Monday, February 8, 2010

Strawberry moose, Woven tote, February already!

Remarkable stretch in the day and getting time for ewes to come close to the house in case they lamb early. Some have that "saddle-bag" look all right so the ram seems to have got one or two in early (the devil!). Shouldn't be due until April.
Trying out a Turkish Spindle. Seemed like a good idea as the Ball winder is involved with another yarn (using the light-weight top whorl cutie) and the spinning wheel has boring red stuff on it.
Took me a little while to get the idea of spinning with this new one and wrapping the spun yarn around the cross-pieces but I do like it. It's fairly heavy (anout 70 gms/2.5 oz) which is moderately heavy in spindle world but of course it gets heavier as the ball on the end increases. This is not a problem as I've made fairly tight, longitudinal rolags on the hand carders for this Strawberry Moose yarn and it does not pull apart too easily;
Strawberry moose0006
Used most of Soft Steel alpaca/wool blend I had left over to weave some cloth which turned into a tote bag.
On the knitters loom complete with T-towel:
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Planning to twist the finge as it's a bit too shaggy:
soft steel tote 06
Has a little pocket inside
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Not lined, perhaps it should be.
This yarn was the easiest of the three I've woven so far. It's very strong, has bounce (that'll be the wool) but also drapes (that'll be the alpaca) and didn't object to being beaten.
Interestingly, this is a thick 2-ply about 7 - 8 WPI - definitely bulky and ot suited the 7.5 dpi heddle better than the ones I deliberately spun to be 14 WPI and so, in theory, better suited to that heddle. No avoiding the swatch then!

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