Tour de Fleece 2015 - Week Two

We had a pretty busy week music-wise last week, so not much in the way of spinning got done.  I managed to do something most days towards the TdF, but not always spinning. The week's jobs were all about the preparation for making a boucle yarn which is one of the challenges for week 3.

I managed to spin the rest of the madder-dyed alpaca.  This was spun in the "S" (anti-clockwise) direction and I think it's the first time I've ever spun that way.  I normally spin "Z" and ply "S".  One of our challenges for this week though was to spin "backwards", i.e. in the opposite direction to normal.  Making a boucle yarn demands a core thread that is spun "S", so this was my challenge for the week.  It's also spun with as little twist as I could manage (and that wasn't easy because the thread kept drifting apart) because it's going to be plied in the same direction as it was spun and so will gain more twist.

The next job was rather a challenge in itself.  I wanted the whole thing to be "DIY and Dye" (that's the name of our TdF team on Ravelry), which meant preparing, dyeing and spinning everything from the raw materials.  I decided the final ply of the boucle (the binding thread which keeps all the loops in order and stops them from sliding around on the core) should be silk.  I didn't think it was right to use commercially prepared silk as I hadn't started at the beginning with it, so out came my silk cocoons which have been in the freezer for a couple of years.  I've never de-gummed silk cocoons before so spent a while on the internet researching how to do it.  First I slit them along the side and removed the contents (didn't want dead things floating around in there!), then put them in a pan with some wool wash.  I didn't use washing up liquid because detergents can damage the silk.

They were simmered gently for about an hour, maybe a bit longer.  Here they are almost done, you can still see a bit of yellow in the cocoons (that's the sericin - the glue that holds the cocoon together) so they needed a bit longer :-

and all finished, soaking in a bowl of clear water :-

I thought when they were finished that I'd be able to separate them into individual cocoons, but the fibres tended to stick together.  By the time they were dyed (acid dye done in the microwave), they were one big unidentifiable mass :-

This colour was incredibly difficult to photograph.  It's supposed to be violet, but I think I'll call it violent instead!

It was incredibly easy to spin - I just fluffed it up into a cloud and spun.  This is spun "Z" and is going to be plied "Z", so again, I tried not to put too much twist into it.

At this point we'd come to the end of week 2, so I'll show you the result next week when it's all finished.  During week 3 we only have one band rehearsal and no gigs (week 2 was one 4 hour rehearsal, one 5 hour rehearsal, and 3 gigs - which always end up being ultra-late nights, pretty tiring) so I'll have no excuse for not spinning every day!

Absent

You may have noticed I've not been around for a while!  No excuses, BUT . . . over the last three months we have been rather busy - not too busy to blog, just too busy to do anything to blog about!  We finished odd bits and pieces in our new kitchen, the old kitchen was completely knocked out (all the units and cupboards were concrete block), had the old kitchen/sitting room replastered, painted the whole lot, stained all wood, put in a new floor in the new dining area (old kitchen), cleaned and polished the old tiled floor in the sitting area, put a new shower into the guest's toilet room, removed an old shower from the guest bedroom, and made two complete new bedrooms (new floors, paint, etc). You get the picture?  Well, all this had to be finished by 2nd May, and was - just!

So, what happened on 2nd May?  Eric and I had a huge party to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary (which was actually 5th May, but that was a Tuesday, and who wants a party on a Tuesday?).  We had guests coming out of our ears!  Three of Eric's sons arrived with wives/partners - unfortunately Matthew and Rona couldn't come with Brody (grandson) - a friend arrived from Germany (he had to sleep in the camper van as there was no room in the house), my sister slept in the lounge, another friend that we hadn't seen for 23 years came from Holland (he was farmed out to our neighbours), as were Eric's brother and sister-in-law, his nephew and girlfriend.  More friends filled the local b + b.  On the day of the party we had over 70 people, and a friend came and made a huge paella. Fabulous day.  I've included a few photos for you to see - note the size of the paella pan!

Tents being erected in the garden

Paella man arrives

Patrick and his Paella

Easier exit from bedroom than stairs!

Little inserted note : you see that room with the balcony - that's going to be my new craft room!  Can't wait to get that up and running!

