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After the Tour de Fleece, what next?

3/8/2013

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Akimbo scarf
Well, of course, after spinning, comes knitting! This is the start of my Akimbo by Stephen West of Westknits. I'm not quite sure I'll have enough yarn to finish it, so as well as making it smaller, I might have to attempt to dye some merino to match. I'll wait until I'm SURE I don't have enough, though.
I'm using the Falkland wool for the main part of the scarf, and I'll be patterning with some Dark Brown Haunui Halfbred from my stash. Akimbo has an amazing 'Spiderman' border.
I should explain that this year I'm destashing my unspun fibre into yarn - so it will be quite a lot of spinning  (especially as I can't resist swaps, which always seem to result in upstashing)

Carousel
As I'm still recovering from my recent surgery, I've spent quite a lot of time at the wheel over the last few days.
I had started spinning this Carousel/ Light grey halfbred before the TdF. I had 50gr on the bobbin, so this week I finished the second 50gr and plied both bobbins, then spun up another 50gr of long repeat dyed halfbred which I had left over from a coils experiment. Amazing that the same fibre can produce fine fingering yarn and bulky coils! My plans for this yarn are going to have to change, as I WAS going to make a shawl out of both yarns, but unfortunately spun the second yarn much finer so I doubt if that will work. Maybe a knit shawl with a crochet border might still work?

Spun yarns
And the third yarn to be finished was the rest of the boucle from the TdF. I still had the silk to spin, and the remaining mohair to prepare into batts and spin. 
Previously I'd just drum carded it, but got much better results by flicking first, so this is what I did with the second batch. I still have quite a few mohair locks left over to practise lockspinning with! 

So, all in all, a satisfying week on the spinning front! However, not so satisfying as far as dyeing is concerned. I'm happy to say, though, that I'm back in the shed now, with no ill effects, so I think 'work as usual' will prevail from now on.
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Day 22-23 - The End!

22/7/2013

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Nightfall/Dark Grey halfbred
Day 22 was a mix of wheel and spindle again - as you see I'm well into the second ply of the Nightfall over Dark Grey, and have started on another hanky in my rainbow hanky collection (I got this via a Ravelry swap last year - thank, Sourkraut!). Dry hands make working with the hankies a bit frustrating, but I've been told to rub lemon juice on rather than use handcream - as handcream can stain silk irretrievably.

I really wanted to complete something on Day 23, so I got spinning yesterday and finished the Nightfall, as well as plying it. So satisfying. While I was working, I listened to "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" as a talking book. 
Picture
Well, the end of the Tour arrived much sooner than I'd thought. I feel a bit sad that it had to happen, but keeping up this level of spinning, posting and blogging would be totally exhausting over a longer period! I'm so happy that I managed to get as much done as I did, with all the interruptions. I still have my lockspinning to do, but I want to wait until I feel totally recovered before I do anything complex.
spindles and silk
Not only did it make the time pass quickly, it also ensnared Ken, who was quite disgusted when I halted the book before he'd found out what happened at the end. I've read it before, and seen the film, but it's quite different read aloud - very moving.
So this is the final yarn, which is a double knitting weight. You know, I always thought worsted weight was the English 3-ply. Now I know better! If I wasn't learning how to controll my long draw right-handed rather than left, I would have done a MUCH better job with this yarn. It's not too even and I would like it to be finer, much finer.
Progress moves on apace with this lovely scarf pattern - Birdsfoot Fern - which I'm making in a shorter version because I was terrified I'd run out of yarn...but I still have plenty left to complete it, which should happen later today. I will blog again with FOs from the tour as they happen!


Tour de Fleece 2013
Camel/silk scarf
Total TdF output
From top left:
Spindle spun yarn, 1 ply merino in Ink, one ply silk hankies from The Midnight Sheep
Singles on the spindles
Boucle yarn - one ply of merino/silk from my hoard; one ply of hand-dyed drum-carded mohair, specifically dyed for this project; one ply of hanky silk, again dyed for this project. I got about 1/2 of this yarn done; more to come later.
100gr Falkland tops from a swap parcel on Ravelry, n-plied
100gr Haunui Halfbred in Dark grey/ Nightfall, traditional 2-ply
Bottom: Birdsfoot Fern scarf in baby camel down from the same swap parcel (NZDebz, thanks so much!) plied with purpose-dyed silk from hankies. Yet to be completed and blocked.
Quite a swag!

