Chubut orange/tan and all spun

 Chubut Orange and Tan Laceweight (12 - 14 WPI)

643 yards/588 meter

187 gms/7 oz

All the Chubut hanks - 

What willl become of them? Don't know but it has been fun spinning them and it is a lovely lovely fibre.

Chubut lace: untwisting

 It became clear with my lace swatch that the pattern amendment I made i.e. SSK every second lace tow did not remove the twisting from the knitted piece;

See, still shows an anticlockwise twist.

However, using YO k 2 tog THROUGH BACK LOOPS every row seems to fix the problem.

So I could continue knitting this to make small neck tie perhaps with a nick pin

BUT

I then decided I din't like to much and changed over to trying a 2X2 rib on 4 mm needles instead.

Much prefer this - for now anyway.

Next up, the orange and tan 2 plys, currently drying on the swift after being set in warm water.

More Chubut Spun

 Fractal spinning was a lot of fun to do especially during lockdown.

The rovings waiting to be spun:

          

Setting up the fibers:

99 gms of each color ; 

each color divided into three

set 1: 33 gms of red (R), black (B), cream(C)

set 2: 16.5 gms of each color X 2 in sequence RBC x2

set 3: 11 gms of each color X 3 in sequence RBC x3

Each tray spun into lace weight singles on 3 spools

3 Plys keep changing colours in strips - which makes spinning interesting;

Fractal 3 ply spun on swift

Chubut fractal WPI around 9

Overall result: 259 gms, 9 wpi, 301 m/330 yards

Soft to the touch fairly even.

This is the loveliest fibre I've experienced. Although very fine (16.6 mic), the fibers are fairly long and easy to spin.

The dying was excellent too - almost no bleed at all when soaked to set in hand-hot water.

A LITTLE MULTICOLOR LACEWEIGHT.

There was a little roving left over from the fractal prep - Red, Black and Cream adding up to 45 grams

This was spin in to a graduated lace weight giving 183 yards/167.3 m 

I've knitted a swatch using 3.25 mm needles first then 4 mm needles and decided on the 4 mm for a little project.

Swatch

I've planned to make a little scare with gr=arter stitch and lace knitting (I've holes) as follows:

C/O 30 

Garter stitch 10 rows

Pattern:

K4 (YO 2 tog) x 11, K4

K4 P 22 K4

K2 (YO SSK) x 13, K2

K2 P26 K2

Repeat this until color change comes up, the Garter stitch 4 rows then begin pattern again.

The swatch showed me that it is important not to use 2 tog all the time as this will lead to skewing the lace to the right. The SSK fixes this although it is a bit annoying to do.

Adding rows of garter stitch tends to keep the pattern straight and underscored the color changes. Hoping to get a bit of satisfaction out of this while planning the next (and last for now) spinning adventure - the autumnal orange and tan 2 ply from the last rovings.

Next post: what twisted the lace knit and how to fix the pattern to suit the handspun.

CHUBUT MIXED COLORS

 Entering second partial lockdown November 2020, I decided to treat myself to some luxury fibre so I could spin something interesting during this time. I've haunted all the walking sports pithing 5 kg of my house and really miss the beaches which are out of bounds.

I ordered from my favorate source, Wolleknoll, Oberot-Neuhausen , Germany. Their web site has an English language version and I get their catalog. I love that it is so easy to distinguish exactly what is on offer with details such as Price/Kg, number of microns clearly indicated on each fibres type. Thecolors are lovely too.

I went for two packs of Chubut assorted colours, 16.5 microns. It is easy to track the order and it arrived in a few days. 

The fibre is very very soft yet easy enough to spin.

I've played around with it without any real end-product in mind other than making lots of different sorts of yarn - with color play, different weights/plys and techniques.

First off, I decided to make a chunky three-ply using pink, light green and grey. The pink is a lovely hot color but I'm not mad about hot pink so I "greyed" it down.

Chunky - 6 wraps per inch.

Soaking in warm water with washing up liquid

In a squidgy nest

189 meters/207 yards            303 grams                average 6 WRI chunky        very soft

Not very even - there are spots that bloom along the way - but this allows the individual colours to make a more definite appearance rather than disappear into the marl.

Approk 18 -19 grams each of the solid ping and green were left over so I plied them on themselves and they might be useful for adding small accents to a piece knitted from the marled yarn.

Next a 2-ply using blue and yellow.

I opened the blue roving using carders to facilitate spinning for this one as I planned to spin a finer yarn

.

