Spinning some John Arbon fibre - Wooden Bobbin - multicoloured version

As I mentioned in my last post I had bought some fibre in May 2022 from another spinner that was de-stashing.  

This is an interesting blend, both in in terms of fibre content and colour combination.  The fibre content is 40% Corriedale, 30% Merino, 10% Exmoor Blueface, 10% Zwartbles, 5% Bluefaced Leicester, 5% Wensleydale.

Having spun up the first braid and whilst being happy with that yarn I decided that I would spin up the second braid in a completely different way.  There are a few options available to me. 1) Pull apart the colours and create some kind of gradient yarn but I can't see this working as I can probably isolate the green and the white but the rest, nope. 2) Fibonacci Spin, this has potential as I can isolate the green and the white and then the rest would probably have to be blended together to make one browny-grey shade.  I don't think I want to make a Fibonacci Yarn. 3) Pull off chunks and spin-over-the-fold to keep the colours together and then I have two options: a) spin two singles like this and ply them together for a barber-pole yarn or b) spin one long single and then chain ply to make a 3 ply yarn but pay attention to the colours coming through and adjust the loop lengths each time to try and keep the colours clean and together. 

For this braid I decided to spin it over-the-fold, as per option 3, but I didn't initially decide on which option to take for the plying so I halved the braid in length to give me options and started with the first smaller length.  Once I saw how it spun up I was able to make a decision on the next step.

I liked the way the colours were isolating and into various shades of the brown so I decided to continue and spin one long single and then chain ply it.  I spun it quite finely, like the first yarn, but as I was making a chain ply 3ply this yarn was going to spin up thicker than the first yarn.  I had to adjust the length of the loops when plying to accommodate the colour changes as best as I could.

The finished yarn is double knit weight, 106g/262m, and it's nice and soft.  It has turned out really nice and interesting with lots of colour blocks but there are also some sections that are a bit barber-poled but this couldn't be helped and I don't mind it.  I am glad I went this way and not with the option of spinning it over-the-fold and then making a 2ply barber-pole yarn.

Spinning some John Arbon fibre - Wooden Bobbin - blended version

I bought some fibre in May 2022 from another spinner that was de-stashing.  She had got this fibre from an Open Mill Weekend event held in June 2020 by John Arbon Textiles who are based in South Molton, Devon, which is about 180 miles away from where I live.  They hold this event every year and they also sell online, I've bought some fibres directly from them, most are still waiting to be spun but I have spun a couple of them.

This is an interesting blend, both in in terms of fibre content and colour combination.  The fibre content is 40% Corriedale, 30% Merino, 10% Exmoor Blueface, 10% Zwartbles, 5% Bluefaced Leicester, 5% Wensleydale.

Before I started spinning I had an idea that I may want to spin each of the braids in a different way, handle the colours in a different way for each yarn, but I wanted to see how the first one turned out before I made a final decision on making two different yarns or making them both in the same way and having a larger amount of yarn that could be used on one project.

For this first one I undone one of the braids and put the two ends together and run it through my hands to find the middle and broke the length at this point to make two shorter lengths. I pre-drafted each of these shorter lengths before spinning and I tried to make sure that a little bit of each colour was pulled into the draft each time I pulled on it.  I forgot to take photos of my basket full of pre-drafted fluff but it was a kind of mousey grey-brown with a hint of green, the colours have blended together and the white has completely disappeared.

I spun each single from the end of the pre-drafted fibre using the short forward draw/short backward draw method, spinning quite finely, and I plied the two singles together. A simple and straight forward spin.

The finished yarn is sport weight, 106g/410m, and it's nice and soft.  It has turned out quite a drab mousey-brown-grey colour, lifted by the tinges of green.  I do like it but I have decided that I want to try and make something a little more exciting, colourful, different with the second braid of fibre.  I have a few options and I need to think about which way to go with the second braid.

Advent Calendar 2024 Day 22 - Mrs Claus

I have seen a few variations of a "Mrs Claus" character over the years and she is usually portrayed as being dressed very similar to her husband "Santa Claus".  My favourite one is from Santa Claus The Movie and she is played by Judy Cornwell and John Huddleston played Santa and Dudley Moore played Patch, the elf.  All the information can be found in the first photo and if you click on the photo you can zoom in if you need to.

I guess this pattern could feature on her costume if she is wearing something knitted or maybe an apron with stitching on.

I have undone the tightly wrapped little bundles and made them into braids to take any pressures off the fibres and also so that I can see the colours properly and feel the texture too.  This one is really soft and smooth and is so lovely.  I definitely want some more of this one.