Thanks for following along with my blog over the Tour! I hope you'll be along for TdF 2014. We've had a great time in the Heavenly Wools group.
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Day 16 - and time for a little break!

15/7/2013

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Nightfall over Dark Grey
So, yesterday was Day 16 - and time to start a new lot of fibre. I dyed this Nightfall over Dark Grey specially for this week of TdF - and I'm loving spinning it on my new wheel, Ottoline. Why the fancy name? Well, Charlie Tyler, the maker, gave each of his wheels a woman's name - and as he made over 600, the names got pretty exoticover time. Ottoline is made of Japanese Oak and is exquisitely handcrafted in the  Norwegian tradition.

Flyer, Ottoline
Here's the first spin of this fibre on Ottoline; as you can see, she's a double drive - and this is my first double drive wheel - it's a strange kind of feeling. Built for production, the wheel treadles like a dream and is very quiet for an older wheel.

The other fibre is silk in hanky form. I still have half the merino/silk combo for the boucle yarn I made last week, and this is to finish that project.

Silk; Easycraft A-line Wheel
Here's the first lot of the second spin - this is the third ply. I had to stop after a while as I kept changing spin direction - this ply is an 'S' and I kept losing concentration. Probably best not to tackle this one while watching T.V.

This wheel is my sweet little Easycraft A-line. Sometimes you'll see this wheel with a different flyer - my dear Ken made it for me so I could use my many Ashford bobbins on this wheel as well as on my Ashford 'workhorse'.

It may be a few days before you see me here again - today is a rest day in TdF, and tomorrow I'm off to have a small problem I've been suffering from fixed up - which may mean a few days of total rest. I'm hoping not, but it just might - so I'll catch up with you when I'm up and about again.
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Finally, a finished yarn!

5/7/2013

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TdF Day 6
I spent most of my spinning time yesterday spinning the very fine silk 3rd ply, which is used to bind the mohair loops in place. I really enjoyed the process, but because it was so fine, it took a long time!

In the evening I began to ply the silk onto the boucle 2-ply. This didn't go well, as the first five minutes revealed that the first plying wasn't tight enough, so I ran the first yarn through the wheel again to add more twist.

Then I began to ply again, wrapping the binder rather than straight plying. This effect didn't appeal visually, so I skeined the first 20m off and washed it, then inspected it to see how I liked it. It was nearly balanced, but still didn't appeal, so I plied the rest of the bobbin normally, with a fairly low twist. This looked a lot better, so I washed the yarn and left it to dry overnight.

Today I WILL get to the second batch of hankies: fuchsia red, and perhaps start plying with the baby camel down singles from days one and two.
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Day 5: Boucle is coming together

4/7/2013

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Picture
Slowly but surely - yesterday evening I finished what boucle I could - turns out that 1 bobbin of mohair only covers 1/2 bobbin of the silk/merino, so I'll be having to prepare some more batts and spin some more mohair singles later, but for now I'm concentrating on finishing enough silk singles to bind the 2-ply I've done so far.

The silk hankies are surprisingly quick to spin from the corner - I'm going to get Ken to video me doing that in the weekend, and I'll post it then. I have already been doing this with my spindles, but I'd never spun from hankies from the corner with my wheel before - I'd always started pulling them out  from the centre and attenuated into roving. Spinning from the corner is so much easier and goes so quickly.

So: Z-spun core of merino/silk (so old I haven't any idea what the proportions were) with lots of twist, mohair singles spun from my own batts, also high twist, plied S with medium twist; binding thread of fine silk, medium S-twist, to be plied Z with the 2-ply. We shall see!

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    Kate is a semi-retired photographer and craft dyer who lives in Southland, New Zealand.

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  • Home
    • Hints & Tips >
      • Felting Tips >
        • Lighting
      • Photographing your work
      • Framing Shots
      • Image Editing
      • Making a Felt Sample
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    • About Haunui Handcraft Wools
    • About Kate
    • Resources >
      • Online Shop
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  • Projects
    • Norwegian Stocking Cap
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    • Needle Felting
    • Using My Wool >
      • Anna Maria Hat
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      • No-spin scarf videos
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