Final TDF prep 2026

 Here we are, poised to start spinning on Saturday morning. Most of my bobbins are empty, just one on the Victoria that I need to finish and ply but I will be ready.

My fibre choices are  a little different this year, I have the usual selection of Ryeland, Jacob, texel, Shetland etc all combed and ready to go.

I also have some more commercial fibres ( I know, so not like me ! ) including this selection from world of wool as I couldn't resist the colours. 50gm of each to be spun as a 4ply weight for some fair isle knitting.

I also have a selection from Petes Fibre Studio on facebook just because I love how his dyeing has progressed over the years. These may end up as a holiday spin later in the year if I don't get round to them during TDF

Usually we end up with a couple of festivals in July but this year they are later in the year so I will be looking at local locations to spin. I will be getting my senior bus pass halfway through so I may be heading out a little further around Nottingham.

As usual posts will be either daily or 2/3 days depending on how busy I am, wish me luck :-)

Tour de Fleece 2026 prep and chat

 I know that it is only June but its less than a month until the start of the 2026 TDF and I really don't have  a lot of fleece prepped at all !

I have some washed ready for combing, I have lots that needs a wash including this large bag that I found on my doorstep last week. Nearly 5 kilos of what I suspect ( from previous fleece from the same source) is going to be texel. I am waiting for a dry day to make a start on washing and maybe even dyeing it ready to spin. Seriously, its rained pretty much everyday since it turned up

My plans for TDF are the same as ever, work on spinning down the stash, make use of my wheels and maybe finish a couple of half spun projects before it starts.

I could just use the texel as my challenge but I may get bored spinning the same breed for three weeks. I do plan to take my wheel to as many local destinations as possible, we won't be going away as Ian will probably be doing his bike thing down south and the van will be back at the dealers for annual service, mot etc but I will be getting my bus pass halfway through so I might see where else I can get with it.

later

between showers today I popped 300gm or so of raw fleece into a net bag and started to wash it.

Surprisingly its really not that dirty and not looking to bad considering the fact that someone who knows absolutely nothing about fleece volunteered to grab me a bag full just after the sheep were sheared.

Once washed and rinsed I'm left with this which will go in the dye pot for a change.

It looks like I am going to busy over the next couple of weeks or so prepping ready for the big spin. Also I'm hoping to get out and about most days with a wheel of some kind or maybe even just a spindle.

Now out of the dye pot weighing in at 250gm 

What I did today, fibre finishing.

 I have the house to myself today and the sun is shinning. The domestic goddess part of me loaded the washing machine, the fibre hippy filled a couple of buckets with yarn to soak.

I also took the opportunity to was and block some knit wear as the forecast is back to winter in a couple of days and I need to clear the decks a bit.

Soaked yarn was popped into the dye pots, I can only do 200gm at a time but I have a good routine worked out so should get through 600-800gm today and possibly the same tomorrow fingers crossed

I have other yarn activities lined up, trying out the crochet lace and winding some lace bobbins so I have a demo strip of lace on the go for the next few weeks whenever I go out.

I do have some prepped fibre to spin but its doubtful that I will get round to that today as I have a zoom meeting this afternoon and possibly a zoom craft meeting tonight.

Stitch n Dye

 hi

This just about sums up my week, I now have five skeins to label up, two Texel cross and three spun from oddments.

The only other thing I've been working on is my band sampler, I've now decided to incorporate Take a Stitch Tuesday into it so there in a patch of running stitch (week one) and pattern darning, butterflies in back stitch ( week two)

Band sampler patterns are Fox and rabbit sal 2017, Algerian stitch, Blackwork from The Gift of Stitch Magazine, Traditional Russian pattern from early 1800's, running stitch and pattern darning, cross stitch from TGOS, blackwork butterflies from TGOS and alphabet also from TGOS.

For anyone wondering, The Gift of Stitch was an Australian magazine that started in 2007 and ran for 70ish issues. I bought the full collection download a couple of years ago for around £25, maybe a little less and it proving to be a great resource.

In other accomplishments, a good friend came over and between us we managed to reduce the contents of my wardrobe by around half, filling the car with black bags of donations to the charity shop. The house clearance continues.

Speak soon xx

So, having destroyed the slow cooker

 I took to using the steamer for the last few skeins along with using the remaining cooker. This time I decided to paint the dye onto the yarn, wrap it up in cling film and pop it into the three tier steamer.

                                                          these are all Cheviot skeins.

 Different effect but it works just fine. I have a few more skeins to dye during the week and I'm now back up to two cookers thanks to hubby doing the weekly shop.

                the darker skein is mixed breeds and dyed in the remaining slow cooker :-)

My wash line yesterday...

