Pickwick Cotswold Stephina

A fleece looks pretty much like most other fleeces, wouldn't you say?  It's just a mass of fluff, locks and curly, dirty tips . . .

until you get closer, and see how much crimp it has . . .

and then closer still, where you can almost feel the softness through the screen . . .

but it's only when it's washed and flick carded that you can really see that magnificent sheen.

The last time I bought one of these fleeces was in November 2016 and, not knowing what to expect, I just ordered a basic quality fleece.  I think it must have been the cleanest, least vegetable matter infested fleece I've ever worked on.  I found out later that the guy who owns the sheep, Rob Long of Pickwick Cotswold sheep fame, spends quite a while with each fleece before sending it to its new owner, picking out as much of the grass, weed, seeds, etc as he can (apparently he enjoys it!!).  The experience I had with that fleece was enough to make me wonder what a higher quality fleece would be like.  A year later I couldn't resist the temptation any longer and ordered another.  This time I bought his second-best quality (he has four grades), and I really think it shows.  This was Pickwick Stephina's first shearing - gorgeous!

Hubby thinks these sheep must have a bath every night to be this clean!  When I mentioned that to Rob, he just winked!!

I had to try spinning some, even though I had lots of other things to be getting on with in the meantime.  Then, of course, I had to knit a little sample to see how it would be when finished.

OK, so it's not the neatest knitted sample I've ever done, and it wasn't washed and blocked afterwards, but I think this is going to make a very nice cardigan (woad blue probably) - when I get the time to spin it.

Le Lot et La Laine

The wool festival Le Lot et La Laine was held again this year in the Lot department of France during the second weekend of July.  It's only held every two years, so I had to go, didn't I?  It always seems to fall in the  middle of the Tour de Fleece, so I made sure I packed my wheel into the camper van so I could carry on while we were away.

As usual, I was too engrossed in looking at all the stalls to take photographs, but I did get a few :-

Someone had spent an awful lot of time on these characters!

I've been saving my pennies for a while now, and was determined to have a good spend. I think I did OK actually.  My first purchase was some lovely mohair top from a lady who'd travelled all the way from Italy for the weekend.  She had lots of gorgeous alpaca too, but I have plenty of that.

I'd been looking for raw mohair actually, but no-one seemed to be selling any, except one lady who had a small amount of delicious kid mohair in the middle of her table.  She gave me a sample and her contact details because she will be shearing her animals in August. Think I might just be ordering some of this.

Then I found some dyed mohair locks that I just couldn't leave behind :-

The only raw fleece I bought was Bizet, which I'd never heard of but have since read that it's generally a meat sheep.  I did notice though that quite a few vendors had used Bizet in their prepared batts, so thought I'd give it a try.  It's not the softest fleece I've ever bought, but it has character, and it was only 6 euros per kilo!

There was one lady there who was selling silk products and I was rather taken by this dyed raw silk.  These are actually degummed cocoons that she's dyed and then just pulled into fluff after drying.  It gave me the idea of doing the same with my cocoons.  So I had to have some of that!

She also had some reels of spun silk which I thought would come in very useful as an additive to my own spinning, so some of that went into the basket as well!

I went a bit batty after that and bought some ready prepared batts for spinning.  I loved the colours in these, and the fact they contain nettle fibre as well as merino, alpaca, silk, soya and the obligatory bit of sparkle.

The next ones took my eye quite early on in my travels and I kept going back to look at them.  In the end I decided to buy them - just in time too, these were the last ones, the rest had all sold.

I loved the "wild" appearance of these batts, but they're ultra soft too.  A few detail shots :-

One of my last purchases was something I've always avoided buying until now - plaited fibre.  I've looked at lots and always thought they felt a bit compacted.  Not so with this one, this feels superbly soft and has that "fluid" feel which makes me think it will be a delight to spin.  This was made by Maria from Toulouse, one of the organisers of the festival.

