April stash update

 Hi,

Time for a quick fibre update. I have been continuing to try and wash all my raw fleece and I am now down to just four bags ( one of which arrived yesterday )

I still have a lot to prep and spin but at least it is now in the house where I can see it.

April spinning looks like this, the two white skeins are due to hit the dye pot tomorrow and the light grey skein will probably be on the needles later this week.

April Knitting- not so much due to the amount of spinning !

There has been some sporadic stitching but not a lot of progress so will update this next month.

I have given in and purchased a couple of fleeces this month, one of which is ready to process, The other one arrived yesterday packed in a cotton bag inside the plastic one.

This is a 2'5 kilo, well skirted Jacob and when I tried to unroll it, it fell apart !

The plan is to wash this tomorrow, card into batts and pop in the van on our next trip together with the e-spinner, I have temporarily banned myself from using the treadle wheel due to it increasing the pain in my knee (last assessment said ligament damage )

My raw fleece stash list now looks a lot like this ( some fleece was found to be simply not suitable for spinning ) hopefully it will soon list only new purchases

Raw fleece (whole) 1 of each.

white highlander

hebridian

shetland

Ryeland

unknown white {galway)

April purchase texel cross

April purchase jacob

Raw fleece small amounts ( at least 500gm)

black cheviot

unknown white x 4 3 2 1

brown/grey ryeland

light grey ryeland

mystery fleece ( possibly very sun bleached black cheviot )

white cheviot

Balwen

I o s jacob

Plans for May are pretty much the same as ever, spin down the washed stash, knit and stitch, Maybe a bit of lacemaking along the way and I'd love to find time to get an inkle loom out for a bit but that may be me being optimistic.

Speak soon x

Still having a fluffy time

 When I spin, the resulting skeins are generally around 110gm as I prefer to be on the generous side for yardage .As a result I often have combed fibres left over, just 20 or 30 gram, which go into a bag until I get the drumcarder out.

I then blend these together to make batts, the mix of breeds varies each time but this ensures that I get the most from my fleece.

These are spun up as a fairly rustic yarn.

The resulting skeins will have to wait for a dry day when I can wash and then dye them ready for knitting.

Anyway back to my knitting, will update again in a few days xx

2022 Craftyness: update, stash, plans

 I've finally managed to sit down and think about fibre plans for 2022. I've not set any real goals although an American spinner has invited me to join the 365 spin challenge which is to spin 10 min a day. As the challenge started at the beginning of the year I'm about 3 hours behind haha. I may  join in , not sure yet but maybe 10 min a day on a drop spindle would be interesting ? easily portable, always ready and I have a rather nice fine Shetland fleece that would be perfect for this apart from the fact that it needs washing.

This fleece was gifted to me by a close friend and a note in the box revealed that it is from the Derwent flock so fingers crossed that it washes up well.

I'm thinking maybe 10 min a day on my lightest spindle, what do you think ?

Now on to knitting, since the beginning of the year I've knitted a couple of headbands and a couple of pairs of fingerless gloves.

The top pair of mitts are the same length, just need blocking as they curled inwards slightly, These are now in my coffee shop bag. When the bag is full I find a coffee shop and sit weaving the ends in whilst I watch the world go by.

My scraps stash is still a little on the large side and my full skein stash ( ones less than 100gm, have a knot in them or are finer spun than usual) is healthy but I think I need to dye some as its mostly white yarn.

Going forward, more hats, mitts over winter then spin up a couple of fleeces for a friend.

I have actually snatched a few mins to process fibre over the last couple of weeks so this bag is waiting for me to get one of the spinning wheels out.

Cross stitch, yep still stitching although I do seem to have mislaid a project. Hopefully I will find it later today as I sort out the workroom.

First, the big red thing. I have put in a few more stitches and hope to finish it sometime this year. I've popped a six inch ruler in the photo to give some idea of the scale of this project.

The Quaker sampler is coming along slowly, again a ruler to show the difference in scale.

This is really more colourful in real life and on white aida, the camera makes it look a little dull.

This is a quick project that I took to the coast with us, its about 75% complete and will be finished into a small pillow to go with two that I stitched last year. All by Sub Rosa and offered for free on the blog.

The missing project hasn't resurfaced yet, it may be in the van or just hiding well in the workroom !

Anyway, that's it for today, speak soon  xx

Tour de Fleece day 10

Hi

Firstly, can I say how much I hate spinning dyed fleece, I always forget until I try it the next time. Its normally not so bad if I steam fix the colour but this time I was lazy and chucked it in the slow cooker that I sometimes use to dye my spun yarn. 

Because it was the end of a fleece, the bits that I hadn't been bothered to process, the result is quite neppy and uneven. Also my heart really isn't feeling a great deal of love for the colour at the moment.

This little lot went in the wash bucket

Does everyone's wash line look like this on a fine day ?

I also have a sewing task to start on. I plan to make drawstring bags to keep things tidy in the van. We have walking poles that would go in one and I need a smaller one for my sharp ( very sharp knives and bread knife which I keep separate to the normal cutlery)

Some lovely offcuts were given to me a few years ago so I may just patchwork them them randomly for this.

