Interweave have another one of their 10 cents or 7 pence in the UK bargains. This time it is a collection of knitting patterns that have appeared in previous Spin-Off magazines. Collected together it makes quite a nice e-book collection of accessories - scarves, wraps, hats, gloves, mittens and socks. You can purchase the PDF file by following the link below.
Interweave Knits Accessories 2009
Wednesday, 24 August 2011
Sunday, 21 August 2011
National Wool Museum in Wales - a personal tour
(cross posted from my personal blog as I thought some followers here may be interested in this museum in Wales)
Previously known as Cambrian Mills opened in 1902 to supply woollen cloth for working men in the coal and steel industries. Later it produced flannel to be made into military uniforms. A fire in the carding and spinning department in 1919 meant that the mill was rebuilt, even though at the time the market for woollen textiles had reduced. It continued to be a working mill until 1965 when it was put up for sale.
So there is a brief history of the site of the museum, here is how it looks now and what you can see and learn from a visit. You arrive in the car park at the rear with a field of sheep grazing and some beds containing plants used in natural dyeing which would have been used many years ago in the mill. You cross a bridge over the river and enter the building into the cafe, shop and information area. We picked up a map and a children's activity card on the story of wool and set off on our adventure.
The museum is so well laid out, you get to see the process from raw washed wool through to woven fabric. We started with the processing of the wool and a machine called a Willower, first invented as a powered machine in the 18th Century and then manufactured in the 19th century - this disentangles wool and fluffs up the fibres ready for the carding machine.
The fluffy wool is then popped into the carding machine hopper that weighs the wool that it knows it can process and any excess falls out at the bottom to be used next time (very clever). Now this whole machine is just a marvel to watch, I was captivated by this machine - the first part of it cards it over many different drums and it comes out of there in a long smooth wide batt of real evenness. Onto the next part of the machine which brushes the batting down and separates it into thin grooves of perfectly even drafted threads of fibre that are wound onto the large "bobbins" - the machine creates 400 pencil thin roving threads ready to go up to the spinning room.
They have a lift there now but back in the days of this being a working mill these would have been carried upstairs to the spinning machines. The spinning machines were called The Mighty Mule, and mighty they were. There were two sets of these machines taking up the whole of one side of the top floor - as a working mill this would have been mirrored on the other side of the room too.
Mesmerized again at the capacity of these machines to spin so much yarn in a fraction of the time I can spin, no wonder the industrial revolution put cottage industries of spinners out of business - progress eh! Still they are an absolute joy to watch spinning the roving prepared earlier as the machine moves apart and then as it returns when the correct amount of twist is in the yarn, it automatically winds onto the bobbins. The machine spins 400 yarns in one go! I took a video of this in action (and the carding machinery too, will try and upload them sometime). This would then go off to be plied and then off to the dyeing and weaving stages.
In the Mighty Mule room there are also some spinning wheels including the Walking Wheels also known as the Great Wheel, and other examples. There are also some weaving looms and knitting machines on display.
A machine that catches the eye is the Teasel Raising Gig. A machine invented in the 16th Century (and manufactured sometime in the 19th C) for finishing the cloth. An amazing sight, this one came from a nearby woollen mill. As its name suggests it uses teasels that comb the cloth to make it soft and fluffy, a process called "raising the nap". There are hand carders in the museum made with teasels as this was the method of carding before more modern hand carders were invented. The machine contained 3000 teasels in an iron frame and powered by electricity to pass the cloth over the teasels. It was replaced later with a Moser Raiser for which there is an example in the museum too, which uses metal teeth instead of teasels.
A fascinating fact about the teasel gig was that there was a "teasel man" who travelled from mill to mill replacing teasels grown in specialist gardens in Somerset. It was a highly skilled job as the teasels needed to be carefully placed in the machine to give an evenness to the cloth.
Amongst other equipment and photos of the mill, the mill workers and the history of the area and knitting groups, etc there is a board with cards of memories of the mill which were a fascinating read.
Onto another room and another amazing machine - this one is the Tenter Machine (Moser Raiser). The damp cloth used to be stretched in a tenter frame and left to dry outside. Wind sheds protected the cloth outside. Along came the Tenter machine which dried the damp cloth under tension as it passed over steam heated pipes, it was capable of drying 72 metres of cloth at a time. A hut was built around the machine to keep the heat in - called a tenter box - this must have been a hot job to do in the mill.
