Dawns Woolly Wednesday - March

Sorry for late writing and linking, I actually wrote all this last night and only needed to add the photos but didn't get a chance and have been busy elsewhere today.

March already ... where does the time go?

Still spinning away the days when I can, and knitting too. Now this is not an easy post to write to day as some projects are *secret* and I need to make sure I don't show too much of them online in case the recipient sees it - they don't now things are for them so until they are gifted they need to remain un-shared online. So apologies for some lack of detail or photos.

What can I share?
Well I spun a 2ply Merino from raw fleece all the way from Queensland, Australia. Ah, woolly gifts are the best! This was quite short so spun semi-woollen/semi-worsted (work that out if you can!). Washed and carded into lovely fluffy rolags. There were some short bits in this which I tried to pick out the worst but grew to live with some of them. Awaiting final wash and measurement. Will possible dye this I think. These are the rolags but I haven't photographed the yarn yet so will add this another time.

Merino rolags

I did a little dyeing recently and produced this ...

 From the dyepot to drying

Which is now all spun up, some has been blended with to create a few shades. More on this yarn another time!

Finished yarn ready to knit

Knitting a tunic for my daughter with handspun from last year, slow progress - just keep leaving this to do other things but one day I'll just pick it up and knit, knit, knit.

My Monet yarn is wound into yarn cakes now and ready to become a knitted and felted bag.

I'm still also knitting scrappy using up odd-balls cushion covers, long term project, you'll see these throughout the year. Not handspun so far but I can see some handspun coming into some of these cushion covers in the planning.

What else? Ah yes, I've finally succumbed to the Sheep Heid pattern, having seen some lovely examples recently on ravelry, and a flock of them knitted by a friend at the guild. Another friend at the guild bought some fibres to spin for this (edited to add she's finished hers now too!) and in chatting with her about it I remembered some Icelandic yarns I spun last year - there are 5 shades there already - approx 4ply so perfect. They are spun and set as singles so not sure if that will create any issues with stitches leaning but they are not high spun singles so I'm going to knit it and see how it goes.

I have therefore spun 4 other yarns in different shades to complete the set. Wow was this a test - making sure there was enough colour variation to see the different sections, and working out replacement shades for those in the pattern, it made my head hurt! I will add a picture later (sorry not prepared was I?!).

I think that's it for now, more spinning planned to work through the fibre stash. Looking forward to warmer drier days to get some fleece washed. Another long term project in the planning for the Guild challenge for 2013 - 'The Second Time Around' Guild Challenge' -  'upcycle', 'revamp' or 'reinvent' to breath new life into something. So I have a plan!

Look forward to seeing what everyone else is up to x

Dawns woolly round-up and plans ...

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas time, filled with happy days and maybe some lovely gifts.

First I would like to share a picture of some inkle weaving that I couldn't put on the blog before Christmas otherwise the recipient, my husband, would see a sneaky peek. New to actually using my inkle loom I wanted to run ahead and learn to do lettering on it and produce a personalised strap for his ukelele and his ukelele case.  Here they are with his socks.

Handmade gifts for Christmas

I'm really pleased with the results, need to work on those edges a bit but looking forward to more inkle weaving. I had a lovely book on Inkle weaving patterns for Christmas so watch this space for more.

My new book and lovely bangles too!

Socks were knitted aplenty in December and all three of us had a pair of handspun socks from the same fleece prepped from raw fleece under the tree. This was spun a few years ago and had sat as skeins for long enough.  We are all very pleased with our house socks.

Family of socks

So Christmas Day afternoon I could wait no longer to cast on the Autumn handspun - remember this in my December post? I decided on the Garden View Shawlette pattern on ravelry, with plenty of yardage to knit it and extend it.

Garden View shawlette cast on and knitting

Here it is just a few days later, I would imagine it will be finished and blocked and being worn by the next Woolly Wednesday.

Garden View shawlette progress

On the spinning wheel is this still, which I have done a little more of since Christmas. I want to finish spinning this fibre before starting something new, which is unbelievably hard when you see below what I received in a ravelry group secret santa swap.