Tonight will be fibre prep ready for tomorrow morning.

Take care xx

Tour de Fleece day 8 & 9

Hi,

I've not made the progress that I hoped over the weekend but did spin every day plus its only 5pm so I hope to do some more tonight.

I did process and spin another 60 gm Zwartbles (prep Saturday, spin Sunday)

I also popped some of the Manx Loughton in the drum carder so I could sample it. I'm a fan of the colour of the fleece but not the short staple. Neither am I a fan of hand carders! I spun a small sample, yet to be washed but passable without too many neps. The colour is a little browner in real life.

The BFL/Swaledale survived being in the slowcooker, the colour is certainly more vivid than I expected.

Also on the agenda this weekend was clearing out the camper as its due for a full service including the habitation ( gas, electric water etc) So this is my annual sort out where I discard anything that's been travelling with us unnecessarily. Hopefully not too much this time, just a good sort out and replacement of bathroom items.

A quick trip out of around 60 miles assured us that all is well, seems strange as the last time we were away in her overnight was February and we've missed a holiday, music festivals and the odd weekend this year. There was one ukulele still in the wardrobe so I've bought that back to for Ian to check and tune

Puffin and Lucas enjoyed the ride out.

Stay safe xx

Tour de Fleece day 7

Hi

Day 7 round up, I'm up early and realized that I didn't blog last night. I'm still working on the zwartbles and have another 3 bobbins of around 60gm, I hope to start the 4th today and maybe ply them.

Due to a slight mishap ! I've had to replace on of the brake band springs with an elasticated hair tie. Strongly my wheel now runs quieter than before but I've ordered new springs and line just incase.

Since its the weekend, I suspect that I may just have one blog to cover the next few days but I did pop the remnants of the bfl mule into the dye pot yesterday so we will see what happened. just over 100gm of fleece so any yarn will make its way into my fair isle knitting stash.

Have a great weekend xx

TDF countdown is on :-) 6-5-4-3-2-1

Hi

I hope you have all had a good week ? The weather here has not been kind so very little fleece washing has taken place. This means I am welcoming this weeks forecast of sunshine and reasonable temperatures.

My plans for last week really went out of the window around the middle of the week, all was going fine until I realized that something was going on with my eyesight and promptly phoned my optician. After a full exam it appears that it isn't as serious as first though and should clear up but I've been told not to bungee jump and I have some new glasses on order ( I was due to upgrade just as lockdown started) Not really new glasses, more new lens into old frames due to there being a shortage of frames at my opticians.

I did receive a parcel at the beginning of the week.

containing ..

Yep, a really small fleece !! this had been added to my order simply to make the weight up as the postage came in as more than the fleece cost!

This is the main fleece, slightly dark and still to be unwrapped, hopefully it will be as soft as the first one although processing the first one is a little tedious due to a break/natural rise in the locks.

However the results are definitely spinnable ...

I have also finally got round to picking up my knitting and have finished a very rustic looking pair of mitts and I'm well on the way with knitting a hat Both items are being knit with the bfl/swaledale fleece.

my early morning work desk, yep coffee is still hot .

In other news, we have started to clean the inside and outside of the camper ready for use although she will probably be serviced before we stay in her overnight. However it was really good to get back in even if just for 50 miles to check all was well.

That's about it for this week, take care, stay safe xx

TDF - homework and training

Hi,

First a note to anyone who doesn't spin or knit. This blog may get a little boring for you over the next couple of months.

For everyone else.....

The TDF prep continues but the weather has turned and I'm waiting for it to get dry again before washing any more fleece. I did manage to wash the Jacob and most of the zwartbles last week and spun a sample of each to see how they behave.

It's looking promising :-) the zwartbles is soft and very dark so will be useful in my fairisle knitting when I pick that up again. the same with the Jacob which, as you can see, is a very light grey.

I spun up a couple of skeins of the BFL/Swaledale mule and they are waiting for a wash and soak.

Both skeins are around 115 g and will probably be dyed over the summer so that I have some nice and easy hat/mitten knitting for when we are away. If the campsites reopen and things have settled down , we plan to get back in the van for some more adventures.

On the wheel is the last of the dark Shetland, at least I think it's the last ! Every time I get to the end of a bag I discover another :-)

In the evenings I have been prepping fibre for the start of the TDF, so far Jacob, Shetland, Portland, Balwen x texel . I'm trying to have a around 120g of each prepared either on the combs or the drum carder. I don't have a specific amount as a target for the TDF, I'm just aiming to spin every day.

Other than that I've been busy with housework and starting to sift through years of accumulated work related stuff that I need to shred, maybe not a huge amount but enough to keep me busy for a while. I'm still baking, still losing the odd pound in weight, still binge watching stuff whilst spinning etc.

My terrible mandolin playing is probably driving the neighbours crazy! but check out the handwoven strap :-) and ignore the background of bags of fleece.

 And I may have found out why we no longer get many birds in the garden, someone thinks he's found a new dinner table.

That's about it for this weeks round up, take care everyone, speak soon xx