A visit to this museum really shows how clever some inventors were in the past, the machines they invented are just marvelous to see and must have really changed how things were made and prepared. The next room we entered was a making up room set up with samples, sewing machines and patterns to show how items of clothing were made up. Also inside is a Rolling and Folding Machine, invented in the 20th Century to help with finishing of the cloth. Another machine next to this is the Rotary steam press.
We moved along to the Weaving samples gallery - examples of clothing, national dress costumes, wedding dresses and examples of the woven cloth manufactured over the years. A delight to the eyes to see so many patterns. You often think of all the different patterns, tweeds and tartans of Scotland but obviously Wales has it's own history of these too which I wasn't really aware of.
Also in this room was a display highlighting some graffiti set into the window frame of mill workers who met and married in the 1930's and 1940's. They have left their mark in the graffiti of their names and when and where they married, a lovely piece of social history. Many pictures adorn the walls of the museum and examples of woven fabrics. There is a knitting group that meets in the cafe of the museum and they created this lovely wall hanging.
The story of wool activity card was a hit with Imogen. All around there were woolly tales posters to help with the answers to some statements. Also there are holes to keep samples of a carded rolag, some of the yarn, and the edges were set up to create some blanket stitch on it which Imogen mastered in no time. She also produced a pretty good rolag with the carders (although the wool samples for this weren't the best wool!). There is an arty crafty corner for the children to draw and colour, and have a go at weaving and woolly crafts. One of the displays compares the speed of hand shearing sheep to machine shearing, there are samples of Welsh breed wool to touch, and lots of other beautiful displays.
There are several weaving looms around the museum, but also next door is the working weaving studios where you can walk along the gallery above and watch the men and their machines working on cloth now. The day we visited they were making blanket fabric and flannel fabrics which is the fabric they are famous for making in the area. Wow it was noisy - it does say not to spend more than about 10 minutes in there! Amazing to watch the pattern appear and the speed of the shuttles was amazing (again I took a short video of this).
Of course we came away with some samples. A flannel face cloth and a woven bookmark for Imogen, some fabric for a project for me and a beautiful shirt for Alex. I'll have to take some pictures of them and post them another time.
A wonderful museum, I wasn't sure how long we would spend there but it turned out to be a lot longer and we all enjoyed it immensely. We'll be back sometime that's for sure.
National Wool Museum Wales
Well as promised in my holiday round-up post I am back to share more about the National Wool Museum in Dre-Fach Felindre, Wales. The National Wool Museum re-opened in 2004 after a major refit partly funded by the heritage lottery fund and was previously the Museum of the Welsh Woollen Industry opened in 1976. Before becoming a museum it was a working woollen mill once powered by the water wheel you still see outside.Previously known as Cambrian Mills opened in 1902 to supply woollen cloth for working men in the coal and steel industries. Later it produced flannel to be made into military uniforms. A fire in the carding and spinning department in 1919 meant that the mill was rebuilt, even though at the time the market for woollen textiles had reduced. It continued to be a working mill until 1965 when it was put up for sale.
So there is a brief history of the site of the museum, here is how it looks now and what you can see and learn from a visit. You arrive in the car park at the rear with a field of sheep grazing and some beds containing plants used in natural dyeing which would have been used many years ago in the mill. You cross a bridge over the river and enter the building into the cafe, shop and information area. We picked up a map and a children's activity card on the story of wool and set off on our adventure.
Story of Wool card
The museum is so well laid out, you get to see the process from raw washed wool through to woven fabric. We started with the processing of the wool and a machine called a Willower, first invented as a powered machine in the 18th Century and then manufactured in the 19th century - this disentangles wool and fluffs up the fibres ready for the carding machine.
Willower machine to fluff up and tease the wool
Wool goes in for the carding machine
The fluffy wool is then popped into the carding machine hopper that weighs the wool that it knows it can process and any excess falls out at the bottom to be used next time (very clever). Now this whole machine is just a marvel to watch, I was captivated by this machine - the first part of it cards it over many different drums and it comes out of there in a long smooth wide batt of real evenness. Onto the next part of the machine which brushes the batting down and separates it into thin grooves of perfectly even drafted threads of fibre that are wound onto the large "bobbins" - the machine creates 400 pencil thin roving threads ready to go up to the spinning room.
