Meet Maggie

When I moved recently, I realised just how much yarn and fibre I had amassed and put myself on a very strict yarn and fibre diet until at least the new year.  There were three exceptions - my two fibre clubs which I adore, and should the possibility arise, some coloured ryeland fleece.  One of my clubs and very fave group over on Ravelry is that of Wildcraft.  Karen is the person behind this, and not only does she make the most gorgeous spindles and have a fantastic eye for dying, she also has a small herd of sheep, a mix of coloured Ryeland and some Shetland.  These sheep are the source for endless conversations on Ravelry, especially around lambing season.  And I've become a little attached to them, and always wanted to get some of their fleece to be my first every sheep's wool fibre prep experience.  Hence, the exception to the diet.

I posted recently about starting this process, and tonight, I finally finished hand-carding it.  It's taken a few weeks, but so totally worth it.  I'm so in love with this fleece.  It's from a shearling ewe called Maggie, and Karen had mentioned that she thought Maggie's was the best fleece she had from this year, so I count myself very lucky to have secured this half fleece.  I'm totally in love with it, the crazy sheepy smell in my flat when I've been working on it.  And most of all, I love going through the whole process of raw fleece to yarn to knitted garment.  I'm already envisioning a huge cosy and somewhat rustic shawl to snuggle under over the colder months ahead. 

I know that some of these photos are repeated, but I'm going to link this on Spinspiration, so they're here to document all the stages so far.

 *The* package - 1.1kg of delightful unknown

 Laying it out for that first feel and to do a bit of sorting - got rid of a lot of VM and second cuts, why bother washing things you're just gonna chuck later

 Washing

 Dry and ready for the next step

 The lock definition wasn't great by the end of washing, but this was one of the better little locks.

 The carding starts...

... And grows...

 ...and grows...

...and is now all done, ready to be spun, which will no doubt take several more weeks, but who cares when you're having this much fun!

A week in Derby... and a week in Yeovil

Back on the trains, nine days later... Nine days sounds like so long, but it's really not! It's flown by all too quickly. I wish I could have turned it in to longer. Which is ridiculous, I hardly have a demanding or tiring rotation at the moment. But maybe that's the problem, I know that this week has speed by because I have been so busy and surrounded by those I hold so dear, and I'm heading back towards something which I'm not fully enjoying. It's so silly, I find myself quite conflicted about my feelings towards GP land. It's not what I want to do, I don't want to be there, I'm frustrated by the buses and how expensive they are, my budget is being gobbled up by spending nearly £40 a week on buses plus the couple of misadventures when I've missed my bus and had to pay for a very expensive taxi. And I miss being at the hospital really badly. I miss being hecticly busy, and getting stuck in. I prefer the roles and responsibilities placed on me by hospital practice. And I miss the comeradery if being there, being able to unwind with my contemporaries and the banter you engage in with the nurses, physios, pharmacists and all those people. I get annoyed by my lack of knowledge and constantly (or so it seems) having to ask for help. Yet I don't actually have anything to complain about. Everyone in GP land is very sweet and accommodating, and I do enjoy parts of it, like the variety and the different types of patients - it's fun to do a little paeds. Yet it's by far the least passion I've had for any of my rotations, leaving me sitting here on this train, sad that I'm finished my week of annual leave and that tomorrow I'll be back at work.

....

And then another week later - kinda forgot to finish this post.

So Derby:

 You can just about make out the huge spider and beyond - all the apples wasted during the 3 weeks my parents were away.

 My exciting parcel, all squidged down, was:

 Half a coloured Ryeland shearling fleece, completely raw and ready to be worked on.

 The first soak (and my toes!)

 Disgusting and slightly smelly water after the first soak.

 Subsequent soaks getting clearer.

 I got a chance to finish the sweater for Conner.

And knitted a whole lace shawlette for my gran as part of TGCC.  Here's an early shot.

I spent many long but all too quick hours at Sarah's, with her family and Emma and Connor.  It was such a special time, and something I hold so dear.  To just be, in calm chaotic companionship.  We knitted, gossiped, drank endless cups of tea, went for walks with the girls, did a little cooking, a little cleaning and laundry... And apparently, reading that back, somewhere along the way turned into our mothers!  We also went swimming.  I went to the cinema twice, once with my Mum, as a girls night out when my dad was away overnight for work, and then with Jenna, to give her a chance to do something fun and uninterupted by little people.  I went for a lovely dinner with my wonderful Sam (and there may have been other people there, I forget now! ;)).  Really quite busy with simple nothingness.

And on the Saturday, a special muddy and at times very wet walk with so many of my nearest and dearest.

The Attenborough Nature Reserve - a place for the designing of mischief and meyhem.

 E.g. the grownups getting stuck up trees.

 A place where you have to dress appropriately...

... For puddle stomping...

 ...Saying hello to horses...

... Picnicking...

 ... and tickles...

 Feeding...

 ...and then chasing ducks...

 Adults who don't dress appropriately for these activities will do so at their own risk!

 We did find safer ways to feed the ducks.

 And at the end of it all... well there were smiles all round and everyone survived!

And then we headed back to Sarah's for a nice warming cup of tea, and dress up, for which Kev was very indulgent!

And I wonder why I sit on the train lamenting the end of my annual leave!  But life goes on, but with happy, warm fuzzy feeling inducing memories to keep me going until I next get to see everyone.  Thanks. :)

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!