Advent Calendar 2024 Day 19 - Little Troll Prince

I have to admit that, although I was still attending school and was already an aunty at that age too, I have never heard of The Little Troll Prince nor have I ever seen the film that was released in 1987.  I have Googled it and none of the images look familiar to me in any way but I do see how the colours in the fibre match his clothes.  All the information can be found in the first photo and if you click on the photo you can zoom in if you need to.

I can see how they have tried to match this design to the story of the trolls but in all honesty these are Gnomes, not Trolls, and are different in looks to trolls.  I like this sweet, cute design.

I have undone the tightly wrapped little bundles and made them into braids to take any pressures off the fibres and also so that I can see the colours properly and feel the texture too.  I don't know what to do with this one.  Do I blend it with something like white or other neutral?  I don't think I want more of this one.  I will have to do some serious thinking about this one and maybe see what options are.

Advent Calendar 2024 Day 17 - Cheeses for Meeces

Today we are back to "A Christmas Carol" but this time it is The Muppets version.  I've watched it a couple of times but this version really is my husbands favourite and he knows it like the back of his hand.  All the information can be found in the first photo and if you click on the photo you can zoom in if you need to.

Today's packet design seems to once again have no connection to the character or story or even the fibre but I do like it.

I have undone the tightly wrapped little bundles and made them into braids to take any pressures off the fibres and also so that I can see the colours properly and feel the texture too.  This one is absolutely gorgeous. Its really soft and silky.  I may just have to order more of this one.

Advent Calendar 2024 Day 10 - Kevin!

Todays' fibre is based on a film, or series of films, that I have never watched all the way through.  I have seen clips but it's not a film that I would sit down and watch all of the way through.  I am vaguely familiar with his jumper though, in as much as I know that it was red.  All the information can be found in the first photo and if you click on the photo you can zoom in if you need to.

The design on this packet seems to me to be just a kind of general seasonal design and nothing specifically linked to the film, unless I am wrong, as I said I haven't watched it all the way through.

I have undone the tightly wrapped little bundles and made them into braids to take any pressures off the fibres and also so that I can see the colours properly and feel the texture too.  My first thought with this one is to pair it with one of the fibres from the 2021 Advent Calendar which is 100% Shetland and is called Cherry.  I like this one but at the same time it is my preference for it to be a lightened in colour and pairing it with the Shetland Cherry would also make that fibre more interesting too.

Advent Calendar 2024 Day 9 - Knecht Ruprecht

I have never heard of this character and the spelling is a little bit confusing to me, I kept reading it as Rupert, but it isn't helped by the fact that the main heading in the booklet has a spelling mistake in the fact that there is a K before the last letter of the first word when it should be a H. All other instances of the word are spelt correctly, as far as I can tell.  All the information can be found in the first photo and if you click on the photo you can zoom in if you need to.  

I wonder if the design on this packet is meant to represent the children in the tradition.

I have undone the tightly wrapped little bundles and made them into braids to take any pressures off the fibres and also so that I can see the colours properly and feel the texture too.  It's nice and soft quite smooth so I have no idea what I will pair this with right now but I do notice that this is the fourth fibre on the bounce that has been quite dull and in the grey/browns kind of range.  I do hope we have a nice colourful one soon.

Spinning some BFL/Mulberry Silk in green-blue

I bought this yarn in April 2020, so about 4 and a half years ago-ish and at a time when I was looking around for alternative fibre suppliers.  It is from an independent spinning fibre retailer who buys in undyed fibre and dyes it themselves and then sells it.  There are a lot of small businesses that do this and whilst they can be pretty they are also quite limited in terms of fibre content as they wouldn't contain any sparkle element or they wouldn't be a solid shade with different colours of texture etc and sometimes the dyer accidentally felts the fibre a little, which is easily done and I've done it a few times myself over the years.  Thankfully that is not the case in this instance, it's so soft.  The original fibre is from John Arbon Textiles.

I wanted to try and keep the variation of colours in the finished yarn as much as possible but I also didn't want it to form splodges of colour so I split it down the length, one for each ply, and spun it over the fold.

For the second single I started spinning from the other end, again over the fold, and this way when I plied the two singles together there was less chance of the same colours coming together all the way through the yarn.  Of course the colours probably do come together at times but hopefully, for the most part, it has barber-pole the colours.