Carding wheels combing the wool smoothly and evenly
seperating carded fibre to thin pencil roving
pencil roving winding on the bobbins
They have a lift there now but back in the days of this being a working mill these would have been carried upstairs to the spinning machines. The spinning machines were called The Mighty Mule, and mighty they were. There were two sets of these machines taking up the whole of one side of the top floor - as a working mill this would have been mirrored on the other side of the room too.
roving ready to spin
Spinning Mule machinery runs along the room
Spun fibre winds up on the blue bobbins
Mesmerized again at the capacity of these machines to spin so much yarn in a fraction of the time I can spin, no wonder the industrial revolution put cottage industries of spinners out of business - progress eh! Still they are an absolute joy to watch spinning the roving prepared earlier as the machine moves apart and then as it returns when the correct amount of twist is in the yarn, it automatically winds onto the bobbins. The machine spins 400 yarns in one go! I took a video of this in action (and the carding machinery too, will try and upload them sometime). This would then go off to be plied and then off to the dyeing and weaving stages.
Yarn plying and winding
In the Mighty Mule room there are also some spinning wheels including the Walking Wheels also known as the Great Wheel, and other examples. There are also some weaving looms and knitting machines on display.
Walking Wheel or Great Wheel
Spinning Wheel photos by Imogen
(on her camera, and yes she discovered the B&W option)
Teasel Raising Gig
teasel hand carder
A machine that catches the eye is the Teasel Raising Gig. A machine invented in the 16th Century (and manufactured sometime in the 19th C) for finishing the cloth. An amazing sight, this one came from a nearby woollen mill. As its name suggests it uses teasels that comb the cloth to make it soft and fluffy, a process called "raising the nap". There are hand carders in the museum made with teasels as this was the method of carding before more modern hand carders were invented. The machine contained 3000 teasels in an iron frame and powered by electricity to pass the cloth over the teasels. It was replaced later with a Moser Raiser for which there is an example in the museum too, which uses metal teeth instead of teasels.
teasels lined up in the machine
A fascinating fact about the teasel gig was that there was a "teasel man" who travelled from mill to mill replacing teasels grown in specialist gardens in Somerset. It was a highly skilled job as the teasels needed to be carefully placed in the machine to give an evenness to the cloth.
Amongst other equipment and photos of the mill, the mill workers and the history of the area and knitting groups, etc there is a board with cards of memories of the mill which were a fascinating read.
Tenter Machine
Making up room, samples and sewing machine
Steam press
Folding machine
We moved along to the Weaving samples gallery - examples of clothing, national dress costumes, wedding dresses and examples of the woven cloth manufactured over the years. A delight to the eyes to see so many patterns. You often think of all the different patterns, tweeds and tartans of Scotland but obviously Wales has it's own history of these too which I wasn't really aware of.
Marriage record graffiti
Also in this room was a display highlighting some graffiti set into the window frame of mill workers who met and married in the 1930's and 1940's. They have left their mark in the graffiti of their names and when and where they married, a lovely piece of social history. Many pictures adorn the walls of the museum and examples of woven fabrics. There is a knitting group that meets in the cafe of the museum and they created this lovely wall hanging.
Knitting Group wall hanging - note the names around the side
blanket stitch
expert carder!
watching the man vs machine display on shearing
There are several weaving looms around the museum, but also next door is the working weaving studios where you can walk along the gallery above and watch the men and their machines working on cloth now. The day we visited they were making blanket fabric and flannel fabrics which is the fabric they are famous for making in the area. Wow it was noisy - it does say not to spend more than about 10 minutes in there! Amazing to watch the pattern appear and the speed of the shuttles was amazing (again I took a short video of this).
Weaving in action
Of course we came away with some samples. A flannel face cloth and a woven bookmark for Imogen, some fabric for a project for me and a beautiful shirt for Alex. I'll have to take some pictures of them and post them another time.
Beds of dye plants
A wonderful museum, I wasn't sure how long we would spend there but it turned out to be a lot longer and we all enjoyed it immensely. We'll be back sometime that's for sure.
Monday, 15 August 2011
Grab a Spinning and/or Weaving ebook bargain!
You may recall a post back in April for a DVD bargain from Interweave. Well they have another couple of fantastic offers for the small price of 10 cents or 7pence in the UK (current conversion rate!) each.
The first is an ebook of collected articles from Spin Off magazine called Spin your Socks, so if you are interested in tips for spinning to knit socks, carding and dyeing for sock yarns; working out socks in any gauge and patterns for socks this book may be for you. I have downloaded it here and it looks well worth 7 pence.
Here is the link - Spin Your Socks ebook
The second is a weaving book for those interested in weaving and who own a 2 or 3 shaft loom (or if you're interested in weaving design) - projects that can be completed in a weekend.
