Swatch-o-rama

One week ABS (After Black Sheep), and I have made a start on processing my new acquisitions.

First- The Fleece.

I really love the fleece. I didn’t realize it when I bought it, but it is two different colors.

Here are two different sections before washing-

And here it is washed (silvery black in the back, blackblack in the front)-

I guesstimate that it’s about 65% silvery and 35% blackblack.
Clem (my drum carder) and I have decided that the thing to do is blend the two colors to ensure I have enough of one shade to make a solid colored sweater jacket for The Man.

So, I ‘ve begun to card, spin and  knit to plan for the project. (I love doing samples)

Here it is blended-

On the wheel-

And swatched-

I’m thinking of something like Ann Budd’s Cambridge jacket.

The processing is going pretty fast, but I am taking an extra step and trimming the ends of the locks.

The blunt ends on the locks makes me think that perhaps the sheep was coated. And what’s strange is that there is a weak spot just where the tips change color. Kind of like you would expect on a Shetland or other primitive if you sheared ahead of the “rise”. But this is Romney/Corriedale, so I can’t figure it out.

I didn’t want the little  ends break and end up being neps, so I’ve just snipping them off.

This has already gone too long,, so I’ll save my one other fiber acquisition for next week!

(PS. We finally decided on the girl kitty.)

Black Sheep! Black Fleece!

Whew.

What a weekend.

Here’s a quick rundown-

There were sheep of many colors:

And goats too,,

Primping for the show ring-

Showing-

I looked up Michelle, of Boulderneigh, and it turned out that needed a hand, so she gave me a quick rundown, handed me Bramble’s lead, and off we went!

It was a lot of fun to hang with Michelle and her beautiful Shetland babies.

After the Shetland show, the man and I took a walkthrough of the vendors. As you would expect, it was an amazing assortment of fiber-

and yarn-

and tools:

(Note- this neato-frito little travel wheel is a Spinolution “Bee”. There are a lot of cool things about it, but what I love best is that the bobbin is removed from the front of the flyer! You just pinch the sides of the flyer together, the front part with the orifice slips off, and the bobbin pops out! And it has a really slick mechanism for adjusting the bobbin brake. I don’t think I can explain it properly,, so encourage you all to check it out on the Spinolution website.)

And then there was the wool show.

Man, were there a lot of nice fleeces.

(that last one is Teeswater, on the hoof)

And this is the one that I brought home.

Nice, eh?

Yeah.  Denise is a happy girl.

Sweet Summer Sights

Peonies!

My very favorite flower.
I just can’t get enough of them.

So I’ve got them in almost every room of the house right now.

They are here and gone so fast every year.

In other news, the two-handed, ambidextrous colorwork swatch I’ve been working on decided that it wanted to be hat, so I’ve started off in that direction-

And Clem and I have been cranking out batts of many colors and textures.

Yum!

Now that I have a drum carder, I don’t know how I ever got my without one! Its really amazing how much it accelerates the fleece-to -yarn metamorphosis.  Now my fleece stash doesn’t seem unreasonable at all. 

Looking forward to seeing some of you at Black Sheep next weekend!

Denise

Miscellany

Seems like I’ve got quite a bit going on,, but then I sit down to blog, and I can’t seem to organize my thoughts.

So I’m just going to chuck at all out there:

Cold Water Wool washing.

I’ve read a lot about this lately, and thought I’d give it a go. Sounded like a nice low-input way to go, and like it might be easier on the woo than heat and detergent.

So, here is the dirty fleece-

Here are the washing tubs, full of dirty fleece and cold water-

And here is the fleece one week later, rinsed with the garden hose, squeezed to death, and dried in the sun-

Not bad. It is really nice that it gets the dirt out and leaves some of the lanolin in.

Worked pretty well that first time,, so I thought I’d do another batch. This time, though, the weather was really hot all week, and I think this might have affected the wash water. I think it fermented or something, because ….

Whew.

You would not have believed the stink.

Truly.

I couldn’t deal with the wool and that stench, so I dumped the batch, filled the tub again, and let the wool sit for another 3 days.
It’s still drying now,, so I’m not sure of the end result yet.

Will keep you updated.

In other news, I’ve got some new spins-

but no new knits, as I’ve pretty much just been swatching this week, working on the new techniques (see last post).

But I have done a little sewing and embroidery, in honor of our 11th anniversary (not done yet, but it’s the thought that counts, right?)

And last but not least, the question on the week-

Boy kitty?

Or Girl Kitty?

How in the world can you choose between those two?

Whatever Pulls your String (through your loops!)

I’ve always found it really interesting that there are so many different ways people knit.

Even among people who knit in the “standard” direction (right to left), it seems like everyone does it a little differently.

I, of course, do things very differently. I knit “backwards”. It just always seemed more natural to me.

I am aware that some people have very strong feelings about the wrongness of this (though, in all honesty, I really don’t understand why it’s all that upsetting to them)

I am very comfortable with what I’m doing, and happy the results.

(In truth, I kind of think that left-handed knitting is in some ways more efficient and more common-sensical than the other, but maybe that’s just my right brain talking, eh?)

However, I have decided that, in order to be a more well-rounded knitter, that I should broaden my repertoire.

So, I am learning different (new to me) ways to knit.

This is an exercise in “knitting inclusiveness”.

My default knitting technique is probably best described as backwards continental.

So, I’m working on

1. Backwards (lefthanded) English

2. Forwards (righthanded) Continental,

3. Forwards (right handed) English

It’s a challenge, but my hands are slowing getting the hang of it.

What I’m finding hardest is training my “throwing” hand (whether it is left or right) to keep a decent tension on the yarn so I can wrap it around the working needle.

My goal is to get proficient enough in all these styles to do two-colored knitting (one color in each hand) back and forth without turning.

Here’s how I’m doing so far- left to right:

and right to left: