Tastes of the exotic - TdF 12 Days 2 and 3

Aw, I love the Tour de Fleece over on Ravelry.  I'm always so inspired by it and end up spinning so much.  I'm also more inspired to experiement, try new techniques and fibres.  And I love the friendship and chatter on the forums, all the cheerleading and support, and of course everyone else's very scrummy spinning.  Lots of spinning envy and lust - spindles, fibres, wheels, expertise - it's all there in bundles for me to sample.

So my efforts for the last couple of days.

This beautiful fibre and colourway is from Fluff-n-Stuff, is called Esme, on the fibre Darling - a luxury blend of merino, cashmere and silk.  It's one of my favourite ever spinning projects, I love the colours, love love the elegant beauty of the fibre and just want to stroke it every time I walk past.  I spun it as a single, 495m, and have been inspired to make a shawl.

And another shot, because who can resist!

This tweedy appearing yarn is a 3-ply spun from batts, with a mix of merino, shetland, silk, yak and sparkly bits.  I'm still not a brilliant spinner of batts, but the results are interesting.  Everytime I walk past this one, I furrow my brow and think "mmm?".  I usually strive for smooth eveness in my spinning, and this goes against all that.  I love the colours, but struggle to love the "character" of it - all squishy and uneven and fluffy in places.  I think this 195m of texture is destined to be a cowl of some sort.

And finally, this is the single of what is now the most delightfully squishy and loft 2ply yarn, spun from a merino/possum blend.  It's hard to describe this spinning experience.  The fibre was an impulse buy at Wonderwool.  The top was a lot of small broken bits, and totalled 109g.  The top felt almost like it was felted or some sort of pre-felt (first picture below).  It felt quite dense.  So I decided to try teasing it apart.  It practically fell apart on me.  It's a short staple.  And with just the slightest of teasing became this fluffy beautiful prep, almost like it had been carded or a broken up batt (second picture below).

I love the finished yarn - it's not perfect spinning, there's a couple of fluffy/unspun bits, but it is the most balanced yarn I've made (no twisting at all!) and is so utterly squishy.  I haven't finished it yet, so finished yarn pictures at a later date.  There is no walking past of this yarn - the others, in case you are wondering are hanging up in my bathroom drying, hence me walking past them and contemplating them.  Instead, it's all skeined up and sitting on the cushion next to me.  I have to stop typing with alarming frequency and **squish** it!  It's so lofty and squishy.  I think it will end up being either a hat or a cowl of some sort.  It will be the warmest and snuggliest of all winter accessories.

So there you have it, a very eclectic bunch of fibres over the last few days - including cashmere, yak and possum.  Randomness from all over the world.  How awesome is that?  And here is how the Tour inspires me.   Being motivated to explore these new fibres and their properties.  Spinning is such an adventure!

TGCC update 4

So after my deliberations of last night, I have decided against using the multicoloured handspun, and against a cardigan/jacket - I've just made a Tomten for this little guy, it'd be too similar in concept.  I have instead decided to improvise a very simple raglan, knitted in the round with some fair isle attempts, using some of my other handspun as the contrast - a lovely marled effect yarn made from a humbug top.  It's a little closer in weight to the Welsh Black Mountain, and provides a lovely rustic grey next to the black, and is very effective.   And it's all completely natural, straight off the sheep colour, which I love the idea of! I guess the yarns to be around an aran-chunky kind of weight, so I've decided to go for size 5mm needles, to get a fairly dense fabric, which really balances out the lofty, bounciness of the yarn, and also, as the WBM was one of the first things I spun, it's a little uneven, and a tighter gauge helps with that too.  It's knitting up really fast in comparison to the fingering weight 3.5mm needle stuff I have been doing, so that's just great!  I may be finished it tomorrow... but more likely Friday.  Here's a shot from a little earlier:

The grand Christmas challenge 2011

During my recent move, a certain fact became very clear to me.  It's not like I didn't know it already, but there's a certain something about seeing it for fact, in person, a tangiable, undeniable fact.  I have silly amounts of yarn and fibre.  I mean there's having stash, pretty to pet and indulge in... but then there's having an addiction - where it just bulges out of every storage space in your tiny little flat.  When did this happen?  And how much have I spent!?

A second fact has also become very clear since the move.  That is the fact that I've had a pay cut and at the same time, an increase in expenses - more rent, more bills, bus fare.  Suddenly, I'm living a very close existance!  I mean, there's nothing to really complain about, but I've gotten used to a certain level of disposal income, which I don't really have any more, and I forget this, and end up broke, or at least very near to it by mid-month.

Now, I'm not telling you these things as a moaning outlet or a boast or anything of those sorts.  I'm setting a scene.  So, what happens when these things combine?  I fun crafting challenge! 

I hereby pledge that everyone on my Christmas gift list will be getting handmade items using fibre and yarn I already own.