Here is the link to this one - Handwovens Design Collection 20
The first is an ebook of collected articles from Spin Off magazine called Spin your Socks, so if you are interested in tips for spinning to knit socks, carding and dyeing for sock yarns; working out socks in any gauge and patterns for socks this book may be for you. I have downloaded it here and it looks well worth 7 pence.
Here is the link - Spin Your Socks ebook
The second is a weaving book for those interested in weaving and who own a 2 or 3 shaft loom (or if you're interested in weaving design) - projects that can be completed in a weekend.
Here is the link to this one - Handwovens Design Collection 20
Wednesday, 3 August 2011
Woolly Wednesday August 2011 ... join us
Welcome to the August Woolly Wednesday!
We are hosting Woolly Wednesday 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, we look forward to seeing you ...
We are hosting Woolly Wednesday 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, we look forward to seeing you ...
August Woolly Wednesday - Kelly
This month I have been concentrating on spinning white Shetland fleece. I want to finish off the white Shetland I have before moving on to something else. I haven't done much else spinning related recently as the weather has been so good and I have been busy loving Summer!
So same post as I posted on my other blog about Scottish wool recently which I have copied over here since that is what I am still spinning up. Three bobbins done so far and I estimate just one left to go.
Sheep breeds originating from Scotland! I have been spinning up some beautiful white Shetland wool. Shetland is one of my very favourites offering such a diverse natural colour range and being a fine wool.
And I have washed a lovely light grey North Ronaldsay shearling fleece. North Ronaldsays are a primitive breed and are on the rare breed survival list. They originate from the Orkney Islands off the north coast of Scotland and eat seaweed! In September I hope to share with you more on my adventures with spinning cotton on the charka.
So same post as I posted on my other blog about Scottish wool recently which I have copied over here since that is what I am still spinning up. Three bobbins done so far and I estimate just one left to go.
Dawn Woolly Wednesday - 3rd August
Well July has been a busy month around here, end of school year for my daughters first year in school so lots going on and wonderful times being had. I have been busy with the wool too.
I have spun, plied and skeined awaiting a final wash this Portland white seen previously on the blog.
Portland plied - worsted weight
I have carded and started spinning this Hebridean wool, although I really wasn't enjoying spinning this from drum carded batts so will need to look at this a bit more to see how to prepare it for a better spin. Anyone any experience with Hebridean? I think it's because it has a double coat that it is proving difficult for me - it is so so soft, and still quite lanolin rich. I did try and spin some of this unwashed but found it just so full of lanolin I couldn't get a handle on it properly. I will persevere.
Hebridean spinning
I moved onto the Dorset Horn fleece from my last Woolly Wednesday. It washed up so beautifully white and is carding lovely too. My experience with this wool has always been good - the fibres just pull out of your hands so effortlessly. This will keep me busy and I have the other fleece to wash too.
Dorset Horn spinning
Also I have started spinning some roving that I have. I'm normally found spinning from raw fleece that I enjoy preparing but have a few of these around too. Here is a real riot of colour, no idea how this will come out or what I will do with it but I'm enjoying it so far. That is if my daughter Imogen let's me spin it - she eyed it the other day and asked if she could have it for felting so we are "sharing"! There will be some felting projects over the Summer holidays.
I've dug out a drop spindle. Attached to it here is some Blue Faced Leicester roving so I will continue with that and maybe have a play with something else soon depending on having the time to do this, I do prefer spinning on the wheel though.
Drop spindle with BFL
Summer Holidays here in England, so I shall leave you with this (just skip the first 25 seconds) ...
Wednesday, 20 July 2011
Washing your Raw Fleece for Spinning
bundle of fleece to sort and wash
So, you’ve got some sheep fleece and you're wondering what to do with it to spin it?
fleece laid out to skirt and sort
The first thing to do as soon as you can after acquiring the fleece is to lay it our somewhere dry – preferably your garden (I lay mine on an old shower curtain I kept for this job) and skirt the fleece. Skirting a fleece basically means to cut or tear away anything really dirty (yes, we’re talking sheeps poo) and anything that is coarse, hairy or matted. Use this in your garden, on the compost, as mulch or line your bean trenches or hanging baskets.
Onto the washing, you need to decide where you are going to wash the fleece and how much you can get into whatever you use. You could use your bath, sink or buckets/trugs outside. There is of course the other option of spinning the wool as it is, unwashed and in the grease and just washing it when the yarn is made. If the fleece isn't too dirty this is an option, or you could soak it to get the dirt out of it but retain all the lanolin.