This measures up to 16wpi - Light Fingering Weight and there is 110g/478m.  The fibre content is 80% Bluefaced Leicester, 20% Mulberry Silk

Advent Calendar 2023 Day 22

The Tradition

Day 22 is called Dia De Las Velitas and the tradition comes from Colombia and means "The Day of the Little Candles" and it is celebrated on 7th December, which is the eve of  the Immaculate Conception.  On this night small candles and paper lanterns are lit and placed outside both a home and in public places, anywhere they can be seen in honour of the Virgin Mary and her Immaculate Conception.  It is not mandatory to work the next day, on 8th December and it is customary to hoist a white flag with an image of the Virgin Mary for the entire day on houses.  

The Fibre

The actual fibre content is 50% Shetland (Corn & Cinnamon), 30% Bluefaced Leicester (Lightning), 20% Sari Silk (Honeycomb & Goldrush).  We have blended together Shetland, Sari Silk and BFL.  The Shetland and BFL are very British fibres and this is a very bright blend, much like all the light given off by all those candles.  There's a lot of texture in here.  The Sari Silk brings streaks of golden yellow, there's some paler yellows, little pops of red in there as well and you can see a pale yellow from the Shetland and then a pale creamy white from the BFL.  Because these are British breeds, they're not as soft as Merino but do not let that put you off, they are absolutely lovely.  They have bulk and a good smoothness and they're not going to run away with you when you spin.  When you're spinning it you will find that the Sari Silk clumps a little bit but that's absolutely fine because it will give you texture, lumps and just make a really interesting yarn so that whatever you make from it afterwards will have just a little bit more character than it would otherwise.

My Thoughts

I really like this one and I think this could work with Day 19, Volcancitos as the colours are closer in those two than they are with Day 14, Misa de Gallo (Festival of the Rooster). The Sari Silk in this will make an interestingly textured yarn and I find Sari Silk easier to spin than Silk nepps, which I have been adding to a lot of my own blends lately.  This one is so different to how the camera on my phone captured the colours, that first photo looks so washed out and pale but thankfully all the colours show up in the photos taken with my Canon camera.

The information that has been printed on the bags is not always correct and there are no fibre content percentages, these have been provided on the chat boards.  The percentages that they gave on the chat boards seem to be correct, although the name of the day seems to read as Vetitas instead of Velitas, that cross on the second t certainly crosses through what should be an l.

What I have done with my bags is to write the actual fibre content on the bag using a gold gel pen in the gap immediately below the printed details, pretty much the only thing that will show up on black are the metallic gel pens.  This is why I have not taken "new" photos of the bags.

Advent Calendar 2023 Day 12

The Tradition

Day 12 is called Oplatek and the tradition comes from Poland, dating back to the 10th century.  The custom is traditionally observed during Wigilia, a traditional Christmas Eve vigil that extends into Midnight Mass in Roman Cathollic Churches all over Poland. The pale unleavened wafers are baked from pure wheat flour and water are thin and identical to the alter bread given during Mass. The special Christmas wafers are rectangular and embossed with Christmas-related religious images such as the nativity scene, Mary and child or the Star of Bethleham.  The family gather around the table to feast but first the eldest takes one of these large wafers and breaks a piece off and the wafers passes around the table whilst a prayer is said and each person breaks off a piece of wafer.  Once everyone has a piece of wafer they wish good things for friends and family for the coming year whilst consuming the piece of wafer.

The Fibre

The actual fibre content is 50% Suri Alpaca, 25% Shetland, 25% Bluefaced Leicester.  The wafers tend to be pale in colour and so is this blend too.  We've selected some really interesting fibres.  This is Suri Alpaca, Shetland and Bluefaced Leicester.  Everybody knows BFL, they're an iconic UK breed and they have a lovely soft fleece.  Everybody knows Shetland but again they're another well known UK breed with a load of different colours and a very springy fleece but how many people Suri Alpaca, their fibre is silky and it's got a lovely drape to it and you can really feel it in this blend  The Suri adds a whiteness to it whereas the BFL and the Shetland give much more of creamy texture. This is a really versatile blend, whatever you want to do with it it will happily go along with it.  If you're spinning you can spin this to a fine weight, like a lace weight if you wanted to, or you could make something really rather bulky for a nice sumptuous squish that will knit and crochet really nicely.

My Thoughts

I like this one. Soft with almost a halo about it but at the same time it feels like it has a bit of a bite, grip, but not too much, it will still be a nice soft yarn.  I will most likely pair this one with one of the white ones from last years Advent Calendar as there were a number of white blends in that one too that will work lovely with this one to give me a nice amount to make something with.  

