New Goals - New Direction - Back at the beginning

I can hardly believe that it has been 3 years since I last wrote on this blog - and probably almost as long since I spun regularly and with passion. My journey over the last three years has been a long one - it has been a journey for a purpose, and one in which the end of the road isn't quite in sight yet.

Categories

Part A - fibres

1. short wool and down
2. long wool and lustre
3. mountain and hill
4. cotton - any fibres
5. flax - must include flax line
6. silk - any fibres
7. two other fibres, own choice - natural or handmade - I am certain that I will be spinning alpaca for one of these as I have a whole alpaca fleece and have enjoyed spinning this in the past.

All the above - minimum length 100m

Part B, design of fancy yarns
6 skeins - minimum weight 10g

Part C - Test Piece

Time is flying by and I haven't had the time to do anything

Time seems to be rushing away with me.  It's already near the end of August and I haven't done anything for my cofa for what seems like an eternity.

I need to be more organised so I have set myself some targets.  I may need a bit of a push - so if you don't hear from me - get in touch and tell me to get on with it.

So here are my targets for my CofA for August - bearing in mind that there is just under two weeks left in the month.

1. Make a list of the fleeces that I have and categorise them..
2. Make a file up for each of the categories.
3. Look up information on each of the fleeces that I have and file it.
4. Put samples of raw and washed fleece for each of the categories in the file.
5. Sort and clean one fleece for each of the following categories - AND DON'T FORGET TO LABEL IT!!!
1. short wool and down
2. longwool and lustre
3. hill and mountain - or is it mountain and hill

Hampshire Down Fleeces - progress - Yippee!!!

I have been making progress with the Hampshire Down Fleeces that I bought earlier on in the year.  I am still disappointed with the amount of dirt and vegetable matter that they contain.  The fleeces are not easy to sort as the staples are quite open and they can't be unrolled into a recognisable sheep shape.  The fleece just breaks up.  However, I have been very ruthless and sorted through to find some cleaner slightly longer, finer staples with less rubbish in.

I washed and dried this before drum carding.  This is only my practise, but for my CofA I will hand card as I believe that I will get better results. During my practise I have discovered that the advice I have been given about light and fluffy preparation by a fellow Online Guild member seems to be spot on.  I have also hand painted (dyed) some of the fleece to experiment with a bit of colour. 

By selecting better fleece to start with and improving on my preparation I have obtained better results.  I am still struggling to get an even yarn though as I find that I am concentrating very hard on the technique and finding a consistent yarn hard to achieve.

More Mountain and Hill Fleece - Derbyshire Gritstone

Spent a lovely day at Blackstone Edge Farm in the Staffordshire Moorlands/Derbyshire borders.  We were welcomed by Mr and Mrs Waller who also kindly provided cakes and refreshments.

The highlight of the day was being able to see the sheep sheared and then being able to select fleece directly from the sheep.  I bought several fleeces - a Zwartbles fleece and two Derbyshire Gritstone fleeces (which I have the intention of trying out for the Mountain and Hill section of the certificate of achievement).

Mountain & Hill Breeds

I have been busy researching mountain and hill breeds. Which breed I use for my CofA will depend on what fleece I can get. Last year I bought some Whitefaced Woodland fleece from a local lady who is also a member of one of the guilds that I attend. The staples are quite long and I think that it will be interesting experimenting with different preparation methods as well as different spinning methods. Last year I also had a Cheviot fleece from the wool board and I don't think it would be difficult to obtain another fleece either from the wool board or locally.

Ashford Wild Drum Carder

My new Ashford Wild Drum Carder has arrived today. As soon as it came out of the box, my daughter Selina put some fibre on to try it. From the sound it made I think that the teeth are possibly a little bit too close, so I will be adjusting it slightly.

I am then planning to drum card some of the Hampshire Down fleece that I have already washed and dried for yet more longdraw practise.

Photos to follow....