Today I'm being ruthless with my washed fleece stash, if its been hanging around more than a couple of years I will be either prepping it ready for our next road trip, Prepping it for spinning next month or discarding it. I have also gathered together all my empty pillow cases that I use for fleece storage and chucked them in the washer.

This is my prepped fleece stash so far, I prepped this over the last few days whilst re-watching Downton Abbey.

Large bag of cheviot and the darker fibre is from the Isle of Skye, breed unknown but I suspect that its either Jacob or a Jacob cross.

A Little bit of stitching this week, just a small sampler pillow on the go.

And that's about it for now, speak soon xx

It was all going so well ......

 Hi,

Minor disaster today. I had decided to dye some of my spun yarn, particularly the mixed fleece yarn which I spun up from the oddments

I set up my slower cookers in the outhouse and dyed the first two skeins a lovely magenta / pink.

Then I set up the cookers to dye some dark Jacob with a navy dye which usually

 looks good as it catches any lighter fibres.

Whilst one of the cookers quietly got on with the job, the other strangely lost the liquid and further investigation revealed a hairline crack around the bottom of the pot.

This means my next challenge will be to seek out another cooker in a charity shop if possible  ( often people will buy and try then discard them)

Next project will be to paint some yarn with dye and pop in the steamer whilst waiting for another slow cooker.

Speak soon xx

knitted in colour

just finished weaving the ends in, needs a soak :-)

knitting in colour

Hi
remember the dyeing that I did? see what is on the needles now :-)

have a wonderful week xx

a splash of colour

A couple of weeks ago I was trawling round the charity shops looking mainly for DPNs as I'm always losing one and knit with 5 at a time when they generally come in packs of 4.

After picking up a couple of packets in one of the shops I spotted a slow cooker for £6.00, bargain for what I need it for. The assistant was friendly and asked what I was planning to cook and was rather surprised by the reply that I was going to use it to dye yarn.

So here it is, my Marks and Spencers slow cooker.

I've already put it to good use experimenting with some of my yarn. I had some concerns that there may be a problem with my dyes being so old but all seem ok so far. Previously I have set dyes using my steamer, ok with fleece where the variation blends in when spinning. As the fleece/yarn sits in the steamer there is a tendency for the dye to sink and pool at the bottom.

This is the Shetland, I was surprised how strong the colours were with only a very small amount of dye.

In fact the colours are slightly brighter in real life.

I then tried dyeing some grey ryland (blue) and some light grey Norfolk/Suffolk cross...

Personally I like these muted colours better. This possibly shows the variation more... I feel a hat coming on :-)

I hope you all have great weekend, speak soon :-)  x

Dye Job

I am still trying to sort out my stash, get rid of the real rubbish fibre and spin up some of the nice stuff, so here is the remaining Romney, about 500gm in all. Yesterday it went in the dye box, steamer and out on the line. It is now ready for combing and is coming out as a pale blue/lilac colour...very pretty.

I think this may be the one to spin at the Ukulele Festival next month :-)

Romney fleece..what came next

So here I talked about washing the fleece, so here is what came next.

Whilst the fleece was still damp I placed it in a large cat litter tray which is one of my standard pieces of dyeing equipment ready to add the dyes. I generally use either colour craft all in one acid dyes or Landscape dyes depending on the colour needed although I will soon be in need of a restock so will expand the colour range at that point.  I mix a little of the dye powder/crystals with hot water in a jar then top it up with cold water. Now I know that people would like to know how much dye powder but I generally dilute and mix until I get a shade I want!!!

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Care should be taken when handling dyes and associated chemicals - rubber gloves and protective clothing should be worn when necessary.  Precautions should be taken to avoid accidental ingestion, inhalation and skin & eye contact.  Keep containers closed and away from young children.  

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Once I've added the dyes, taking care not to get  the fleece too wet, I wrap it in cling film ready to go in the steamer.

My electric steamer has three units so I can steam quite a large quantity in one go, it is also kept for dyeing only. Once the fleece has cooled completely, I give it a good rinse, a quick spin in the washer and hang it out to dry or near a radiator in this case.

I'm sorry that this photo is a little dark and doesn't show that the dye doesn't penetrate all the fibre in this case.

this is a little better, shows the variation of colour.

using the wool combs produces lovely little nests of fibre ready to be spun

resulting in this..................

washed and hanging out to dry

waiting to be balled up and sent to its new home

I hope this wasn't too boring for you, I had promised to show how I coloured the fleece xx