I love this so much it seemed appropriate to photograph it this way!

I almost missed the dye plants!  Most of the plants on offer I already have in the garden, but I've never grown indigo.  This has gone crazy since I brought it home and repotted it. I'm hoping it will flower and give me seeds for next year.

Last but not least, the trees around the parking area are covered in lichens, and there are always lots of windfall branches on the ground.  I stripped a few of those to bring home for dyeing.

I had a lovely day wandering around in the sunshine (it was really hot in the afternoon) shopping, talking to other spinners and just generally "being there".  Eric was very taken with one of the spinning wheels we saw being used.  It was an Ashford Joy 2 - a folding wheel which has its own shoulder bag.  He thinks I should buy one for when we go away in the camper!  I've never come across so many spinners all in one place here in France before.  I loved every minute, and I can't wait until the next one in 2017.

Colour Break

Last month I treated myself invested in a nice package from World of Wool : some cones of lambswool for weaving (no, I still haven't Christened the loom), some Polworth top, 500g coloured Botany lap waste, 500g white Botany lap waste and a free woolly goody bag.  What treasure!

I've started spinning the white Botany lap waste.  It's very soft, not sure what it is but I can smell sheep in there, and there's definitely a bit of something silky; possibly not silk, but maybe banana fibre or bamboo.

This is the first skein - 120g, 14 wpi, 412 yards.

I'm planning to dye the skeins when they're finished, and hope to have enough yardage to make a cardigan - maybe Dark Pearl which is one of the patterns I won in this year's Tour de Fleece.

After spinning this I've also been spinning some of Ambrose's fleece for Tammy.  I didn't take a photo of this before giving it to her, but it's fawn.  Nothing wrong with fawn, but it gets a bit monotonous, so after doing a couple of these and working on the white above, I was yearning for a colour break.

In July I ordered another treat - something easy to spin, and gorgeous colours :-

This is the July Build a Batt Box (Mermaids Singing) by BarberBlackSheep.  It was beautifully presented and packed and included a couple of goodies too!

There was alpaca, blue faced leicester, merino, Gotland curls, soy silk, silk noil, throwsters silk and silk brick, some bamboo, sparkly firestar and a sweet, extremely soft batt of tencel, silk and merino.  A feast of fibres!

This arrived on the doorstep right in the middle of the Tour de Fleece so I didn't have time to do anything with it.  It's been sitting in the bedroom since then beckoning to me! Finally, I decided the time was right and made some of the contents into batts on my drum carder :-

I included a bit of angora fibre I'd been given as a sample just to add a bit of fluffiness.

Angora Bunny

These were spun onto one bobbin, and then the rest (pictured below - mainly merino, plus some silk and the tencel/silk/merino batt) were spun onto a second bobbin.

These were plyed together which gave me 200g of beautifully soft yarn :-

I'm not sure if I've done this justice, and I'm not sure what it wants to be, but I did enjoy spinning it and, for me, the spinning is the thing.  There's enough here to make a nice sized shawl for the winter, and I still have some of the merino mix and a few other ingredients left to make something else.  Bargain!

Now, off to spin some more of the white Botany lap waste, and there's another bag of alpaca fibre coming up the hill from Tammy very shortly.  There is some light on the horizon though . . . look what turned up in the postbox yesterday :-

Now how on earth did that happen?  ;-)

Lambies

Thought you might like to see how "my twins" are doing now that they've gone home.

Guzzler and Bridge(t) the Midge(t)

The one on the right was the little one we didn't think would survive.  Rob and Tammy took her to the vet when they got back from the UK and she was put on antibiotics for poly-arthritis.  I'm absolutely amazed that she has made such a complete recovery - no sign of a limp at all - and she's grown.

When she was with us, she would hobble around behind her sister, desperately wanting to play, but she just couldn't keep up.  Now she's running around the field with all the other lambs.  It's really nice to see her better!

