabus that deals with textiles..spinning, weaving with cotton and wool.
So the day was spent explaining the workings of the wheel, showing how the fibre twists together with how to use a drop spindle. All the young people went away with a sample of hand spun and some tried out the drop spindle. Parents took photos of the wheels and spinners for their children to take into school.

In spite of the weather,  we all had a good time, ate tea and cake and amazing cheese and leek pasties. Hopefully we will be at the next show at Lowdham.

That time of year

Hi, it's ukulele festival time again but this time I don't have my camera so it's just a couple of rubbish photos with my tablet.

Unfortunately, just getting out of Nottingham was a challenge with the front suspension on the car collapsing about a mile from where I was picked up. Hubby managed to get the car to the garage which was fortunately less than a mile away and they offered to lend us a car for the weekend. In the mean time I had caught the bus back to town and 20 minutes later he picked my up again from the same spot as earlier.  Talk about deja Vue !

The festival was really busy Friday night as the rain drove everyone inside. Saturday was dry and all the action was at the town hall. I did my usual thing of spending the afternoon crafting then enjoying the music in the evening.

And rejoined the the crowds in the theatre for the evening show.

We headed back home Sunday dinnertime after the big busk, I was tired as this had also been my first week working full time since last December and we were both feeling the effects of being away.