Update on Hampshire Down Fleeces

I have now collected 7 hampshire down fleeces - as per my previous post. I have to say, that they were a lot grubbier than I expected and there was a lot of vegetable matter in the fleece too. I will have to spend a lot of time meticulously picking through and washing the fleece. They were also a little more expensive than I remember discussing - I didn't think it was worth arguing about - but I certainly wont be recommending her to the other ladies in the guild.

Anyway, I now have a bulkbag full of Hampshire Down fleece to work my way through. It may seem a lot, but I do need a lot of practise at longdraw. They have got to be spun longdraw - but that's what you expect from a short stapled down fleece anyway as the staples have got a lot of crimp and they are very, very short. . Longdraw is not my favourite technique and my practise attempts so far have given seriously fuzzy yarns with some inconsistences in thickness.

Once the CofA is over and done with, I can't see me wanting to go out and get another job lot of of hampshire down fleece.

PHOTOS TO FOLLOW .....

Longwool & Lustre - Fibre Prep

Here is a picture of some wensleydale that I have combed using the dutch combs and put through a diz to produce a roving ready to spin. This type of preparation is necessary for worsted spinning. Although the technique required is short draw - I have to keep reminding myself to keep my hands well apart to allow for the length of the staple.

Unfortunately I have now broken my dutch combs when trying to straighten the tines, so I am now on the look out for a set of 'viking combs' or 'english combs' - hopefully I wont have to spend a fortune.

Very greasy shetland fleece

In the summer I was given half a dozen shetland fleeces. I have just got around to washing a few of them. The first one that I have washed is possibly the greasiest fleece I have ever come across. The grease hasn't hardened at all. I have washed it (well lightly scoured it) and dried it and it is just too 'sticky' to card into my usual light and fluffy rolags. I have just given it a second wash and although it is still wet (spun in my spin dryer) I can still feel the greasiness. I hope that I can sort this out, as this grey fleece has got great potential.

Has it really been so long

I can't believe that I haven't posted anything here since October. I have been busy for the last few months with my latest project for my degree course, so the Certificate of Achievement has had to take a back seat.

I have been practising my spindle spinning and have found that I can spin much finer now that I have bought some seriously light spindles from Mike Williams at the Staffordshire Moorlands Guild's advent gathering. This has helped me with my fine spinning on my wheels.

I have begun to get the hang of spinning on the Ashford Traveller - it just took some getting used to as I was used to spinning on the Louet & Chitty. I had also bought another version of Chitty - named Chitty 2. This wheel would not draw and I was sure it was because the diameter of the bobbin was practically the same as the diameter of the wheel on the spindle. Selina had the marvellous idea of taking the smaller bobbin off Chitty to see if this solved the problem and it did - Yippee!!!

So I took the flyers of the wheels and handed these over to Mike Williams to see if he could make a couple of bobbins for me that would work. He reckons they will be done after Christmas - so I will hopefully hear something in the next couple of weeks.

Although Chitty is a clunky and noisy little thing, I do find it easy to spin finely on it - so I am quite looking forward to getting the flyers back so that I can get practising on the little darlings.

Selina has had an Ashford Joy with Carrying Bag for Christmas as the Louet was getting knocked about in the car when going to guild meetings. She has now got to get used to a new wheel too.

Viscose and trilobal nylon pics

These are some pics of the tencel and trilobal nylon that I had been practising with. The Tencel (top) was really quite shiny and took some getting used to. The trilobal nylon (bottom) was easier to spin. I was just trying to get the feel of fibres that I wasn't familliar with. I also wanted to improve my drafting skills in order to spin thick and thin as required, rather than worry about spinning a consistant yarn thickness. I also spun some thickish bright white trilobal nylon - but have just realised that I didn't take any pics of that - oops.

Back on the wool again

I have not been well - really bad cold - possible swine flu - stuck in the house.

I need to improve my wool techniques, so I decided to make the most of the time and practise preparing fibre for worsted spinning.

