Last May, my daughter and I went to a knitting retreat. While I was there I spun 5 bobbins full of a dark brown Romney/Corriedale/Shetland/Lincoln crossbred fleece. It is really almost black, which is unusual in a natural fleece. After that, I spun this same fleece, (among others fleeces as well,) while demonstrating at the Museum, each time I finished a bobbin, I would wind the single off with a ball winder, and just keep going. My plan was to compare the different balls and see if I needed to even them up a bit in the plying process.
After that long weekend of non stop spinning, 9-5pm at the Museum of Appalachia, you would think that I wouldn't want to see another fleece for a long time, but that is not the case.
You see, I sold a couple of my handspun handwoven pieces while I was there, and that did nothing but fire me up! In fact, after my shawl sold on Friday, I spun double, or even triple time the whole rest of the weekend! I was so excited!
Monday and Tuesday were very busy days, but Wednesday morning, I had the house to myself, and nothing but time to "work". I plied the first 2 balls of the crossbred fleece that I mentioned above, and since it had been wound for quite some time, I gave it what might look like extra twist before washing reawakens the fibers in the yarn. The skein had a slight twist to it, but I didn't worry about that one bit. After washing, the skein was as quiet as it could be, so I knew that I could use the same amount of twist on the rest of the skeins.
I have a scarf on the rigid heddle, but I plan to do at least one shawl with this yarn once the scarf is off. I will probably be able to do 2 of them, because I know that I have one more skein to finish of this fleece.
I haven't measured the yardage yet, but that will happen tomorrow. When they will be measured and tagged so that I can keep track of my production, and estimate what I can do with it. I know that I will need close to 1000 yards for each shawl.
It is just one of the projects that I want to complete before the Foothills Crafts Guild Craft Show, that will be held in Knoxville. The Tuesday Weavers will have a booth, like we have the last 3 years. The white yarn in the background is super soft, and it will become a super special shawl as well.
Upstairs in the weaving studio, I would like to replenish my stock of Bread Cloths, since I sold every single one at the Museum. I have a warp almost totally threaded on the loom already. I also have a placemat/runner warp on another loom that I would like to use blue jean strips on. The warp in in blues and tan, I think it will look good.
Tomorrow, I will be cutting blue jean strips, for that warp, and threading the bread cloth warp, as well as working on that scarf on the rigid heddle, I can't wait to get to the shawls! There truly is never a dull moment around here!
I hope to have some pictures to show you next week of the finished shawls, and bread cloths in progress.
Until then, Happy Spinning, Knitting and Weaving, Tina
You see, I sold a couple of my handspun handwoven pieces while I was there, and that did nothing but fire me up! In fact, after my shawl sold on Friday, I spun double, or even triple time the whole rest of the weekend! I was so excited!
Monday and Tuesday were very busy days, but Wednesday morning, I had the house to myself, and nothing but time to "work". I plied the first 2 balls of the crossbred fleece that I mentioned above, and since it had been wound for quite some time, I gave it what might look like extra twist before washing reawakens the fibers in the yarn. The skein had a slight twist to it, but I didn't worry about that one bit. After washing, the skein was as quiet as it could be, so I knew that I could use the same amount of twist on the rest of the skeins.
I have a scarf on the rigid heddle, but I plan to do at least one shawl with this yarn once the scarf is off. I will probably be able to do 2 of them, because I know that I have one more skein to finish of this fleece.I haven't measured the yardage yet, but that will happen tomorrow. When they will be measured and tagged so that I can keep track of my production, and estimate what I can do with it. I know that I will need close to 1000 yards for each shawl.
Upstairs in the weaving studio, I would like to replenish my stock of Bread Cloths, since I sold every single one at the Museum. I have a warp almost totally threaded on the loom already. I also have a placemat/runner warp on another loom that I would like to use blue jean strips on. The warp in in blues and tan, I think it will look good.
Tomorrow, I will be cutting blue jean strips, for that warp, and threading the bread cloth warp, as well as working on that scarf on the rigid heddle, I can't wait to get to the shawls! There truly is never a dull moment around here!
I hope to have some pictures to show you next week of the finished shawls, and bread cloths in progress.
Until then, Happy Spinning, Knitting and Weaving, Tina
1 comment:
Would it be fair to say you are spinning and winding???? All that lovely handspun is a sight to behold!
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