The information that has been printed on the bags is not always correct and there are no fibre content percentages, these have been provided on the chat boards.  The percentages that they gave on the chat boards seem to be correct.  

What I have done with my bags is to write the actual fibre content on the bag using a gold gel pen in the gap immediately below the printed details, pretty much the only thing that will show up on black are the metallic gel pens.  This is why I have not taken "new" photos of the bags.

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2023 Stage 15

The Cycling: Stage 15 is 180km of a mountain route that starts in Lets Gets les Portes du Soleil and ends in Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc.

The Daily Challenge: Take a picture of something you've spun so far, from the highest point you can find (but stay safe)

Suggested Fibre: Mont Blanc

What I did

Well, I did do the photography challenge, or should I say Hubby did it for me.  I arranged everything I've spun so far on a towel on the patio table (it had been raining and the table was a bit wet) and hubby leant out of an upstairs window and took the photograph for me.  I scooped up the skeins using the towel just as it started raining again.

As for the spinning?  Hmmm the only thing I have that is remotely height related, and this a really tenuous link, is called "Moon Bloom".  It is from John Arbon Textiles and from their range called "Devonia" which is 50% Exmoor Blueface, 30% Bluefaced Leicester, 20% Wensleydale.  Exmoor Blueface is the result of crossing an Exmoor Horn with a Bluefaced Leicester.  

I expected this one to spin up in all shades of blue but I'm very pleasantly surprised by the look of the single that I've spun so far.

The colour looks pretty even and not variegated as I expected it to spin.  It's a little confusing to me given the number of shades and colours in the braid.  It's lovely to spin though and I do have a couple more braids from the Devonia range in different colours.

The finished yarn is 50% Exmoor Blueface, 30% Bluefaced Leicester, 20% Wensleydale, fingering weight and 319m/100g.

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2023 Day 10 - Rest

The Cycling: Today is a rest day.  There is no cycling today.

The Daily Challenge: Use today to catch up, get ahead or just chill.

Suggested Fibre: No recommendation

What I did

Because I have looked ahead at the upcoming challenges I have been able to plan my spinning from day 1.  I haven't always managed to finish on time to be able to do the next days challenge but I have done a lot of the challenges so far.  I know what tomorrows challenge is so today I will be starting on the National Trust braid that I wanted to spin a couple of days ago. It is one of the monthly subscription fibres that I used to have.  It is 50% Merino, 37.5% Bluefaced Leicester and 12.5% Swaledale.  I will be doing another Fibonacci spin, although the colours are more blended in this braid than the first time I tried this style of spinning.

Because of the Swaledale element, there is quite a lot of kemp fibres in this and I've been picking it out as much as possible when preparing this for spinning.  My lengths for this one is 21cm, 42cm, 63cm, 105cm and 168cm.

Top: the lengths of fibre as per Fibonacci sequence
Bottom: one of the lengths split into 3 colour bundles ready for spinning

So, because of how blended this fibre braid is compared to the first one that I did a Fibonacci Spin with, I was only to separate out 3 distinct colours but I'm still happy with that.

It took me so long to sort this one out that I ran out of time for today to be able to finish spinning the single in readiness for the chain ply (navajo ply) tomorrow.

Advent Calendar 2022 Day 21

OMG it's another fawn coloured soft fluffy fibre and it's called Winter Knitter.  The fibre content is 50% Bluefaced Leicester, 25% Alpaca and 25% Muga Silk (geographically linked to Assam in India and previously reserved purely for use by Royalty).

After Christmas, in the New Year, WoW made additional 100g braids of fibre of all of the Advent Calendar Fibres available to purchase to those who had purchased the Advent Calendar.  There were limited stocks of each one available, it was on a first-come-first served basis and there was a short time frame of priority before the remaining stock was made available to general purchase.  This was one of 7 fibres that I bought an extra 100g of.

Advent Calendar 2022 Day 18

Another white one today, soft and fluffy.  Its called All the Trimmings, and they're not joking, 50g and 8 different fibres but they've not given out the percentages on this one.  It's made up of Huacaya Alpaca, Bluefaced Leicester, Hill Radnor, Merino, Mint, Pineapple, Polwarth and Tencel.

Advent Calendar 2022 Day 11

Hmmm, unusual and pretty in it's own right.  Say hello to Santa's Socks, a blend of 80% Superwash Bluefaced Leicester and 20% Tweed Wool.  Reminds me a little of one of the sock yarns I have used to make a shawl with, the shawl is still available to buy from my shop as I write this post.