Of course there was music :-

and kilts :-

The girls :-

and, of course, there's always one who has one too many!

So, that's probably the biggest party we'll have until our 40th (if we live that long!) - good job too, we were completely exhausted at the end of it.

Now we're having a bit of time off from working, which means more time for hobbies! Spinning wheels await!

Blues on Sunday

First, we had a bit of this type of blues :-

And then I thought it was about time I caught up with my dyeing and spinning activities. Two weeks ago (well, in my defence, we have been back to Spain again on holiday since then) I picked my woad leaves from the garden and dyed some of my Maco Merinos fleece.  I stuffed rather a lot of fleece in the dye pot and, consequently, the dye take-up was a bit random to say the least.  Serves me right!  I was still pleased with the results though, with some really dark blue bits in there.

And can you see the little pink bits I got?  Haven't had this happen before while trying to extract the blue, although I normally save the spent leaves and boil them up afterwards to get woad pink.

My rolags below show the different shades of blue, but once it's spun it'll even out a bit as I'm spinning two rolags at once onto the bobbin - one pale and one dark.  Then when it's plied it'll even out even more.

These were my last woad leaves of the year, or so I thought!  Whilst tidying up a very messy, unused vegetable bed the other day, look what I found :-

Then I checked on the plants I stripped of leaves last time :-

Pretty healthy eh?  So, as long as our current bout of good weather lasts, I should be able to get in another woad dyeing session.

Next on the agenda was a bit of carding.  As you can see, I had help (as usual!)

Jak just couldn't resist this alpaca fleece, it looked so soft and inviting, so he made himself a nest right in the middle.

In spite of his help, I managed to card about 90g of dirty white fluffiness.  I'll wash it once it's spun - didn't think there was much point in washing it first as alpaca doesn't have any lanolin, just dust!

Now all I need are some empty bobbins.  And there aren't many of those around here!

Spinners' Heaven

First of all, I'd better show you my progress in the Tour de Fleece.  I've been working on two yarns this week.  I started off with some merino that I dyed last year and has been wallowing in my cupboard ever since :-

 They carded up nicely into batts on my drum carder

 and spinning commenced

 Two bobbins were spun :

and plied together :

I have no clue how much wool there is here because I haven't measured it, but it's a happy little skein!

Next came some Ouessant :-

which I dyed using synthetic dyes,

separated the locks into more or less individual colours and carded into batts :

I've spun this extremely thick, for me, as I usually spin fairly thin.  This was sort of done on purpose because this week's challenge for my team on TdF is to spin thicker or thinner than normal, but actually it wasn't really much of a challenge because the wool wanted to be spun thicker anyway!

Just got to ply this now.  It's a bit coarse this wool, and I certainly wouldn't wear it anywhere near my skin.  It would actually make a nice felted bag, but I'd have to dye and spin some more of it as there isn't enough here.

Now for the exciting bit, the bit this post is really supposed to be about . . . on Sunday we went to Le Lot et La Laine wool festival about 3 hours away up in the Lot department.  If you remember, we went two years ago, the first time it was held.  If possible, this year was even better than that, certainly from a spinner's point of view - there was lots of lovely fluff to choose from.  I had to be quite selective (tongue in cheek!) and only bought what I could carry to the car park.  It turns out I can carry quite a bit really!   Are you prepared to be dazzled by lots of pictures of gorgeous fluffiness?  Because here they come :-

This is a gorgeously soft merino fleece from Maco Merinos.  I bought one from them two years ago and was blown away by the quality of the fleece.  As I've almost finished that one I just had to buy another. Actually, it would have been worth the trip if this were all I'd bought.  Look at the crimp on this :-

Can't wait to get my fingers into this lot!

But, as I said, there was much more gorgeous fluff to be acquired, and the stall-holders had been sitting for two days in scorching hot weather, so it would have been rude not to buy more, wouldn't it?

This was some hand-prepped, hand-dyed merino from LamadeLaine.  I had quite a job choosing between all the different batts she had, but in the end that stunning blue won me over.  Then, when she was wrapping it, she got an extra bag and filled it with samples, free! (what a nice lady!)

