TDF Day 2

Hi

I forgot to say in last nights blog, I'm trying to make a point of listening to podcasts and audiobook whilst spinning instead of bingeing on stuff on Amazon Prime! 

So far I'm listening to Wednesday's Child by Peter Robinson whist spinning and generally pottering round the house.

Bobbin no 4 on the wheel earlier this morning, I have now plyed the bobbins into 2 skeins of  which I think will be 2ply DK after washing. I will post at the end, once I've had a major wash and measure session as to the exact details. As I said, this is not the softest yarn but it will be used.

Next up is some Jacob, aiming  for a 4 ply this time :-)

Have a good evening everybody, safe spinning xx

Tour de Fleece, day 1

Hi,

The first day of TDF, I had plans to spend the whole day spinning as hubby was due to be out on his motorbike all day. Unfortunately , the Great British Summer Weather put paid to that as its been raining on and off most of the day. So its been a lazy day, catching up on some YouTube together and as it's about teatime I don't think I will be spinning anymore today.

Todays spin has been Balwen/Texel, this years fleece, bought at the farm gate (unseen by me) certainly not the softest but washed up nicely apart from pesky short dark fibres dotted around. I have previously spun about 250gm of this fleece which I have dyed but It really didn't take the dye as well as I hoped.

fibre once carded

This morning it was the turn of the e-spinner, quicker, easier on my legs and bigger bobbins. I generally aim for 60g per bobbin so I have finished skeins of 115-120g. If I sell the skein then its comfortably more than the 100g people look for as I think that when you see a skein at 95ish it creates a bit of doubt even when the length is listed. Maybe I'm wrong? but I've had similar feedback from others.

Here we are, approx.

180g of singles, not a bad start for 2020 TDF

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

Tour de Fleece

The reason that I've been a bit quiet is that the Tour de fleece started on 1st July and in the run up I was busy prepping fibre ready to spin.

The tour de fleece is a spinners challenge to spin everyday in line with the Tour de France, there are rest days and challenge days but basically you set your own goals.

I don't follow the cycle race ( no television) but I use it most years as a chance to spin daily. exercise my spinning skills and build up the yarn stash ready for winter. I also belong to a couple of Facebook groups of spinners who are doing the same.

This year the start of the tour coincided with the Wool Experience which is a small friendly festival in a barn at Blaze Farm near Macclesfield and I can highly recommend the ice cream that they make there.

There were several stores selling woolly type wares, dyes, fleece etc and a good selection of fleece to choose from.

I had intended to buy just one fleece, a Castlemilk Moorit as I have never spun one before and they are a sort of mid/light brown which will neatly plug a hole in my palette of natural shades.

So I ended up with a Castlemik Moorit ( small 750gm) a grey Jacob/texel, a beautiful black/grey Shetland and half a white fleece that I need to check the breed name on the label. I also grabbed 4 of the 100gm grab bags of locks, 3 manx laoghtan and I light ryland.

a fibre post :-)

Hi

I'm not missing in action, just a little busy and stressed with real life.

On the spinning front, I have been working through the bags of oddments, small skeins of different breeds, perfect for hat knitting.

( as usual I still need to block this one and unusually it doesn't have a home yet, I may even keep it for myself!! )

Mainly white fleece at the moment but I have started on a bag of coloured Ryland, mainly dark grey with lighter patches. Although on the wheel tonight is some Jacob lamb.

the Ryland is being sorted and processed ready for the evenings next week

quite a range of greys!

Pete, aka wikkidknitter popped round last weekend to show me nis latest fleece purchases, all really nice and squishy and I sort of gained 1/2 a mule fleece at the same time. Of course this is now hidden away especially since I had a 3 kilo box of fleece delivered in the week!!

I'm thinking of getting the dye pot out at the weekend and dyeing some of the fleece before I prep it. I've not done this for years so I'm not really sure how good my dyes are at the moment. The only way to find out is to try it (then try to wash the dye out I suppose).