In the swap my swap gift was being sent late due to family illness so the organiser arranged some angels to send me some gifts. I received so many wonderful packages from my secret santa and a few angels. I was overwhelmed and delighted by these gifts, I shall put my name forward as an angel next year to pay-it-forward. One that made me smile so much was a keyring of a sheep that was bought from a very lovely blog friend - Shell at Handmade Haven - maker of delightful felt creations, and supplier of lovely felt. Take a look at all these lovely fibres waiting to spin, I gotta get a move on with this black alpaca mix so I can get spinning some of this.

all the secret santa gifts ...

from my secret santa swap partner ...

from the angels

Looking forward to seeing everyone else's blog posts, seeing what everyone has planned for the year.

2013 for me ... I don't really do resolutions but aim to spin more, knit more, knit more from handspun to work may way through these lovely yarns I have spun - some in these baskets with other fibres waiting to be spun, and others stashed away elsewhere. I have plans, many plans ... including more socks!

Dawn - Woolly Wednesday adventures

It's good to be back for Woolly Wednesday! I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome Lydia and Claire who have joined the Spinspiration team. I am looking forward to them sharing this space and reading their writing.


I hope everyone had a lovely Summer, anyone who reads my other blog will have seen we had lots of fun and enjoyed some lovely weather during the school holidays. Now though it is most definitely Autumn here, time for dark cosy evenings in front of the spinning wheel. Bliss. I hadn't spun at all over the summer holiday.

September has seen a revival of the wheel spinning though and plenty of time spent spinning at public events encouraging and inspiring others to take up the crafts. It has been fun, and I have even sold on my first Spinning Wheel - my trusty Ashford Traditional that started off my love of spinning. It has sat unused for a while though, except for a short loan period to a friend until she bought her wheel. So it was time to say goodbye and pay forward the opportunity to somebody new to spinning to buy a wheel at a very reasonable price, after all I bought her very reasonably too. The new owner has also joined the guild, so our paths will no doubt cross some months.

 My first wheel ... now someone else's first wheel

So spinning - the first spinning I did in on return to the wheel was some Romney Marsh spun on my Wee Peggy wheel. I started spinning this at The Romsey Show - an agricultural show that the Guild are represented at each year. I loved it this year, amongst some good friends with lots of chatter and laughter ... oh the laughter! It was a gloriously sunny hot hot day too, and the show was very busy. We had a great day, lots of visitors and many of them really interested in spinning and dyeing and weaving. A great opportunity to show people how the wheel works, the history of spinning, the fleece to yarn process ... visitors young and old. We even won a prize for our interactive dempnstration areas.

 Me on the left with friends having a great time

(towards the end of the day hence not many visitors around us!)

Our rosette and certificate proudly displayed

It was wonderful to be able to give the opportunity to many to have a go at spinning too, their eyes lighting up when you ask "do you want to have a go?". I still remember being asked that question years ago, so am always keen to offer the same opportunity.

Romney Marsh carded fibre

I spun a bobbin of the Romney and then decided I'd like to n-ply it so sat and plied it before going on to spin more of the fibre. A joy to spin, really lovely fibre with a little lanolin still there making it lovely for the hands too - the best hand "cream" ever!

My navajo plied skein awaiting washing

I continued to spin the Romney Marsh the weekend after at our Guilds open day/taster day. I ended with another couple of full bobbins which are waiting to be plied. I need to decide if I will n-ply these or make it a 2 ply for another project, I have more to spin so may see what yardage I'd get with either plying. I'm not that good at planning for projects, but trying to improve on that now as the handspun stash grows.

2 more bobbins of Romney Marsh singles

As mentioned earlier I took along the Ashford Traditional wheel too, initially set up for people to come and have a try at spinning as it is such an easy going wheel to learn on. I had a for sale sign ready to pop on after a while, although had to quickly remove it after Imogen (my daughter) stuck it on my Wee Peggy! No darling, this one really is not for sale, and not at that price! Most definitely not, although it raised a laugh and a smile amongst friends. Quite a few people had a go on the wheel, some who had recently acquired wheels and were not sure where to start, others interested in getting into spinning.