So I have washed some fleeces, got my dutch combs out and practised wool combing with Dutch combs and practised using a diz to making rovings - I am more pleased with my fibre preparation and am beginning to enjoy combing better than carding but my spinning is still not good enough. So I haven't dared to post any pictures of my sample yarns and I haven't posted any pictures of my rovings and fibre prep as I may want to use them in the body of work that I will be submitting for assessment. Below is a pic of some Masham - the curly one on the left and some Romney that I have scoured. They both came from the wool marketing board and I have to say that the Masham was a bit on the rough side - still - it will make good practise - I just hope that if I decide to use Masham I can get my hands on a good fleece for my final submission work.

Experimenting with viscose and tri-lobal nylon

I have become a little disheartened with my wool spinning. I know in theory what I am doing - and have read Mabel Ross's offerings over and over (along with every other book in my rapidly exanding library) - but no matter what I do, I just don't get the result I am looking for. So I have decided to quit spinning wool for a while and practise other materials.

1. Tri lobal nylon - I have both bright white and dyed tri-lobal nylon and have been practising spinning both thick and thin yarns with each. Probably iro 25 wpi and 12 wpi
2. Viscose - Again, I have been practising thick and thin yarns - having said that - my thick wasn't exactly thick. I reckon that the thin was iro 50 wpi and the thick 25 to 30 wpi.

I have been trying to improve my thick and thin yarns as the syllabus requires me to spin thick and thin and consider plies and purpose. The wpi's above were for the singles and by the time they were plied they were much thicker and would represent a range of yarn thicknesses.

I have enjoyed spinning both and am keen to experiment more with these fibres. My main problem is that I need to get my head around spinning for a purpose - and not just spinning because I want to.

So - any suggestions for what kind of yarn I should spin with each and with suggested uses or a project/purpose in mind would be appreciated.

pics to follow

Hampshire Down Sheep at Bakewell Show

I went to Bakewell Show in August and eagerly rushed over to the sheep section. There weren't very many breeds represented. There were more texels than anything other breed, and sadly most of these had been sprayed to highlight their conformation. (Sadly from a spinners point of view that is). There were quite a few jacobs, and a few other breeds, but more excitingly - there was a pen of young Hampshire Downs. They were dressed in lovely little jackets to protect their fleece. I took down the contact details from the breeders information board above the pen. I really wish all of the breeders would put up their contact details.

It has taken me three weeks to pluck up the courage to call about the possibility of getting a few fleece from this flock for my C of A. I was so glad I called. The flock owner was a very kind and helpful lady who was easy to speak to and was pleased to hear from someone who was interested in the fleece. She has no fleeces from this years shearing - but I have left my contact details for next time. Hampshire Down are a particularly cute breed of sheep. I haven't spun a fleece from this breed before and I just hope that when I finally get my hands on a fleece - I am not disappointed and find it suitable for my C of A.

Fibre Stash

I have been collecting different fibres for spinning practise for my Certificate of Achievement. Here is a picture of my stash. There is alpaca, possum, yak, cotton (in various forms), lots of silk - caps, bricks, throwsters waste, filament, cocoon strippings - all sorts, flax line and tow, tencel, ramie, viscose and nylon. I have also got about 14 fleeces in the shed waiting to be picked over and cleaned. Hopefully, by the time I have worked my way through this lot, I should be pretty darn good at spinning just about anything.

Registered and eager to start - but where? Wool, cotton, flax, silk or something else?

I have now got to start on my portfolio of samples. A range of yarns in various thicknesses, appropriate for the fibre being spun and the use to which it will be put. Singles and plied yarns to be included & all hanks to be at least 100m in length.

As I usually spin wool, this would seem the most sensible place to start - but there are so many combinations to consider:

Wool - to be spun woollen and worsted as appropriate.

1. short wool and down
2. long wool and lustre
3. mountain and hill

I am beginning to think that it may be easier to start with flax!