Tag Archives: spinning

Part of a winning team.

shawl_fullSpecial thanks to Van Waffle for taking the pictures in this post.

Back in November I took part in the Sheep to Shawl competition at the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto.

My guild had two teams in the event this year. Team A was made up of the seasoned members who’ve done the competition for many years. Team B was made up of first timers and others who have been in the competition before. This was my first year in the competition, so I was on the second team.

There were ten teams in total with sixty people competing. It was awe inspiring to see that many weavers and spinners all going for glory!

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Christmas has come a little early this year!

new_toolsA small dream has finally come true.

I’ve been wanting a drum carder for at least five years. I’ve been looking into various brands and have tried out a few different drum carders. They all can do good jobs, but they all have their quirks.

Last week I finally bit the bullet and we bought one, plus another fun fiber prep tool.

We got the Ashford Wide Drum Carder and blending board. We got these from our friends at The Fibre Garden.

We got to play with the store’s tools for a couple hours and had a lot of fun. Both tools are easy to use and we made a few sample batts and rolags. I thought I was going to have to put in an order for the two items but they let us have the store’s drum carder, which was just out of the box that day, and the blending board which just arrived that day as well! Saved having to go back in a few weeks to pick them up.

This drum carder will work pretty well for us. It has a wider drum, so we can get larger 100g (4 oz) batts off of it. We work with a lot of fine fibres, like merino, silk and alpaca, and this carder can handle those pretty well.

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When we got it home I tried out some scrap merino fleece on it. The fleece is pretty fine, but the butt ends of the locks are a bit matted and felted. I teased open the locks as best as I could and then carded it 4 times. This gave a nice fluffy preparation. There were some neps from second cuts and the felted bits of butt ends. The sample I spun was pretty nice, but not very consistent. I’m going to try this again but will flick the butt ends to open them up a bit or to get the felted bits off. This should make the carding easier.

I’ve got two projects coming up for the drum carder. We have some white alpaca fleece we need to card up. It’s got some problems with matted tips and a lot of veg matter in it. It will be interesting to see how the carder handles that. The second project is re-carding some blended batts I made almost 5 years ago. They’ve become a bit squished in that time and this will help fluff them up. I plan on then dizzing them off into roving. They are a blend of wool, mohair and silk and are for a sock project. There should be enough for one pair plus extra for gloves or something.

We got the blending board mostly for Van, but I’m sure I’ll be playing with it as well. Van’s been playing a lot with colours for making corespun yarns. He’s been mostly doing this on hand cards. With those you can only get about 5 grams of fibre on a rolag, so he has to prepare a lot of them to make his yarns.

With the blending board he’s able to paint on the fibres any way he wants and get about 50g of fibre onto the board. Much more efficient! He can then take the fibre off as one large batt and either roll it up and spin it as one large rolag or strip it to make a bunch of smaller rolags. We’ve also found a video on dizzing off of the blending board to make a roving, so that’s something we are looking forward to trying.

Having both of these tools will make things a lot easier for future projects. The thought of having to hand card enough fibre to make a sweater makes my hands and back ache! Doing that much on the drum carder will be a lot easier and quicker.

Sampling with socks

socks

Mini socks from hand dyed 50% merino, 50% silk blend. Approx. 35 yards, 16 WPI 3-ply yarn.


Sampling.

It’s one of those things that as a fibre person you either love or hate doing.

I’m sort of in the middle now. I started hating doing it. I didn’t want to take the time and just get into the project.

One thing taking my spinning course has taught me though is that sampling will give me a better end product. It will make it easier to get the final result that I want rather than having it be more hit and miss.

So now I still don’t like to make many samples, but I do try to see what the results of different methods will produce.

I’m getting ready for a talk I’m giving in February to my local spinning guild. It is on spinning for socks and some techniques for knitting toe up socks.

I’ll be covering things like types of fibres to use, different spinning and plying methods, and different knitting methods.

So this is a perfect time to make a bunch of samples to show off all of these things.

I’m planning on making a bunch of small socks. The socks use about 45-50 yards of yarn, and about 25g or 1oz of fibre. I doesn’t take to long to spin up the yarn and the socks can be easily knit over an evening.

For those that might be interested, here is a basic pattern you can use to make a small sock like the one in the picture. I’m going to format it better and will post it later as a free download.

These small socks would make pretty Christmas tree ornaments or small stocking stuffer socks! Since they don’t use a lot of yarn they are perfect for using up those scraps of sock weight yarn that you may have lying around.