And then a friend asked if my wheel was available for a lady to try and I saw that little spark or something and thought to myself - I think this lady is going to love and buy this wheel. She was hooked right from the start, loved it, and was very good at grasping the drafting and treadling. She sat with us for a long time, spinning more and more, occasionally acknowledging her daughters who were there too and loving trying out lots of things. But she was determined that she was going to spend her time here with the wheel. A message to the husband about where it might go, quashing his crazy idea that it could go in the garage! We had fun chatting, and yes she did buy the wheel. I gave her some Jacob roving to keep her going too and she picked up some fleece at the sales table. Her daughters were as pleased to know the wheel was going home with them, I think they had all fallen for the spinning bug! It was lovely to have been able to offer the wheel to her - and making friends with a new member, and two new members signed up to the Youth Guild too.

Me on the right spinning on the Wee Peggy

The Ashford Traditional on the left with her new owner

A good month for spinning and meeting new friends. Next month our Guild meeting welcomes Wingham Wool Work who fill our hall with goodies to fondle, sample and buy. I must remember to buy more spinning wheel oil. I have sat and labelled a lot of my spinning samples and skeins in a view to linking them up to a project. I have a lot of fleece and fibre to use so can't see me coming home with much from the day, except maybe some samples and some of the more unusual fibres out there that I've not spun with much yet.

Looking forward to catching up with what everyone has been up to, come along and share anything woolly - we love to be inspired. Join us for virtual spin (or other woolly crafts) and chat, with a virtual coffee and cake!

Dawn Woolly Wednesday April

Hi, finally made it after a mammoth seedling planting on this morning out in the greenhouse. I was listening to the radio whilst out there and all the reports of rain, snow and power cuts, but it was a rather different picture in the garden with sunshine.

On the spinning side of life _ have spun up the 100g each of white, brown and dark brown/black Icelandics previously mentioned I think. I am keeping these as singles like the greys I spun up earlier in the year. I just need to get them on the niddy noddy and set the single ply on these. 

Icelandic wool singles

I have almost finished the blue/lilac/purple roving from my March post (the last 3 photos). 

And I have returned to spinning the Cotswold too. I decided to get it all out and tease it open more as it had compacted and found there were some shorter bits at the butt end of the fleece - can't really tell if it's a double fleece thing (not sure on the Cotswold) or if it was a few second cuts on shearing. Anyway I took all these out and teased the rest, although I separated out some of the curls that I plan to do some dyeing on sometime soon. Here it is - the curls on the left for dyeing, the teased fibre to the right for spinning.

Cotswold fleece for spinning, and some dyeing

Here is the spinning progress, a bit loose on the bobbin, not sure why that is, but it's fine. I am enjoying spinning it now that I'm not getting the lumps in it. Hopefully it will be spun by next month and I'll have moved onto something else.

Cotswold spinning

Much of my time recently has been spent doing things for the Guild. I am the newsletter editor for the local guild and the next issue is due at the April meeting so I wanted to get it done and off to the printers before the Easter weekend. 

Also planning and trying to get some things done for a local hospice charity which the Guild is involved with - the theme is butterflies and will be something we are working on over the next couple of months. The hospice is Naomi House - a fabulous hospice for children and young adults with conditions that mean they are unlikely to reach adulthood. They offer care and respite to families at difficult times, and are a wonderful local charity. 

They have an end of life  butterfly suite and garden next to it, the butterfly suite is a "special chilled room where a child who has died can lay to rest and where families can say goodbye to their child before the funeral". Work created by the guild on the theme of butterflies will go on display in the dovecote in May, and little butterfly pins or other butterfly work will be chosen by family members to go in a memory box for the child they have lost. Such a lovely project to be involved with. I have knitted a couple of butterflies so far and plan to do more and some felting too.

And finally there is the Association of WSD National Exhibition and my entry for the unselected work - which means everyone's work will go on display. The aim is to make something using the crafts of weaving, spinning, dyeing to go in a 6inch ring (see Claire's post linked on her blog Simply ... Life). It can be any method of craft - knitting, weaving, crochet, latchhook, felting, etc, etc using fibres or yarns and the ring.

my ring for the exhibition

Here is mine so far - a knitted circle from some old handspun Dorset Horn left over from other projects. A blank canvas now really! I an going to use some of these tapestry wools to embroider a picture on this side. I then hopefully will felt something to go on the reverse and thus hide the back of the stitches!