When I went to see them, they both came straight over to us and nuzzled our fingers.  It made me feel that they remembered me, but actually they do that with everyone!!

These little lambs have different names now from the ones I gave them, but I can't remember what they are - they'll always be Guzzler and Bridge the Midge to me.  They do begin with 'B' though, as all animals born on their farm this year will begin with that letter.

Two Rainbows for Sunday

The rainbow shawl continues.  I'm just hoping I have enough yarn to finish this.

I've been knitting up a lilac colour tonight and was then planning on putting the deep purple (same as the start of the shawl) on the end.  However, I don't think that will take me to the end of the pattern, so today I plied up some more purple which is sort of halfway between the lilac and the deep purple.  Fingers crossed that that will be enough to finish.  I'm finding that as I get closer to the end of the yarn, I'm knitting faster!  Makes sense eh?  If I knit really really fast the yarn will go further and last longer!!

The 2nd rainbow is really two.  We had a little shower this afternoon and were left with this double rainbow afterwards :-

The second one is only just visible here.  And a more dramatic one showing the colours a bit better :-

I do love rainbows, don't you?

Yesterday we went shopping.  All the usual mundane groceries etc., but we also looked around the local depot ventes (French sale rooms) trying to find a second-hand window for our new kitchen.  We didn't find a window, but we did find this :-

For all those non-yarnies among you, this is a skein winder - perfect for winding off my hand-spun wool from the bobbins.  The most amazing thing was that it was Eric who found it . . . and knew what it was!! 

It even has a rev (revolution) counter on it!!  You see this little ratchet wheel?

When the handle at the front is turned, the wheel moves round one slot per revolution, and when it gets to 45 a little knob clicks past the upright stick so you know how many wraps of yarn there are on the winder.  It helps work out how many yards of wool there are in each skein.

At 20 euros, this was an incredible bargain.  It's had a bit of woodworm by the looks of it, but we'll give it a spray tomorrow and then I need to get some beeswax on there.

LAMB UPDATE . . .

The little lamb who was limping so badly last week while she was here is getting better. Rob and Tammy took her to the vet who said she has polyarthritis, and that's treatable. She's having antibiotics every day and they're very hopeful she'll be sorted out soon. Since going home she's been running around the field playing with the other lambs.  She can't keep up with them yet, but that doesn't stop her from trying!

Growth of a Rainbow

I'm really liking knitting this shawl, it's quite addictive when you can see another colour getting closer and closer.  I've just started the yellow, which, when finished, is about half way.  Then the warmer colours come into play which will really brighten things up.

On another note, the lambs have gone home.  I'm sure they'll be a lot happier now they're back in the flock and can play with the other lambs.  The little one, who was sick, started to perk up after a couple of days and even had a little trot around the garden with her big sister.  She seems to be a little fighter and everyone hopes she'll come through this.

Finally, the baby blanket has been on hold while I finish spinning the 4th ball of wool. Should be done by tomorrow so then I can start knitting again.

Special Delivery!

OK, get ready to Aaaawwwww!!!  Here's what arrived yesterday evening :-

These two belong to Rob and Tammy, our neighbours.  They've gone back to the UK for a short visit (4 days, 3 nights) and asked if we would look after them.  They were both rejected by their mothers and are having to be hand-fed.

The problem with them being rejected by their mother is that they didn't get that first feed from her and so haven't received the vital colostrum that provides the boost to their immunity. Apparently, they will be very prone to infection.  In fact, the smaller of the two isn't as lively as the other one and Rob doesn't really expect her to survive.  This morning, when we let them out of their pen, she could hardly walk.  She's walking very stiffly, as though she's arthritic.

The next problem is, how will the other one cope on it's own if she dies.  Normally, it wouldn't be a problem because she'd be with the herd and the other lambs.

Wicked stepson no. 4 is calling us soon (he's the vet) and I'll mention it to him.  But really, there's not much he can do from that distance.  Just got to keep our fingers crossed.