Long, silky fibres! Lovely.

I spun these using short forward draw with hands around  6 inches apart . Idid the same with the yellow.

195 grams.        274 meters/300 yards  10 WPI

Next up - a fractal!!!

Using Red (R) , Black (B), Cream (C)

99 Grams of each divided in to 3 ie 33 grams X 3 R, 33 grams B X B, 33 grams C X3

Spool 1: R33g followed by B 33 followed by 33g C. one pattern run

Spool 2: R 16g followed by B 16g followed by C 16g repeated once i.e. 2 pattern runs

Spool 3: R 11g followed by B 11 g followed by C 11g repeated twice i.e. 3 pattern runs

I know the beginning will be solid red blowed by red/black but not sure what exactly will follow in terns of marls and solids - and that's what makes it fun to do!

Here they are lined up ready to spin into singles:

Spinning singles at 24 WPI for each sequence of colours

 Singles lined up for plying 

Spinning in progress

First change of sequence:

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

6th

7th

and so on.

See : More Chubut spun   Novemebr 28 2020

Cangora

Cangora or DoggieDown is what some call the fluffy undercoat that is shed by certain dogs who have double coats for added insulation.

When I brush my Border Collie ( redhead called Connie), I often save the softest brushings and put a handful in a little net bag (off fruit) then wash with Fairy Liquid and leave it to dry.

I had built up enough to spin a fair amount of two-plied singles. I then went in search of a pattern that might suit this soft fuzzy yarn.

As it was next-to-delicate-skin type yarn, I looked for some type of neck warmer such as a cowl.
Low and behold, I found just the thing on Ravelry, Absolu Keyhole Cowl by Stephanie Steinhaus.
Her pattern on Ravelry:


The yarn even looks similar to Coagora

This is howdy Cangora version it looks:

With a broach:

With Corcks in the garden!

Feels Lovely.

Alpaca Spun

SO, spun the Alpaca.
Takes up a lot less room now - but not sure what it will eventually become.

Three LONG hanks and one smaller one.

The long ones make up 513 yards of approx. 8 twists per inch.

There are of course some thin bits (this being home-prepped and hand-spun).

There is also a smaller hank that I've not measured

The colors is sort of milk chocolate.

It feels soft and is draped rather than bouncy.

The reason for the long (and eventually inconvenient although visually alluring) hanks - had to do with possible weaving - but I"m not sure now.

Ah well!

Spin or Bin - Alpaca

As I referred to in the last blog post here, I have quite a lot of raw fibre - sheep and alpaca fleece - stashed in the attic and other presses.

It is taking up space and I have to make a decision as to what should happed to it.

None of it is either exotic or fine enough to offer to another spinner so it comes down to spin it or bin it.

I have already disposed of several small samples of different fibre in a mixed batt which was fun to make. It is spun into singles and plied with Logwood dyed singles to make a bulky yarn - which takes up much less space as a hank than the raw fibre did and it may well find itself in a new knitted or crocheted rug.

Next, I have a rather ugly sheep-feed plastic bag full of raw uncleaned russet-coloured Alpaca fleece, donated to me by someone who themselves had it from an Alpaca owner, quite a few years ago now.

I decided to drum-card it, draw off rollags and spin woolen-style on my Ashford Traveller. I've spun something similar before but used combing and worsted spinning and got a fairly harsh yarn. I don't know if this was due to the fleece that time being coarser, or whether I had not selected from it properly, leaving in too much leg hair for example but anyway, I want this one t to be softer and "squishier".

Initially I took locks, teased them and removed noils,  nibs, second cuts and dirt and then drum-carded a batt. The batt came about 3/4 ways up the tynes of the carder. I then drew it off using a dowel rod I had forming a pretty large role!! Large indeed - much too big and dense to spin easily.

Turns out it weighed about 29 grams - much too big.

After some testing, I settled on carding 4 grams of cleaned and teased locks and drew it off on a small rolling pin to create a much more open role.

This spun pretty easily into a single which plys back on itself with 4 - 5 twists per inch. I've kept a sample for further spinning and will work my way through this over the coming week.

I note old Border Collie, Hudson, above in the photo. At 18 years old, he is rather limited in his abilities yet he manages to show up wherever the action is and like his younger step-sister Connie, can obstruct that action including bringing the spinning wheel to a halt with his hinders.

The 4 gram roll being drawn off:

More to come in time.

