Tour de Fleece 2011

Tour de Fleece has begun! My goal this year is to finish processing the fleeces I have in the stash. Not spin. Process.

Day one is dedicated to washing the one fleece I bought this spring. It's a lovely Border Leicester x Wensleydale ewe fleece. I have a dark fleece from her lamb last year already in the stash. Her fleece is soaking in the tub right now and it's coming out a variety of grays from pale silver to pewter.





Prior to the Tour, I also did some weaving.





I knitted a baby blanket and a monkey.





I spun some yarn.



And played with a new alpaca cria at my friend's farm.



All in all, I've been a bit busy since my last post!

A new start

I can't believe it's 2011 already and that I have been SO lax in updating my blog. I've had a lot going on in my fibery world. I needed to recharge my batteries, so I got back to knitting. For Christmas I made a little shrug for my niece, two hats and three cowls. I also finished my very first sweater for myself. I knit it with handspun and the resulting fabric is wonderful.



I'm currently working on a cardigan called Aidez. It's a free pattern from Berroco and it's a fun knit. There are lots of cables and twisted stitches to keep it interesting. I'm knitting mine with thick, chewy Cascade Eco in a brown that reminds me of tree bark.



There are extensions of the fronts that wrap around and meet in the back of the neck. I used my Google-fu and discovered TechKnitter wrote an article in the Spring 2010 Interweave Knits that explains Kitchener stitch in pattern. I used it to graft together the two pieces and the result is almost invisible. I'm so pleased with it! I'm going to remember this technique because it's so much more elegant than a clunky seam, especially in bulky yarn like this.



Alas, all is not well. I'm blocking my first sleeve but at first look, it's sized to fit a gorilla and assumes I will be wearing football shoulder pads to make it fit properly. I may end up frogging back to the underarm and reknitting, but I really hope it doesn't come to that. I suppose it's not a real knitting project unless I make at least one bone-headed mistake.

On the other side of the coin is my Saori weaving. In Saori, mistakes are human and meant to be embraced. I scored a deal and found a LOCAL used Saori loom that really wanted to be mine. I bought it the same day my long awaited Saori weaving book arrived in the mail. I was getting ready to try the techniques on a rigid heddle because I've been full of ideas. I brought my precious loom home in a snowstorm, warped it after watching YouTube videos (with a few mistakes) and spent several days weaving fabric for a blanket. It's warped with Kauni leftover from a felted bag project and the weft is various Beaverslide yarns, Patons Rumor, some sock yarn scraps and pieces of fabric. I really love how it turned out. There are errors in the warping, but I appreciated the texture they added and I kept on weaving. Next step will be learning how to hem and seam on the sewing machine so I can form this long strip into a blanket shape. I am looking forward to lots of experimentation with this loom!

Addicted to weaving

I've added a few new Hazel Rose looms to the herd, plus I borrowed one to make a blanket. I bought some natural Corriedale from Whitefish Bay Farm and some dark Wensleydale/Coopworth from Homestead Sheep and Fiber Products at the Door County Shepherd's Market last month. I used a quilt pattern to piece it out and arranged the colors as I saw fit. It only took eight days and 11.4 ounces of yarn! I still can't get over how fast it goes and how little yarn it uses.









I also added a new wheel to my happy little household. I've been stalking Ravelry and Craigslist for a used Majacraft Little Gem for nearly a year. I tried one at Wisconsin Sheep and Wool last September and fell in love immediately. Unfortunately, everyone who owns them seems to love them too, so they very rarely come up for sale. Last week, I stumbled upon a great deal and couldn't let it pass me by. It came with the new green padded carry bag, three bobbins and a two-bobbin collapsible lazy kate. It's so lightweight and tiny compared to my Ashford Traditional. I've named her "Ruby" after my grandmother. Plus, it's a Gem!







I spun up some fine Icelandic singles from the lock to break her in and found I had to use the largest whorl. The smallest whorl apparently spins the flyer at light speed. Add in my crazy treadling as I acclimate to double-treadles and it was a recipe for either disaster or rope-burned fingers. This is SUCH a different wheel from the Ashford. There's no resistance whatsoever, the treadles "roll" more than go up and down and I can start and stop with my feet. I need to learn how to choose the direction with my feet, because I would slow down and suddenly start spinning in the other direction. By comparison, my Ashford is heavier, particularly thanks to the Jumbo flyer I added. Everything is bigger and heavier. I never figured out how to stop and start with my feet, so I always reach over and give the wheel a push in the direction I want to go. When I stop treadling, the wheel keeps going.