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5 Counties Seminar Teapot Challenge – Mitred Square Scarf ideas

detailIn my last post I talked about the 5 Counties Seminar that is coming up in September.

I’ve picked out the fibres that I’ll be using in the scarf and have done some sampling of the first group of fibres. These will be the main colours in the scarf, with the second group of fibres being the accent colours.

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A quick update from Haliburton

june_30_bobbin2Evening everyone. I’m having a blast here in Haliburton taking my class.

Today is Day 4 of the Tour de Fleece. So far I’m on track – I’ve spun at least 30 minutes each day and am still going strong!

I brought along the BFL / Silk batts from The Cupcake Fiber Company to spin during my trip. This is in the picture above. The bobbin on the wheel is the second bobbin. The remaining fiber for the second bobbin is on the right hand side of the box. The first bobbin is in the box and it’s remaining fibre is on the left side of the box.

Day 1 – Corespun 60g of fibre (1 bag) of the fibre for my guild spinning challenge
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Day 3 – Spun 4g of the BLF / Silk batts onto the second bobbin

There is 4oz of the BFL / Silk left to spin. I’ll be working on one of the balls for the first bobbin for most of this week. It will probably take about 6 – 7 hours to spin up each ball.

Have a great week everyone and talk to you all on Thursday.

A weekend in the country

pan2It’s summer here in Canada. Time to start heading to the cottage on the weekends and summer vacations and time for a little guide on fibre fun you can bring along.

General thoughts
Keep your projects small and light. Bring several! Have things you can do while traveling and ones for when you are at your destination. Variety is good! Pack things in sealable containers or ziplock bags to keep them from the elements, especially if you are camping.

Knitting
Small and simple knitting projects are great to bring along, like socks, hats, scarves and mittens. Travel time is a great time to work on your projects.

Spinning
Spindles are great for traveling with. Supported spindles, like a Russian spindle (or here) or a Takhli, can be used in the car during traveling.

If you are staying at a cottage or someplace indoors then a folding spinning wheel is also an option. Most should fit in the trunk or back seat.

Fibre prep is something you can also do. Hand cards and a dog brush are pretty portable. You can go through a bunch of fleece in no time on a relaxing evening.

Dyeing
Dyeing can be a fun activity for the whole family. Before going you can do research with the kids to find out what plants are available where you are going and figure out which ones you want to try. Once there you can get them to help gather and prepare the materials and help out with the dyeing.

My partner and I sometimes do natural dyeing when we are up at the cottage. We bring the dyepots, mordant, stir sticks and fibre/yarn with us. I would suggest using only Alum and cream of tarter, as these have the least impact on the environment. Also, make sure to only use as much mordant as needed for the amount of fibre you are working with. This will reduce the amount of left over mordant that will be disposed of.
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We use either lake water or spring water from up the road. We use the propane stove in the kitchen, but you could also use a campfire to do the dyeing. You have to watch closely with a campfire to make sure the dyepot doesn’t boil.

We usually collect our dye materials from the area. A good rule of thumb is to never collect more than 10% of a plant in any given area. For example, if using leaves, only take leaves from 1 or 2 branches of a tree and spread out your collection over a large area.

Used plant material can be used for compost or spread out in the bush to decompose. Left over mordant baths can be disposed of onto sandy areas, like a dirt road away from the house and septic system. Do not pour it down the drain into the septic system! Left over dyebath can usually be disposed of this way as well. Make sure to dilute both baths with a lot of water before getting rid of them.

Weaving
There are several very portable options for weaving and traveling

Weavettes and small weaving frames
These are very portable hand help frames. The small ones are great for working on while traveling! You can whip off a square in 15 – 30 minutes.

Backstrap looms and ground looms
These can be setup before you leave and used once you get to your destination.

Weighted warp loom
This is a very simple version of a weighted warp loom. All the material can be kept in a medium sized container.

Some of my favourite fibres

I’ve spun quite a lot of different fibres over the last ten years. I haven’t met one that I absolutely hate. There are many, like man made fibres, that I’m not fond of, and others, like angora, dog and cat, that I’m allergic to in varying degrees. I’ll spin them – I just don’t find it enjoyable.

Angora is one I wish I wasn’t allergic to. I react to it fairly quickly. Being around a bunny for 15 minutes will get me quite stuffed up. Working with the fibre may take less time then that. If I know I’m going to be spinning with Angora I’ll take an antihistamine a few hours before starting to spin.

This is a small list of my top fibres to spin with.