I've cast on the Dorset poll lamb yarn for the inside of the next hat and I'm looking for a pattern for a smaller hat to knit as well.

It has been pointed out to me that I probably have enough spun to knit a sweater or two. I've never knitted anything other that hats, mitts and shawls. Maybe one day but it seems to be the spinning process that I really enjoy at the moment.

so, Octobers spinning total, smallish skeins, Grey Ryland, light grey Norfolk Suffolk, 2 lleyn, 2 Portland, I texel and the green is small mule that I dyed several years ago but never got round to processing. In fact a lot of these were bags left over from when we used to do a lot of spinning demos.

have a great weekend x

Singles

Hi, is it just me or does every spinner have a bag of singles wound up as balls? I have, mainly from spindle spinning or sometimes just because I got really fed up with the fibre.
My challenge is to see now many I can ply today. I finished the portland yesterday and this morning I finished some green merino.

I've just made a start on some yellowy orange stuff which may well be merino again.

And I have a bag of assorted oddments to have a go at, really not sure what these are.

Once they are washed and measured they will be stashed for knitting into small items.
I still have time on my hands,  another 4 weeks off work and the order to try and stop doing anything that makes me cough....mainly speaking and moving around. Hopefully this may give my throat time to recover  (with help from some drugs)from the last 9 months of coughing.
I'm drinking lots of water and hoping that my sense of taste and smell  comes back real soon !!

spinning update

yes, I've managed to pull in a bit of spinning and now I have two bobbins of undyed romney ready to ply and I still have some left. I had forgotten about the bag of fibre in my spinning wheel bag so once I've plyed these two I will see how much I have. The first bobbin was spun a couple of weeks ago but the second one is pretty variable in its twist as it was something of an anger/comfort spin to separate me from things happening in the real world...Spinning is my destress, zone out bolt hole at times.....anyone else find they feel like this?

Anyway, here we are, waiting to be plyed.

Fleecy goodness

Hi
There was a parcel waiting for me when I got home on Friday but I was in a mad rush to get changed and back into town to meet a couple of friends so we could have a few drinks whilst my man was at a bike rally in Devon with the rest of Drake MCC. So the parcel remained on the cooker top until this morning ( Sunday)

Although I did give it a poke and a prod just to see what it looked like, not often that I have fleece delivered to me in clear plastic bags :-)

This was an e-bay purchase, I had seen the half fleece listed a week or so ago and it didn't sell but the other half of it did so I checked the feedback for it and other fleeces from the same source. It then occurred to me that I had bought a Jacob from the same seller last year which was good so I clicked the button.

One half Lleyn cross shearling....nice looking fleece

Too be honest, I've never tried this breed before so pulled off a small wash, spin and knit just too see what I had bought.

Washed up beautifully! very white, feels a bit like a down breed so maybe that's what its crossed with. I've now washed half of it and need to have a think whether to dye it before I spin anymore.

I must say that it is rather nice!!

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 :-)

woolly wednesday

So, what have I been up to since last woolly Wednesday?

Jan 5/6 spun and plied two full bobbins of Oxford down!!

Jan 4 broke promise to self not to spend money..bought trindle spindle and a mountain of fibre

170grm natural and 56gm blue oxford on the way to Italy

3/4 Jacob fleece washed and part processed

50 gm merino/bamboo/soy mix spun

200 gm ish oxford dyed red and knitted into fingerless mittens

2k romney fleece ordered ...ooops          see here for more

another 100 gm oxford ready to spin....getting bored of this now, it may have to go back in the cupboard

oohh and blue/green fleece combed and purple merino blended......been busy :-)

Looking back, I'm really quite surprised how much I've managed to do inspite of having a full time day job and enjoying surfing the net etc. For February I hope to do some more dyeing, spin up a storm with the Romney as I live the sample spun up just a few hours ago and maybe even get to see some lambs. Will fill you all in on the next woolly Wednesday post x