Mesh wash bags are very useful for washing fleece, keeping the fibres together but allowing the dirt to come out. I have a few of these and actually made some larger ones to enable me to wash more in one go, purchasing some fishnet fabric, a bit of sewing and a draw cord.
fleece washed in mesh bag
You can wash fleece in either hot or cold water but whatever you choose you must stick to throughout the washing and rinsing. Any changes will increase the chances of the wool felting. Hot washing will lift more of the lanolin out of the wool. You’ve probably been advised not to wash wool on hot temperatures because of felting but hot water alone will not felt your wool. Hot water + soap + agitation may felt your wool, or a change in temperature of the washing/rinsing + soap + agitation may felt your wool.
Cold water washing is okay for less lanolin rich fleece, but if the fleece has a lot of lanolin in it the hot water method is preferred. The cold water method just involves soaking the fibre in cold water overnight and then rinsing until clean, some lanolin will remain. This probably works better for fleeces that aren’t too dirty.
Fleece ready to go in the wash
Select an amount of the fleece you wish to wash and place in the mesh bag if you are using them. Almost fill your bucket or sink with hot water – it should be hot enough that you don’t want to put your hand in it for too long. Add some detergent and swish it around without making it too bubbly. There are various recommendations here – many people just use cheap washing up liquid, Fairy liquid, Eco washing up liquid (e.g. Ecover) or wool wash detergents like Ecover Delicate (or similar). This comes down to choice and you will find what you prefer. It needs to be detergent rather than soaps as soaps aids felting. There are commercial cleaners on the market too but they are expensive, I have no experience of using these personally.
adding the fleece to the sink of hot water
Pop the wool in gently and push down gently with your fingers (use gloves if it’s too hot). Once it is all in the water leave it alone for 10-15 minutes. Don’t be tempted to prod it or swish it around. You will notice already how dirty the water gets.
soaking the fleece
See how dirty the water is from the first wash?
After the allotted time, and before the water has cooled too much, gently lift the fleece out and very gently squeeze out excess water. Discard the water and refill with clean water and some detergent again. Gently add the wool to the water and leave again for about 10-15 minutes. (Note: you don’t want the water to cool as the grease that has come out of the fleece will start to harden and set again in your fleece). If there are dirty tips you could gently rub these between your fingers to clean them.
Tips can be cleaned by gently rubbing between the fingertips
Lift the wool out again after 10-15 minutes and drain the water, squeezing the wool gently to remove excess water. You shouldn’t need to wash with detergent again, unless it is really filthy or you want to remove all the lanolin. I prefer to leave some lanolin in as it helps it to card and spin more smoothly; it will come out when you wash your yarn later.
Washed and ready to rinse
Next step is to rinse the wool. Rinse the sink or bucket so there is no detergent remaining and fill with the same temperature water again and pop the fleece in, leave for 10-15 minutes, remove and drain. Repeat until you are happy with how clean it is.
ready to spin (if you do) and dry
Your fleece is then ready to dry – you could just hang it over a washing line and leave it to dry or across a drying rack if you have one. Try to gently squeeze some of the excess water to reduce drying time, or you could squeeze gently in an old towel. Every now and then turn it and open it up to allow it to dry properly.
Fleece spun and ready to dry
There is another method that some spinners use on fine fleeces where the locks are washed separately. This is a preferred method with fine fleeces where they want to spin it laceweight. This was a method of washing that Margaret Stove developed. The method of cleaning is the same - using hot water and detergent but washing the fleece lock by lock. Often a flick carder can be helpful in opening up the fibres in the lock and the tips. The mesh bags can also be used for this method - laying the locks in rows and gently washing in the sink or bath ensuring the locks stay separate.
Once dry it is ready to card or comb and spin. If you are not going to spin it immediately, store it safely where moths can’t get in (although they do prefer raw fleece). My preferred method is in old pillow cases picked up cheaply at charity shops. Duvet covers could also be used. Plastic bags (like bin bags) aren’t recommended for long term storage as the wool can sweat. Vacuum seal bags are good too and have the added advantage of reducing the storage space required.
Enjoy spinning your lovely washed fibre.
dry and clean fleece
Alternative instructions are available on the internet, or maybe you'd like to share with us how you clean your fleece? Like a lot of things in spinning (and in life!) there is no right or wrong way, just the way you want to do things and what works for you.
There is a good downloadable leaflet here on the Yarnmaker website -
There is also this useful leaflet on the same website about sorting a fleece -
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