I can't remember exactly what these all are, but my most educated guess is :-

top row : left, merino; right, mohair mixed with something else
bottom row : left, merino; centre, merino mixed with angora; right, pure angora

Just hope I can do them justice!

This was a mix of mohair, silk, leicester and angora from Spin Span Spun - 74g.

This was a little carrier bag of happiness from Katikolor.  She couldn't remember exactly what she used in this mixture, but who cares, it's beautiful anyway!

Actually, that doesn't look a lot now I've got it all down in print.  Maybe I could have bought more . . . hhhmmmmm?

This festival is held in a beautiful setting - the grounds of a museum, Le Musee de Cuzals.  It would have been nice to get a photo of it but the stalls are spread over quite a large area so it was a bit difficult to get an overview without concentrating on one particular stall.

As you can imagine, all this trekking around in hot weather looking at stalls full of wool and fluff was just a bit too much excitement for Eric.  He had to go and sit in the shade and play his guitar (just until it was time to go to the Cahors Blues Festival - there was something for everyone on this trip!)

I did some spinning and then explored the car park area.  The trees were full of lichen and there were quite a few dead branches on the ground full of the stuff.  Waste not, want not:-

A future dye

So now we have to wait another two years to do it all again!

Today we're setting off in the camper van again and visiting the Mediterranean.  An old school friend of Eric's is on holiday over there so we thought we'd have a little trip and go visit.  See you when we get back!

Catching Up

Posts have been a bit sparse on here of late, not because I've not been doing anything worth writing about, more because there's just been too much going on.  So, here's what's been happening lately to keep us so busy.

There were gigs to be played :-

Sud Rock Festival

Look at the size of that stage!

Jeff, the bass player was to the right, Steve in the centre, Eric left, and Geoff the drummer is just visible in the background!  It's got to be the largest stage Eric's ever played on.  They had sound engineers too:-

and their own air-conditioned porta-cabin kitted out with settees, cool drinks etc.


The next day we went to visit Sarah and Paul of La Maison des Chameaux, to (finally!!!!) deliver her sweater.  I was a bit worried whether it would still fit her, as she's lost weight since we last saw her.  Luckily, she likes them "sloppy"!

We had a fabulous lunch with them outside in the shade (ankles got bitten to death though!), and ogled their kittens,

Basket of Fun!

My favourite

Their mother was killed on the road last week, so Hershey the dog has adopted them and regularly gives them a good clean and keeps them in order.

She's very protective of them, and sees off any other inquisitive cats.

As usual, it's impossible to visit Sarah and not come away with something.  Like half a ton of camel, llama, alpaca and sheep's wool!

I don't have enough lifetime left to spin all of this!


The cotton bolls are growing like mad - can't be too long now before they start to open.

They're still flowering too

These are such pretty plants, even if you're not interested in spinning the cotton.


This was a little dyeing project I did a while ago.  I found lots of these red dock seeds in and around the garden, and thought there must be some potential for colour.  So I collected them, just put the seeds in a pan of water, and soaked them for a day or two.

The dye was quite a deep colour and I was hopeful it may give a reddish orange.  I mordanted some fleece with alum and cream of tartar and heated it up slowly in the dye bath.  The results weren't quite what I'd expected, but it's still a nice colour.  That's it on the right below, next to a second-dip in the madder dye bath.

2nd dip madder on left, red dock seed on right

My current knitting project, the Buds of May shawl, has reached a standstill - I'm stuck! I'm about 60% through, and the pattern has become quite ambiguous and confusing.  So it's sitting in a bag, abandoned, until I manage to find some time to sit and work it out. This pattern would definitely not suit a beginner.  No photo, because I'm pretty disgusted with it at the moment.


Finally, the garden is producing lots at the moment.  I harvested this lot yesterday.

Yes, there are 26 cucumbers there!  Some of these will be pickled in jars, hopefully today, and I think some chilled cucumber soup is in order.

A few days ago I bottled 15 jars of tomatoes, and the next lot are ready for processing. Then yesterday I was given a large bucket of yellow plums, so they need bottling today too.  Maybe it would be a good idea to get out of bed and get on with it!!