Wool
Polwarth is a wonderful wool to work with. It is bred from Merino and Lincoln sheep. It is almost as soft as Merino, with extra length in the fibres coming from the Lincoln heritage. I find it a bit easier to spin then Merino because of the length. It gives a soft, springy, cushy yarn. Most of the sheep are white, but it does come in other grey and black shades.

It blends nicely with other fine fibres. I especially love polwarth and silk blends.

year2

This is my second year project for my spinning certificate program. It is the Pretty Thing Cowl by The Yarn Harlot. It is made from light and medium grey Polwarth. This started as raw fibre, was washed, flicked open and combed to give a light top. It was then spun worsted on my Lendrum wheel to make a 2 ply lace-weight yarn.

0365  at_handspun1

These are a couple examples of spindle spun projects I have made with Polwarth and silk blends. The scarf is a 2-ply worsted weight yarn. The hat is a 3-ply worsted weight yarn.

Other animal fibres
Alpaca
There are two main types of Alpaca: Huacaya, which have a fine, dense, somewhat crimpy lock, and Suri, which have a long, dreadlock like locks.

Both of these come in a variety of natural shade, with multiple shades and spotting possible. Huacaya are the most common in North America, with a few breeders raising Suris.

The fibre can range from very fine micron counts to fairly course. Fibre fineness is usually fairly consistent on an animal.

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Alpaca and silk is one of my favourite blends. Suri alpaca and silk can make very luxurious lace yarns.

my_shawl

This is a shawl I made from a blend of 67% grey Huacaya alpaca top and 33% bombyx silk top. It is a 2-ply yarn. The silk I used was a handpainted top in two colourways. One was a mixture of blue tones, the other of red tones. I carded the alpaca and silk on handcards to make rolags to spin from. The blends with the blue silk mix I re-arranged to make a colour progression of grey, denin blue and purple. I left the rolags from the red mix in the order they were carded, so there is more of a mix of shades for those rolags. I spun up the blue mix as one ply and the red mix as the other, then plied them together. The result was kind of a watercolour affect.

Mohair
Mohair from Angora Goats is another fibre I like working with. I don’t often spin 100% mohair, but use it in blends with other fibres. It adds strength, warmth and lustre to blends.

Kid mohair is usually the finest fibre. It is from the first and sometimes second shearing of the goat. After that it usually is considered adult mohair. The fibre generally gets courser as the animal ages.

I fell in love with Mohair when I started using yarns and fibres from Wellington Fibres. They have several very yummy blends, including alpaca/wool/mohair and mohair/wool/silk blends. The silk blends are pretty neat. The silk is added in as a streak of fibre, rather then being fully blended in. It gives a nice highlight when spun up.

red_sock

This is not my own handspun, but it is something I plan on spinning one day. The red sock on the very right is made from Wellington Fibres fine 3-ply sock yarn. It is a 60% mohair, 40% wool blend, about 380 yards per 113g / 4oz skein. It was made on 2mm / US 0 needles at 10 sts / inch. The pattern is Nancy Bush‘s Gentleman’s Fancy Sock from her book Knitting Vintage Socks.

Silks
There are several silks available to spinners today, but Tussah and Muga are my favourites. Their fibres has a bit more of a tooth on them than Bombyx silk and they are easier to spin because of that. The fibre also tends to be a little shorter – between 4 and 5 inches long, then bombyx, which is usually 6 to 9 inches long.

Both fibres are naturally coloured. Tussah is a nice honey colour and Muga is a rich golden colour. Tussah also comes in a bleached version, which usually isn’t as soft as non-bleached. Tussah dyes up wonderfully with both natural and chemical dyes. Muga can also be dyed, but it requires a little more work as the surface doesn’t allow dyes to penetrate as well as Tussah.

shawl_closeup

This shawl is spindle spun Tussah silk that was handpainted by Nancy Finn of Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks. The singles were spun on a spindle and wound onto a spinning wheel bobbin when the spindle became to full. Additional full spindles worth were attached after that. The singles where then chain plyed from the bobbin onto a plying drop spindle to give a final 3-ply yarn that included long colour sections.

Video blog day – Welcome to the Display Room!

Today I’m taking you through a tour of the Display Room from the Ontario Handspinning Seminar 2013 that happened June 14 – 16, 2013.

You can continue the tour by going to the following videos:
Baggie Challenge table
Skeins for next year
Special Projects Competition
Skeins Competition pt.1
Skeins Competition pt.2
Just for Fun! tables
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I worked on the display committee this year with one other woman. There is minimal work over the months before the seminar. Most of the work is done at the seminar.