The rules -
1) No fibre or yarn is to be brought - I'm on a strict yarn and fibre diet until the new year, at least.  I have to make up some more room first!  The only exceptions are the two clubs that I belong to - my Wildcraft fibre and spindle subscription which runs every other month, and my Piperfic's luxuary fibre club.
2) I can buy patterns, buttons and the like.  Only essential "notions".
3)  Any craft will be permitted - knitting, crochet, felting.  I'm going to try and knit with as much of my handspun as possible.
4) Everyone on my list has to get at least one item, the adults will most likely only be getting small things - hats, scarves, mitts, shawls.
5) If I decide to get someone a Christmas present, a part of it must involve an item fitting the above criteria, i.e. any last minute "Oh, I was going to give so-and-so a pressie" must get something made from my stash.

And as for my list of Christmas recipients.  Well, this is where it's potentially tricky.  If I'm going to be strict and stick to the rules, then I have to keep the list relatively small.  But here's my initial thoughts:
1) Both parents, although not sure what I'll do for my dad.
2) Grandparents (UK ones only, it's not practical to get the SA ones things)
3) Brother - although haven't given it much thought as to what.
4) Aunt and cousin
5) Sarah and Martin
6) The Clark girls
7) The Clark baby
8) Conner
(6, 7, 8 are all little kids, so they are to get a cardigan or sweater each, make this rule 6!)
9) Emma
10) Lorri
11) Sam and Kev
12) Mary
13) Fiona
14) Mrs Spoon

And I think that's enough to get started with... right?  I'm sure I may yet think of a couple others!

And so it begins... or rather, so it has begun.  I've made a start - it's a lot of crafting to get through before Christmas.  And I'll keep the blogosphere updated on it.

My golden fleece

I'm ever so slowly working my way through the alpaca fleece that I was given best part of a year ago now.  It's such a beautiful joy working with something so "raw" and close to nature.  I get so used to spinning with mill prepared fibre, usually already dyed and ready for me just to take those final two steps of spinning and knitting, that it's humbling and awe inspiring to take the process back even further.  There's the crazy washing that turns tan/brown to white:

And then there's the deciding what to do with it.  I've spindle spun some undyed before I got the wheel.

But since I've had the wheel, I've done another one of my epic dying sessions with Sarah, and I used the alpaca, as it's beautiful creamy whiteness screams out to be dyed, to use up left over dye baths and exhausts.  I did this by shoving handfuls of the dried washed fibre into a plastic bag and then pouring the dye in.  This worked ok, but there was poor penetration to the centre of the handfuls, leaving undyed spots.  With this, I arranged it into a rainbow, carded and spun to quite a chunky n-ply.  I used this to start a small colourful blanket, based on Elizabeth Zimmerman's Pi Shawl, but run out before I got it to a decent size.

And so the blanket went on hold, but I did get round to a special little alpaca project, by carding some undyed alpaca with some undyed silk, in a roughly 80/20 blend and spun it on a spindle that I had been given, courtesy of Karen at Wildcraft.  She had been experimenting with polymer clay whorls, and I had absolutely fallen in love with one of her prototypes, and she very kindly snuck it in with a fibre club installment.  The alpaca/silk seemed like the perfect way of christening this very special and much loved little spindle.  I love how soft and shiney this yarn is.  There's not a lot of it, about 115m of thick laceweight, so I have no idea what I'll do with it.  But I'm sure I'll have fun deciding!

(Clearly my handcarding still not as smooth as it could be, but it's improving!)

So I've just dyed up some more, using dye baths on the stove and larger handfuls.  My rainbow progression will be spoilt, but it'll still be wonderfully colourful. I wanted to do a goldeny colour, which always amazes me that I have to add plum to yellow to get, but it works out so well.  It's finally more or less dry, so I spent tonight picking it, ready to be carded, when I get round to it, likely to be at the weekend.

 My golden fleece

 The short second cuts that make for really bumpy spinning and some veg matter still coming out.

 Lovely little golden lock, pre-picking

A golden cloud of alpaca fluff

This single alpaca fleece has given me seemingly endless hours of crafting, and has helped me produce so many different projects.  Most of all it's been a fantastic learning tool - and I still have quite a bit of it left over!  Yippee!

Produce of the wheel - part 1 (of many!!)

So yesterday was all about getting the wheel, now for some of shots of what it's enabled me to do.  The first thing I spun was this - approx 200g of black Welsh Mountain tops.  It was one of the lucky dip fibres that came with my wheel, and was a lovely fibre to work with and perfect to learn with.  Spun as a simple two ply, which worked out as a soft, bouncy chunky-ish yarn.

 The first bobbin on the go

And the finished yarn.  Still debating what to do with it.  It's not next to skin soft, but it's a lovely yarn all the same.  I liked it so much that I've since brought and spun more, trying to get it as similar as possible in terms of thickness (and failing!).

From then I moved on to some dyed fibres - first off a 3 ply of EWB, then a 2-ply SW cheviot.

The red stuff was really lovely, such a pretty colourway but I don't think my rookie spinning and plying did it the justice it deserved.

And finally for today, a lovely, slightly unusual fibre - Devon longwool.  I brought a braid of this and then got one a short while later as part of a fibre club in a similar colourway, they screamed out to be plied together and looked stunning when completed.  Again, not to sure what to do with this.

Ever since I've had my wheel, it's been a lovely adventure of learning, leaving my flat cluttered with spinning paraphenalia, or if I'm being tidy, a neat little corner a little like this:

(Jacob top on the bobbins, and yes, I ended up getting more, because a spinner really can't have enough bobbins!)