I need to take this to the Guild meeting in April so have to finish it soon, so will share a picture next month.

Oh and combining my interests in gardening with interests in fibres and spinning and dyeing, here are some madder plants coming on in the greenhouse from root cuttings I acquired recently - looking good!

Happy fibre days to all, looking forward to seeing everyone's blog posts.

Dawn x

Dawns Woolly Wednesday March 2012

Hello March, hello Spring ... ah spring lambs all around too, gorgeous aren't they?

Cotswold fleece

Well February saw me spinning several things. Firstly I started spinning some of a lovely Cotswold fleece that Kelly sent me last year. The raw fleece is just lovely and has a great lustre. As I had stored it a while I do think it had compacted a little so tried a few things in the preparation of it. 

 

 Preparing the Cotswold to spin

Cotswold single (so far)

Carding was not so easy as it is quite a long staple. Spinning it was lovely, although I found it was bumping a little at the curly ends. I then tried just flick carding and combing it and this seemed better to then spin from the open locks.

I have a project in mind for the Icelandic wools I have previously spun (grey and grey/brown) and wanted to add to those the white, brown and brown/black Icelandic roving. So I have spun the 100g of white Icelandic and have started on the brown one. The project is a bag for spinning items that I hope to felt, unless I change my mind by then which isn't unheard of!

In other spinning news, firstly a confession to having added another Spinning wheel to my home. She actually came to live with us last year, bought 2nd hand from another spinner who hadn't used it in a while. She is a Wee Peggy, a lovely little wheel that I had admired for a while. Here she is next to my much loved Louet.

My other girls - Louet on the left, Wee Peggy on the right

Late last year I started trying to get used to this wheel as it is a Double Drive wheel which I had not really tried before, previously I had only used Scotch tension on the Ashford Traditional and Irish tension on the Louet. I could not get the balance quite right and it wasn't drawing the yarn onto the bobbin properly, no matter how I adjusted it. I wondered if it was just me, having heard that many people say they can't get on with DD wheels, whereas some spinners love them and can't get on with Scotch or Irish tension! So I switched it to scotch tension and got it working pretty okay, but still felt the wheel wasn't quite right.

So in February I gave the wheel some more attention - a thorough cleaning, oiled the wood and oiling the moving parts, a bit more spinning and suddenly she felt like she was singing. Leaving it on the scotch tension for a while she was spinning nicely so I thought I would switch it back to Double Drive an try again. A few adjustments and it seemed the balance was there, yarn was pulling nicely and winding onto the bobbin smoothly. I had cracked it, and I love it. I have it set at a level that works for me, having been used to the strong pull of the Louet Irish tension.

So there we are, confession time over, yes I have 3 spinning wheels here. Although one is much neglected, my first wheel so I have a sentimental attachment to it, but I think it may be time for it to go to a new home.

So having now successfully got the Wee Peggy working for me, I have spun some multicoloured roving I had and have two lovely bobbins of bright colours (you may need sunglasses for the next photo). I have decided I don't want to ply them together but will ply them with something else - I have plans to dye some wool in a contrast and ply with that, a project for the coming weeks.

bright roving (colinette)

I have moved onto spinning some more pre-dyed roving and am loving how she spins.

 

 

Latest roving spinning on the Wee Peggy

I will return to the Cotswold on the Louet when the Icelandic is spun and then a couple of other samples Kelly sent me. I washed some of my grey zwartble x fleece last week, I intend to wash more and wash some of the pure zwartble ram (darker but not black) too; oh and I washed some merino too - more on that another day. Then there's some curly longwools waiting ...

So what have you been spinning? (or knitting, felting, weaving, etc)

Dawns February Woolly Wednesday adventures

Whoosh another month.  More Dorset Horn spinning and plying, almost finished the fleece now, just a little more carding and spinning and she will be done.

Plying Dorset Horn

Was hoping for some warmer days to wash and dry (outside) some more zwartble but that's not happening so maybe I could get it dry indoors if done in smaller batches - we'll see.