The Dye that Wouldn't Die

A few days ago Tammy came up to our house for a bit of help dyeing a child's cardigan. The wool was from her neighbours' sheep (Rob sheared them earlier in the year and they gave all the fleeces to Tammy).  She wanted to make something for them to say thank you, and decided it would be nice to make their little girl (2 years old) a cardigan.  She spun all the wool and then passed it on to another neighbour to knit.

The plan was to leave the cardigan the natural fleece colour and add some little wooden toggles as fasteners, but when it was knitted up it became apparent that the wool was two different shades and really didn't look good.  So the dyepot it was!  Tammy picked a really nice raspberry-coloured dye (Landscape Dyes) and we weighed out enough to dye the cardigan.  I don't have a photograph yet of this, but it did look really stunning when finished.

There was still quite a bit of colour left in the dyepot afterwards, and as Tammy had no further use for it, I just had to dye some skeins myself.  Couldn't waste it!  I put in two skeins of alpaca/silk and heated it through.  I was surprised at the depth of colour from this second dye session.  I was even more surprised that there was still a fair amount of colour left after I'd removed the skeins.  In went another one . . . and then another when that came out!

Here's the fourth skein (still very wet, but look at that colour!) :-

This one was merino/silk.

And there was still a decent amount of dye left in the pan.  Was this dye never going to die?  I'd run out of handspun skeins by then, so I stuffed in some Falkland fleece and gave that a go.  As you can see, it's not too shabby :-

By this time, the dye water was pale pink, so I decided to call it a day and throw the rest away.  I'm sure I'd still have achieved some colour from it though!

F.S.M. (Foul Stinky Mixture)

Well actually, it stands for Fermented Suint Method, but I think mine's more accurate!

This is the offending article - I put it down in our subterranean greenhouse (well, the storage half of it) so it would be well away from the house.

For those non-witches amongst us, I'll tell you a little bit about why I started this noxious brew, and what I hope it will achieve.  If you have lots of sheep fleeces to wash it can be a bit of a lengthy process.  I've normally washed about 200g at a time - soaked, washed, rinsed, rinsed again - after two or three batches I've had enough.

With this system, you use a largish container (with a lid - most important!!!!  It doesn't have to be a tight-fitting lid, just enough to keep the smell in), fill it with rainwater, dunk in a whole fleece, the dirtier, smellier, greasier the better, and let it stew for between 5 and 7 days.

I put two Ouessant fleeces (these are miniature sheep and only grow to about 50cm high so the fleeces tend to be small) in zipped laundry bags, pressed them down so they were totally submerged, replaced the lid and beat a hasty retreat.  I checked the tub each day and the smell got noticeably worse after the second or third day.

So, after 5-7 days, your fleece should have worked its magic and be ready to remove. This is the nasty part because you have to be in close proximity with the highly reeking solution while you pull out your laundry bag(s).  It's important to let the liquid drain back into the tub so you don't lose too much.  After that you can take your fleece and rinse it in cold water.  I only needed to do 3 rinses before laying it out to dry in the sun.

I was surprised how clean the white bits had become considering I'd used no soap.


When I rinsed the Ouessant fleeces I was quite amazed that the water became a bit foamy, just as though I'd put soap in there.  Apparently the suint (sheep sweat!) makes a type of soap to clean future fleeces.


Right, so what do you do with the remaining liquid?  You put in another fleece (yes, really!) that you want to clean.  This time it will only need to be submerged for two or three days and you will then have another sparklingly clean fleece.  At least, that's the theory, I haven't got that far yet.  I've just put half of my new, precious, Maco Merinos fleece in there and I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  I would be really upset if I messed this one up, especially as they seem to have sold out for this year!


You can keep this mix going indefinitely, but I'll probably get rid of it after I've done all my fleeces and any that Tammy wants to clean.  So, what will I do with this?  I'll water it down and use it on the garden - the plants will love it.