Yarn

You might wonder what happens to the yarn that spin while I am demonstrating the art at the "Museum of Appalachia", everybody that comes to see me does, they always ask "what is it going to be?"  The answer for the last couple of years has been that it is going to be a blanket for the shepherd.

The shepherd gives me the fleeces on "Sheep Shearing Day"  and I usually make something out of them to give back to him.  One year it was a vest, another year it was a hat, this year I made him a rug out of a couple of the fleeces.  All the while though, I have been spinning and spinning, sometimes a little, like when the schools come thru and we are only there for an hour or two.  Sometimes a lot, like during the larger celebrations like "Pioneer Days" or the "Homecoming".  It was during Pioneer days that I bought my Wee Great Wheel and began to spin with a lot more audience participation.  Over that 2 day event and the 3 day event that is the Homecoming, I had spun enough yarn to make another good sized skein.

Here are a few of the "cops" that I removed from the wheel, I was already almost finished plying the skein when I thought to take a picture.  I plied straight from these cops, and it was not as easy as I would like,  the strands tend to get tangled and it can be slow going.

When I am at home I use my clock reel to reel the singles yarn off of the spindle, into a singles skein.  I would have made a couple of skeins on the clock reel adding to the skeins when the spindle got full, and then I would transfer those skeins to the squirrel cage distaff to ply, but I have not been in the habit of taking the reel with me to the museum.  It sure makes plying the yarn easier,  and it is definitely what would have been done in the old days, so I may have to consider it.

Since I had a lot of help from the public spinning this yarn this time around, it is not nearly as even as if I had done it on my own, but I believe that I will have to make that a design element, since I am determined to use it in the blanket.

This skein is as  soft and springy as can be and I am mighty pleased with it.

Once it is dry it will join the other skeins earmarked for this blanket project.

The darker skein that you see at the top of this picture is one that I have been holding on to for a long time.  I have been hoping that another fleece like it would come to Sheep Shearing day, but I think that after so long it may not happen after all, and so I will add this skein to the project as well.

I have some darker brown Museum fleeces that I may spin at home to add interest and speed this project along.  I hope to have enough by January to get it on the loom and off of the loom before winter is over and another sheep shearing day rolls around.

I will be sure to post about it.

Until next time, Happy Spinning, Tina 

A Little Make Over

Last winter, Polly helped do some repairs on the loom that has been with me the longest.  Lillian is a Burchard loom from Oakland California, and that is the loom that got me interested in weaving in the first place.   There was some damage to the sectional beam and Polly put things to right, love her!   Since then there has not been a warp on Lillian, life has been busy and there has not been the usual level of weaving around here.

I had also bought a couple of years ago a rigid heddle loom in order to weave with my hand spun.  I thought that the heddles that were on my floor looms might damage the hand spun warp.  I have not been pleased with the rigid heddle and mainly it is because my hand spun yarn is too fine for the setts that I had available to me on the rigid heddle.  To make a long story shorter, I sold the rigid heddle and bought some inserted eye heddles for Lillian!

This week I put the new heddles on and I already love them!  They slide so easily on the heddle bars!  (I ordered some more, just in case I want to use some really fine threads)  Now the loom is ready to go to work.

I have this skein of Alpaca, Romney lamb with bits of silk that I have been wanting to use in a shawl warp.  I am winding 2 inch bouts on the warping board, and then taking them to the loom, to put them on the sectional warp beam.

I threaded the bout thru the card that I usually use on the tension box.  I didn't want to use the high tension that the tension box would create.

Here is the first section on the loom.  I love the beginnings of a new project, it is all so promising!  Over the next week, I will get the other sections loaded as I have time, and I have to choose the weft,  there are several to choose from, I may just have to do some sampling.

Until next time, Happy Weaving, Tina

Spin In 2013, Tomorrow!

I spent the last couple of days getting ready for tomorrows "Spin In 2013" at Lou Ann's house.  At one point I had every box of fleece I own on the pile of stuff to take, but I realized that I could just take a portion of each and did not have to take the whole fleece!

I have tagged all my spun yarn with information I think might be good to have.  How many yards?  What was the fiber prep?   How was it spun?  What kind of fiber?  All good things to know.  I have even had to go back over my blog posts to see just exactly what kind of fiber a couple of projects were!  That lead to writing down the date the yarn was finished.  Very interesting research!

  I realized that I needed to spin up a couple of samples for tomorrow.  I used my e-spinner, and since I only have one bobbin for it, I got to use this handy dandy wool winder that I borrowed from the center last week.  I suspect that it is 1 yard around, but I have not measured it.

 This is a sample of some wool that is not next to the skin soft.  It is not super coarse either!  I have tried soaking it in a Euclan wash, but it made little difference.   I do think that this would make superb rug warp!

I Navajo plied this sample directly from the wool winder, and it worked pretty well.  I put a little too much twist in the plying, so I dangled the yarn from the second story so that the extra twist would come out!