It's interesting because it's easy to think a wheel is a wheel. They're not! They are all such individuals. I never tried another wheel before getting the Ashford because I just happened upon it when I wasn't looking. Last year, I test drove every wheel I could find in hopes of finding a travel wheel. My Ashford barely fits through the back door of my car and it's not easy to carry. I've taken it out a bit and I'm always afraid it's going to get banged up. I sat down and played with every wheel I saw and didn't find any that felt right. The flyer was in an awkward position or the treadles felt shallow or they were too heavy or too light. Nothing jumped out as a good fit, although they're all nice wheels. Then I passed a booth that had a Gem sitting near the back. It didn't have a for sale sign on it, but I asked about it. The woman let me sit down and treadle on it and it was like that scene in "The Sword in the Stone" where Wart pulls the sword out and angels start singing and sparkles fall upon him in a moonbeam. Seriously. Since then, I've test driven Gems a couple more times and it's always been true love all over again.

I've become a firm believer that there is a wheel out there for everyone. All of the modern wheels are well-made, but they have their own quirks and uses. I can see now that my Ashford is ideal for spinning thicker yarns and plying. If I want low-twist singles, I'll go to the Ashford. My huge bobbins will hold 8-10 ounces of yarn. It's great for that. It's not great at very thin yarns. That's where Ruby comes in. I'll have to try out beaded yarns on both of them and see which I prefer. The flyers are made differently, so getting lumps and beads onto the bobbin may be easier on one over the other. I won't worry about upgrading Ruby with a jumbo flyer because I already have a wheel I can use for plying. It's win-win all around and I am so thrilled to finally have a wheel I can easily transport!

Warped!

I volunteered at the Great Midwest Alpaca Festival last weekend. I was in the fiber demo area spinning all weekend, and there were all sorts of other fiber arts demos. One of my friends taught needle felting, another friend taught drum carding and a woman from the local spinning guild was demonstrating weaving. I stopped by to see how to weave on square and triangle looms, but missed seeing how to start the process. It was a busy weekend with a lot going on, so we made tentative plans to meet and do some weaving. I also managed to win a volunteer raffle gift certificate, so I used it to buy two weaving books. The stage was set..

Last night I went over to my new friend's house to learn to weave. Her studio is a dream come true. It's like a weaving and spinning art gallery married to a yarn shop. She showed me how to weave on a Hazel Rose diamond loom and I took one home with me. I also got a brief overview of floor looms and general weaving tips. It was very inspiring and a lot of fun. I came home and wove a few diamonds last night and made some more this afternoon. It's very easy once you get the hang of it and it only takes 15-20 minutes to make a small diamond.

For me, weaving is faster than knitting and the color effects are different. I'm using my Phat Fiber yarn samples from past boxes. I can weave sport, dk or worsted as is, or I can double up a fingering-weight yarn to make my little diamonds. I'm going to save them up and sew them into a small blanket or perhaps a bag. I'll see what I think when I lay them all out. It's a very portable hobby if you're working with the small looms and there's no binding off. It's kind of like spinning and works great when I don't want to follow a complicated pattern. The yarn colors do their own thing, so each diamond comes out a little different.



Five of my fleeces came back from the mill on Saturday too. I have a few more to pick up in a couple of weeks, but these were enough to handle. They fluff up so much after carding and I had to work hard to find space to stash them. I've already started spinning the Romney fleece and it's a joy to work with. I spun about eight ounces in two days and it practically drafts itself. The colors are more evenly blended than they were when I flicked locks and drum carded, but it's a nice shade of grey and should be very pretty when it's plied.

Last but not least, I've also sort of learned to tat! My Great-Aunt showed me, my mother and one of my aunts how to tat two weeks ago. It's harder than it looks. I think magic is involved, because she would move her hands in a blur and out would come perfect little knots and picots. There's a right way and a wrong way to wave your hands around and they look nearly identical. One little move (that I have yet to master) is the difference between gorgeous lace and a mess of knots. For most of my lesson, I couldn't even SEE that little move. I thought I was mimicking her exactly, but I missed "flipping the knot". I've ordered a book and will be sitting down to make a determined effort to learn the different techniques. We didn't have enough time to go over everything and she lives out of town, so I'll have to sort out some of my mistakes on my own. I'm excited about it. Tatted lace doesn't look that exciting in photos, but when you handle it, it's wonderful. I had no idea it was so pretty until I saw some up close.