Logwood and Wensleydale wool

After 9 months in our Wexford home, I still have not sorted out all my crafty stuff - although there is a designated area to store most of it and work on projects.
The tiny attic is filled with washed fleece from my previous flock in Ardnacraney and there are several bags of fleece, unprocessed or combed or carded hanging around and I cannot remember why I selected them and placed them in mysterious bags.

I decided I must either prep. and spin these latter or, shocks and horror , throw them out!!

So, prep and spin it is - for now.

I drum carded several different types of sheep' wool together with bits of silk, bamboo and Angelina and spun the batt into a single on my Ashford Traveller, freely but prioritising  softness  over evenness.

DAU* Texel cross, Jacob, Doggie down**, silk, bamboo, tonsil all mixed up.

*Droim An Uan.   Border Collie undercoat

I planned to spin another spool of singles dyed in a darker colour compared to those in the batt.

Hanging about is a bag of Logwood chips and a rather stained stocking also containing Logwood chips - probably pre-used.

 The dried chops are in the zip-lock bag and the previously used chips are stored after use in stockings to be used again.

These were given to me several years ago by a good friend and I was rather fearful of trying to use them until I had done a dying workshop at Irish Fibre crafters in Ardrahan last December.

I looked up the method of dying with Logwood and proceeded.



Of note, my hands became quite blue after working with the dyed fibre.

The Logwood dye seemed not to be water soluble, but rubbed off with a nailbrush and washing up liquid. Then I realised that this dye is Haematoxylin, much used in bio laboratories to stain cells in histology and microbiology so it liked my skin but not the water!

The final yarn plied up as a super-chunky "Logwood and multi" yarn  - about 97 yards

The three singles in centre-pull balls from left to right show the result of first Logwood after-wash dip, full concentration dye bath and second after-wash dip on the alum mordanted wool singles.

WENSLYDALE

Almost as a reaction to the chunkiness, I find myself spinning lighter weight yarn from Wensleydale carded fibre.

The 1798 Spinners are planning to display various sheep breeds' locks, spun and swatched at the Tinahely ag. show this summer. Being prone to self-torment, I decided on the Wensleydale as my example. I stought to find a source within the Republic of Ireland. (I  tend to try to keep my spending as local as I can i.e. in the ROI and, failing that, within the EU. The latter is not easy as the search engines seem to be loaded against this, favouring UK and US - but that's another days work).

Anyway, I did find just one Wens. flock in the ROI - which has since dispersed but the former flock owner was able to furnish me with some deep green dyed locks first and then about 450 gms of carded locks. All very nice indeed.

I made a b*l*s of spinning the green locks I think although I may later incorporate them in a shawl or some such but they do illustrate the way these long locks retains their ouster after dying. Plus, it was great fun to do.

Now I'm testing how to spin the carded fibre and have settled on a low-twist (only about 4 per inch softly plied. I'm using 4 - 5 inch backward draw slowly twisting and with little tension. The "trick" will be to ply it stable so as to avoid a yarn which is too lax to knit comfortably. I'm planning a weight around 9 - 10 wraps per inch and then dye the two-plied yarn with a sequence of four colours.

I have dye made up in bottles for some time so I plan to use these with the addition of some citric acid to aid binding.


I decided to spin the singles on the eSpinner and then ply them on the Ashford Traveller spinning wheel.

Tried to keep hands well apart but as you can see, I was in and out dealing with various thicknesses and then testing a length for "twistiness". If too twisty, drawing back until it reduces then run onto the spindle.
Looking for a finer yarn width but tried not to make it too firm/string-like.

Dye bottles, tested on some kitchen paper - I wanted bejewelled colours if possible.

I added a bright yellow to the set.

D

I wound four hanks in a continuous sequence and dyed each hank separately on the stove.

The final long hank with rather vivid colours.

YARN DESCRIPTION

In accordance with what one might expect from the long-locked Wensleydale breed, the yarn drapes rather then bounces and has a fairly good sheen after dying.

VITAL STATISTICS OF THEI HANK

Weight: 185 grams/6.5 oz

Number of yards: 241

                             of this, 22.7 yards are yellow,

                                         54.6 yards are blue

                                         63.7 yards are green

                                       100.2 yards are violet

Wraps per inch = 9 - 10.     worsted/DK

Yards/pound = 593.7

Next project addresses the pile of fleece sitting in bags in my craft room cupboard and the little attic.

I'm calling this the Spin it or Bin it project - either it gets spun or it heads for the bin.