Singles Icelandic on the Niddy Noddy

In the meantime I decided to leave the Icelandics I spun and finished last month as singles so have set the twist in them.I decided to set these with steam whilst under slight tension and it has worked perfectly. They are holding together really well and as balanced as can be for a single ply! I used my steam cleaner to do this - rather than a pot of boiling water or the kettle and it worked really well - easily controllable and hands clear of hot steam! Yay for another use for the steam cleaner.

Setting the Single ply

Skein  to be wound

I'm going to use some up on some weaving squares for my long-term project of a breeds blanket I mentioned previously. The rest I'm not sure - maybe a bag or cover for something, I might spin up the other Icelandic colours first so as to have some more colour variation.

In other spinning news I have been on a Yarn design workshop with friends and had a fabulous day, lots of laughter as well as spinning. We did lots of samples of different yarns of which some were really out of my spinning comfort zone although I persevered and actually quite fancy practicing them now. Practice makes perfect right? Will share some pictures and experience another time.

Workshop on yarn design

(blurred on purpose for sharing the picture on the blog!)

The workshop was run by my Spinning Guru, a lovely teacher who helped me much in my early days when I used to go to her house for spinning classes one evening a fortnight. Many of the people on the workshop have been to her or go to her now so there was a good mix of abilities. I was quite honoured at one point to be handed a larger amount of wool and alpaca than others for one of the yarns as "you're an experienced spinner now" were the words of my guru! I guess I am compared to some others, but always feel like I am learning. I shall experiment a little more with what I have learnt and share experience and photos on this another time.

I gave my wheel a good clean and oiled the wood before the weekend, forgetting that Danish Oil has quite a pungent smell and did this in the house one night. Hmmm not such a great idea when I almost instantly got a really bad headache! Lesson learnt. Note to self: oil the wheel in a ventilated area - preferably outside in future.

Lots of ideas running around in my head, have picked up a couple of 2nd hand books recently and watched some videos and feeling all inspired to push my spinning to new things, alongside continuing spinning a lovely standard yarn of course.

What's keeping you busy, or inspiring you?

Dawns adventures for Woolly Wednesday October!

Spinning on the wheel

 

Another month already, how did that happen? I wan to do some serious spinning next month, or at least over the Autumn and Winter months as I'm feeling it is getting neglected at the moment.

September was a busy month for me with my daughter Imogen returning to school and it being her 6th birthday later in the month so my hands were busy on other projects, at least some of them were woolly so I will share those those month.

I love bunting and have various bits of bunting to hang for celebrations. These include knitted bunting for Imogen for her birthday so I recently knitted a new bunting triangle for her age.

I also have a tradition of making her a felt crown and badge so have used some bought wool felt mix, and used a combination of wet felting and needle felting and sewing to create these for her this year which she loved and showed them to her teachers and friends at school.

 felting a rainbow for a badge - bit of wet then needle felting

 

Birthday crown and badge ready for the birthday girl

I've also started doing some other felting and planning some gifts for Christmas, but maybe I'll share those next month. Imogen is also desperate to do some felting so we are hoping to do that soon too - she's had her eye on the fibre I was spinning in this post - the bright rainbow mix. So watch this space.

Spinning at the show

So onto spinning. I have done a little spinning when I attended the Romsey Show - an agricultural show locally which the Guild has had a presence at for some time. That's me above in the photo, struggling at that time as we had just been for a walk and I still had my walking shoes on and I cannot treadle well with them! I was soon barefoot again, my preferred footwear when spinning. I took the Louet wheel and some Icelandic grey roving so I didn't need to do too much preparation before spinning.

 Icelandic - long staple as shown above

 Icelandic single - so lovely and easy to spin

 2 ply bobbins of Portland (more socks?) and the Icelandic

It's a lovely long staple fibre and a lovely colour. I have some other colours of Icelandic too as they range from white to brown to greys. No idea what I shall be doing with this wool although it's not next to skin softness so maybe something like a bag which I may felt too.

Other projects still on the go are the socks and the weaving squares that I blogged about last month, the weaving squares cushion should be finished by next month so I can share more pictures of that then. Actually maybe that's what I can use the Icelandic wool for - using it in weaving as a single.

So what has everyone else been up to with their wool and fibres this month?