 My bags are packed, my cookies are baked and I am getting ready to make up some of my  famous BBQ  Pulled Chicken sandwiches, for the pot luck lunch.  If you are in the Knoxville area, and you want to join us, from 10am to 4pm just post a comment below, and we will contact you!

Until next time, Happy Weaving and Spinning, Tina

Some Progress

I have made a little progress  in the Studio since last week.  I finished the Baby Blanket with the larger Overshot design just this morning. In fact it is in the wash this minute, and I will get a picture of it side by side with the old miniature design once it is finished.  These two will make the trip to the Center on Tuesday to get the final opinions.  I am leaning very heavily towards the original miniature pattern, though I could see using the bigger design in something other than a baby blanket.  It makes quite the statement!

I have finished all the natural 30 yd bouts on the 45 inch Leclerc that will be my next Bread Cloth project. I am in progress with the colored stripes.  It is going well, but it is slow going.

I wind all three colors that I am going to use in their proper order.  I want to weave the Bread Cloths with the green stripes first, so that is what I put on the warping board first.  Then the dark blue, and finally the red.  I had just finished a bunch of red ones, so I don't feel like seeing that again for a little while!

The red yarn is loaded onto the loom and I have tied the dk blue yarn onto the red.

Now the green to the blue!

All those little knots went through the thread guide, and the tension box without a hitch!

One down, five more to go!

Last evening, I finally finished the Polwarth Top that My Daughter had given me for my Birthday last December.  I spun this Top using the techniques that I needed to use to get a worsted lace wt yarn.  I stuck to those techniques throughout the entire 4 oz. (Now that is a miracle!)  I plied it tight,  and I must say that I am really pleased with the results. 

Just some glamour shots!  It is still a little damp, but it will be dry when I bring it on Tuesday to show off to the other Weavers!  I am so glad that the pains I took to try to keep the colors from mixing did not work!  This is much more interesting!  I was able to get 660 yds out of the 4 oz, and since the colors are so busy, I plan to do a very simple scarf with it.  I will work up a sample in Stockinette before I make my final decision, I may try to get that done by tuesday as well, so that I can see what  the other knitters at the Center think.

That is all for now,

Until next time, Happy Weaving, Tina

So Proud!

Saturday June 30th, we held our first Spinning lessons, Lou Ann gave us a quick look at that on July first.  In one of the photos you can see my eldest daughter working hard.

She is back on the swing dressed in teal.  She really enjoyed the morning, and ended up taking my electric spinner home that next week.  I also gave her some white shetland roving that she dyed with food coloring.

Last Tuesday, while I was at the center with the Weavers, I received a text from her with a picture.

 She had finished the bobbin!  I passed the photo around and everyone ooohed and aaahed about the color and the fineness of the singles!

The next day she came over to my place and I showed her how to ply.  We plied on the Louet S-10, I could't get the electric spinner to work in reverse this time.  (This picture probably shows the color the best.   Our fingers were pink after we worked with it!)  I also showed her how to use the Niddy-Noddy, which can be really tricky!

After we finished up, we went upstairs to "shop in mom's stash".  She took home 4 ounces of some Moorit Shetland I use to teach spinning, I have a lot of it! She spins at least 15 minutes a day, and is feeling better about it all the time.  

She told me that when she washed the skein at home, she had to change the water at  least 3 times before the excess dye was gone.  The colors are still vibrant, just toned down a smidge.   So there you have it!  I have someone else in the family as crazy as I am!  We may get through those 15 fleeces after all!

Until next time, Happy Weaving and Spinning, Tina

Spinning my wheel!

Ever since I got the spinning bug again, I have mostly been working on 2 spinning projects.  One for me and one for a friend.  I showed you the white alpaca that I am doing for my poultry friend last week.  This week I finished another skein of my Romney.  That makes three I have finished from this fleece.
Just for giggles, I decided to ply it on my little spindle wheel.  It has a huge spindle on it, and I wanted to see just how much I could fit on it.  I plied 4 oz. on it, and I think it could have taken lots more.

Look at the size of this cop!  I am not very good at building a cop evidently, I had some major breakdown towards the front of this one!

Close up!

I think I will be able to get a couple more skeins of  combed Top from this fleece, and I am going to see if I can run the shorter fibers, that the combing separates out, through the drum carder and spin them up as well.

I just love the look and feel of this yarn!

This skein is 426 yds, and 4oz., I should get out the other skeins and take a pic of all three together.  If  I get a chance today, I will post that pic later.

I will have enough yarn to do something really substantial, I was thinking of a handwoven shawl or something like that.  I have even toyed with the idea of dyeing the yarn!  I know aren't you shocked!  I have always said I have drawn the line at dyeing!  Well, if Lou Ann can take up spinning, I might just have to pull out the roaster and the food coloring!

Until next time, Happy Weaving, Spinning and Dyeing, Tina