November Woolly Wednesday - Dawn ... eventually!

Sorry for being so late this month, busy old time here and not a lot of spinning to share anyway. I have however been doing a lot of felting which I have blogged about on my blog Raising Seedlings. Other than that it has been getting my woven squares ready for the Guild challenge for our meeting this weekend.

So those weaving squares I have been making on and off this year were to

a) use up odd bits of spun wool, small balls that wouldn't make up much else; and

b) to make a cushion for the Guild challenge.

It's the Guild meeting this weekend and the November one always includes the revealing of members' Guild challenge projects which this year was to make a cushion for the seats to make sitting at meetings a little more comfortable.

 This week I gathered them all up and realised I needed another couple in white so quickly made them on Sunday. I have now sewn them all up - using white breed squares on one side and a mix of colours on the other side. I then looked at it and thought it would look nice with a border so quickly started knitting that up to sew in between the layers. Here are the squares all sewn up -

 

Squares sewn together

Greys/White mixed squares side

So here it is finished with the border, I have used Dorset Horn, Hampshire Down, Portland, Jacobs, Zwartble/Suffolk cross and a little Shetland.

 

Greys and mixed colours side above

White square side below - 2 shades of white from different sheep breeds

Sheep to finished product - all fleece prepared from raw fleece from the sheep, spun, plied, washed, woven and a little knitting and here is my finished cushion to make those hard seats more comfortable to sit on.

I am really pleased with the result, enjoyed making this and it has inspired me to make a blanket out of more squares - I'm going to do it as a kind of fibre samples blanket - every time I spin something different I shall weave a square to add to the blanket. I have a plan to spin as many breeds as possible in all their glorious natural colours over time.

So a challenge finished for the Guild challenge of 2011, and a new challenge for me which I shall start and blog about in January 2012.

Woolly Wednesday - November 2011

Welcome to the November Woolly Wednesday gathering! So what have you been up to this month? What plans do yo have soon especially with the festive season just around the corner? Come join us ...

Woolly Wednesday falls on the first Wednesday of every month. Think of it as a creative gathering, or a virtual guild meeting. Bring along any fibre-related project, whatever it may be. If you are starting out in fibre arts, share what you are interested in pursuing. Let's show each other our projects, share any tips, tutorials, ask questions, seek advice. Add your post to the Linky below and we can visit one another and share, support, encourage, be inspired!.

Please feel free to add the button to your blog's sidebar with a link to Spinspiration, a lovely way for us all to link together. Just copy the image to your desktop and then in your blog design - add a gadget, add picture - upload the picture and then add the url (http://spinwheelspin.blogspot.com/) and the image will link to here.

Join us with the linky below, link to a recent blog post of your woolly adventures in the last month or to a post in the near future, we look forward to seeing you ...

Kelly's November Woolly Wednesday - stash building

Some of what I have spun recently.  I am working through my stash of various mostly European wool.

The lighter brown, coarser ball at the bottom is Russian Karakul.  The darker brown, softer at the top is Portuguese Merino.

I am halfway through spinning up some New Zealand merino and then I will move on to the German mountain sheep wool.

After that I have one more lot of French country sheep wool and then I am done with adding these wonderful wools to my stash.  All beautiful shades of browns, blacks, greys and whites.

Here's a picture of my mostly European wool stash so far.

Please do link up with any fibre related crafting or just pop in to say hello and visit the links.  We leave the link up for quite a while so no hurry!

Free ebook Spinning Rare Sheep Breeds and other fibres

Another free e-book easily downloaded from Spinning Daily - just need to register your email address with them if you haven't already.

A Guide to Spinning Wool: Learn How to Spin Wool from Rare Sheep Breeds and Other Wool Fibers

ETA- having now opened the file it covers these breeds - 

Border Leicester (and a Christmas stocking pattern)

Wensleydale Longwool (and a scarf pattern)

American Jacob (and a pattern for some crocheted slippers)

It's Woolly Wednesday for November tomorrow, why not join us with a project you have been up to recently with your wool or fibres.