wait for it ....... Jacob and the Argonaut

 I've been waiting to use that heading !!

Anyway, both bobbins of jacob are spun and replaced with an empty bobbin.

This meant that I could have another go at plying with the red beast but this time with a commercial yarn. The technique is, for me, definitely  a bit different to using the Ashford e-spinner.

It does work but I'm much more at home on the Ashford.

The end result id 105gm, 250 or so yards and waiting for a wash. I may buy a few more bobbins before my next long trip so I can avoid the ply as much as possible :-)

winter knitting and spinning round up

 Hi, I've been washing and blocking most of my winter knits and labelling up the spinning. Most of this is heading for pastures new and my project this year is to spin and clear the fleece backlog,

Hats ranging from aran to fine spun saxon merino.

Mitts with a bit of texture. I particularly like the ones top left.

Headbands to use up the oddments.

And, of course, the yarn now weighed, measured and labelled. This has cleared the decks a bit ready for my attempt to spin down the stash.

Missing in action

 My apologies for not posting but my laptop appears to have picked up a virus of some kind so it's currently disconnected from the net awaiting repair. Posting from my phone is awkward so I  will be back with a proper update as soon as possible x

I have a project to keep me busy in the mean time.

Time for a fibre stock take

Its nearly the end of February and hopefully we will get some warmer, drier weather soon. With this in mind I decided to take a quick stock take of my raw fleece waiting to be washed. Some of this fleece has been hanging around for a while and its quite possible that it will not all make it as far as the spinning wheel,

Raw fleece (whole) 1 of each.

white highlander

hebridian

shetland

ryeland 

unknown white

Raw fleece small amounts ( at least 500gm)

black cheviot

unknown white x 4

brown/grey ryeland

light grey ryeland

mystery fleece ( possibly very sun bleached black cheviot )

white cheviot

jacob .

The plan is to wash and hopefully spin all of these by the end of the year. Its quite possible that I may acquire some more but I do need to clear the back log. Some of the small bags are simply oddments that may not actually worth spinning so I will sort these as I go.

I have been prepping and spinning this week and the wash bag now contains over 1 kilo of spun yarn ready for a nice sunny day.

I have two bags of yarn for my personal use, a few bags of clean fleece ready to process and a bag of knitted items waiting to be washed and blocked.

Latest knitting has been fingerless mitts ( again)

In other news, I have found the missing cross stitch project and put in a few more stitches and I am also working on the big red thing again as it is stitched on 28 count so easier on the eyes when stitching in the evenings,

As I had to make some repairs to someones work trousers 😀😂 I took the opportunity to quickly turn the crows gather cross stitch into a small 'pillow' to go with the others. I'm slowly filling a basket with them.

That's about it for now, I'm going to try and get some spinning in later today and wash the grey ryeland fleece tomorrow if it looks like the weather will stay dry.

Speak soon xx

'

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

TDF Day 19

 I'm beginning to promise myself that I will put away my wheel on Sunday and do something different for a bit !

This is what the contents of the washbag look like spread out ( still not washed, next week job) all the spinning up to day 18

Add 76gm Romney and 52gm unknown

and a bobbin in progress of Texel and you have the complete picture of where I am now.

Don't get me wrong, I love doing this challenge each year but I always start to flag near the end. Anyway, I bought a book to cheer myself up.

Nearly forgot, we have a family of magpies in the garden and two of the youngsters have just spent several minutes trying to pick at the buddleia flowers that are blowing in the breeze. Of course, as soon as I pick the camera  up they fly away.

A little more Tour de fleece prep (sort of ) and some knitting

Hi, I'm slowly coming up with a fingerless mitten pattern that works ok with my handspun. The coloured mitts are from a pattern on ravelry but I HATE knitting in thumbs !!

The light grey ones are a pattern that I've adapted before but its all 1x1 rib so I'm not keen but it has short thumbs that are knitted as you go.

The dark grey are Ryeland, different construction but the rib at the wrist need to be longer and the top rib shorter,

The brown are Shetland, better length but next time I need to pop in a couple of row before the thumb gusset.

They all fit but I'm looking for a 'go to ' pattern that's easy to knit, hopefully the next pair will fit the bill.

 

This has appeared on one of the spinning teams that I'm signed up for, whilst I'm not bothered about taking part to win anything, I think it would be fun to cross off a few of the squares as I go. Take a look at Team spinners study playground group on Facebook if you are interested. The fun starts next weekend so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for good weather so I can spin outdoors.

Tour de Fleece 2021

 Hi

Just a quick update to say that I am taking part in Tour de fleece 2021 ( start date 26 June ), I have joined in pretty much every year for the last 10 or so challenges.

This year I'm keeping it simple again, spin everyday, spin down the stash and restock the yarn stash.

The next couple of weeks will see me up to my neck in bits of fleece whilst I try and prep a kilo or so ready to spin. 

BTW, on 26 May I posted about how cold it was here, today the expected temp is 26c so its been a quick hunt for summer clothes :-)

I found an interesting link to free spinning courses

 HI

Just a quickie

Check out this blog https://waltin.se/josefinwaltinspinner/courses-kurser/ Ive had a quick look and signed up for one of the courses just to check it out, will tell you more next Monday.

I've just signed up for Fleece through the senses challenge and will report back !

Bye for now x

With thanks to Shelia at Handspinning news , please check her out if you haven't always done so.

https://hand-spinning-news.com/about.html