Before the seminar we take care of finding judges for the competitions and planning the layout of the display room. We make sure all the materials needed for displays were passed along to us, gather additional display materials as needed and print updated signs for the current years displays. We also update various forms for the competitions, judges, Just for Fun and Fashion Show items.

During the weekend we are responsible for taking in items for display and competition, setting up the room and displays, helping the competition judges, watching over the displays during public times, helping during the fashion show, getting the items back to the owners and clearing up the display area. Thankfully we have great volunteers helping the two of us with all of this!

We were also responsible for creating the awards certificates, gathering up all the prizes, taking pictures of the winning items, updating the slide presentation for the awards ceremony and handing out the certificates and prizes at the ceremony.

I had an awesome time being on this committee! You do work long hours at the seminar, but it’s so worth it to be able to see all the amazing work that comes it. Plus we are the lucky ones who get to handle all the items and get a good look at them.

Fleece!

alpaca_shearing
Alpaca shearing day at Harmony Meadows Alpaca farm. A lovely white male Alpaca!

Spinners are very tactile people. We love touching and feeling fibres and yarn.

Some of use like to prolong that as long as possible and will start right with raw fleece to make our projects. Others do this because they like to control all aspects of their yarn right from the fleece to get the end product that they want.

I learned to process fleece as part of my spinning course. I can do it, but it is not my favourite fibre activity.

I still haven’t found the best way to get my fleeces fully clean. There are usually some bits that just don’t want to clean up – usually the tips. I know of ways around this – like washing locks separately one by one – but I normally don’t have the time or patience to do this.

Usually I can get fleeces clean enough for my purposes and most of the remaining problems will come out in the fiber preparation for spinning.

Van and I purchased four nice Shetland fleeces from Chassagne Farms last year. These are sample locks that I washed when we got them. You can see the different lock lengths between the four fleeces. We plan on using all the colours in a couple projects and do some dyeing with the white and possibly grey fleece.

lock_samples_largeFrom left to right, the locks in the picture are:

1 – White
This is the fleece that we are processing right now. More pictures below.

2 – Light grey to grey (warm toned)
The fleece is a mix of light and medium warm toned greys with a few black patches.

3 – Moorit (warm grey / reddish brown mix)
The locks are interesting. The colour changes about half way through the lock. It is a warm grey at the base of the lock and changes to a medium chocolate brown at the tip. This division looks to be throughout the fleece. We are not sure what caused the change. The fibre is strong through. It is not weak at the colour change although there is a slight change in crimp at that point. It still should be fine to  spin.
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4 – Black
The lock tips are a bit pointy. This is a fleece from a 5 year old ewe. It’s possible the fleece is
slightly double coated.

All fleeces were purchased at Chassagne Farms except for #4 – Black which was purchased at the Woodstock Fleece Festival.

You can follow these links to see samples of colours and markings of Shetland sheep.

IMG_7615We started processing the white fleece on May 24th. Van’s daughter Marian was up for the weekend and helped us clean up the fleece. It had been pretty well skirted. There were only a few tags (sheep poop) and we got rid of those. This is a fairly dirty fleece. There is a lot of vegetable matter in it and it’s fairly sandy and dirty. There were also a couple sections of felted fleece, which we removed as well.

There was enough fleece to fill 12 small mesh bags. We washed three bags that weekend and I’ve washed three at a time over a couple more days.

shetland_fleece_washingThis is the first wash of one batch of fleece. You can see how dark the water is – pretty gross!

I gave each batch of fleece three 20-30 minute washes in very hot water, the first two with Unicorn Power Scour and Ecover Dish washing liquid, and the last just in Ecover. I rinsed for about 10 minutes between washes. I have plastic mesh baskets that I slide under the mesh bags to lift the fleece out and also used them to keep the fleece under the surface of the water.

There is still a lot of vegetable mater left in the white fleece. A lot of that should go by shaking out the fleece before opening it for carding. The opening and carding should remove most of the rest of the veg.

The locks also have black guard hairs in some parts of the fleece. I don’t think we’ll bother trying to take them out when processing the fleece. They don’t seem to be course enough to make much of a difference in the final yarn.

I have a few other fleeces that I will get to when I make the time. Some I’ve had for a few years, others are fairly fresh.

Having access to my spinning guilds drum carder is going to make a HUGE difference. The thought of hand carding up 5 to 10 pounds of fibre just makes my wrists ache!