Advent Calendar Day 6

Packet 6 of the Advent Calendar contains a fibre put together exclusively for the Advent Calendar, oooh its exciting.  It's 50% Bluefaced Leicester, 25% Cashmere and 25% Peduncle Silk.  Today's saying is "we wish you a Merry Christmas".  This one scares me a little, its so soft and fine.

Bluefaced Leicester Sheep

The Bluefaced Leicester, or BFL for short, belongs to the English Longwool family of sheep.  The term Blue-faced is actually just an illusion as there are no blue hairs involved, just short white hair over black skin and used to be a rare trait.  The breed is a descendent of the original native (or landrace) breeds of the Leicestershire area which were improved by a carefully monitored breeding program introduced by Robert Bakewell after he took over his fathers farm in 1755.  

Gone were the days of keeping all the sheep together in a field and in came the days of keeping rams and ewes away from each other and only allowing selected rams with specific desirable traits to breed with the ewes.  The breed he developed was known as the "New Leicesters" or the "Dishley Leicesters" after the farms name of Dishley Grange.  

Robert Bakewell is also responsible for the concept of the Breed Society or Association with a set of rules to follow or abide by in order to keep breeds pure.  He died in 1795 at the age of 70 and his Dishley Leicesters died out soon after his death but the Leicester Longwool traces its lineage back to the Dishley Leicesters and Bakewell's flock. So, how do we go from Leicester Longwool to Bluefaced Leicester?  In the early 20th century breeders in Northumberland started selective breeding specifically for the Bluefaced trait and cross breed with the Teeswater breed and a new breed was born (literally!).  According to the British Wool Marketing Board the breed was established in the UK during the 18th century.

The Bluefaced Leicester sheep, at the time of writing, is in the "Other UK Native Breeds" category, according to the Rare Breeds Survival Trust.  This means that there are over 3000 sheep of this breed registered with the relevant breed society. They are also used to produce cross breed sheep.  North Country Mules are produced by using a Bluefaced Leicester ram with a ewe suited to the locality of the flock, usually one of the Blackfaced Mountain breeds and the ewes produced are then cross-bred again with rams of larger meat breeds such as Texel or Suffolk.

The Bluefaced Leicester is a medium to large build sheep with a distinctive Roman nose and the short hair is white over blue-black skin. The head, neck and legs are free of wool.  Neither sexes grow horns.

They produce a medium size fleece of between 1 and 3kg that is demi-lustrous but fine and soft. The fleece is usually white but there is a recessive gene that shows up to produce black and grey fleeces. The staple length is between 3 and 6 inches long (7.5-15 cm long) and is one of the most predictable fleeces in many aspects including micron count and fibre length.

This fleece can be challenging because the locks are so slippery, slim and springy. Unless you get a short fleece then you don't want to card this, it is best prepared by picking, combing or flicking.  This fleece dyes beautifully and clearly.  It is durable enough to wear well but fine enough to not be scratchy and there is just enough lustre to make dyes produce shimmering clear colours.  It blends well with other fibres such as silk or mohair and is often blended with other wools too

Yarns spun from Bluefaced Leicester fleece are soft enough to be worn next to skin but can take hard wear too and is good for socks, mittens, hats and jumpers as well as luxury items such as shawls and scarves.  

I have bought this breed in as pre-prepared fibre in a box containing 50g each of four British Breeds and this one is a coloured variety of the breed and described as the British rival to Merino.  

Spun to Sport weight my yarn is 50g/135m

My finished yarn is of good quality to the touch of the hand and I like the colour, its more brown than grey, the photo is a little deceiving.  My knitted piece for the project only took 25g/68m so I have some left to do whatever with.

Spinning up Emerald City

My next fibre to spin up is from May of 2019 called "Emerald City".  I'm working through them in order so as to catch up and spin the oldest fibre first as it does tend to clump together a bit and get harder to spin the longer it is sat there doing nothing.

I wasn't sure about this one when it arrived and now that I have spun it I know that when I knit it up it will need to be worked with something else, a lighter colour, to break it up as I think making a shawl out of this on its own would be very dark and unappealing.  I spun this one up to Fingering weight and I got 368m from it.  The fibre content is 50% Merino, 25% BFL, 12.5% Mulberry Silk, 12.5% Bamboo Rayon.

Spinning up Gold

I'm getting on spinning my way through some of the mass of spinning fibre that I have building up around me.  This time I have chosen one from last year, the February 2019 monthly fibre called "Gold".  I really like this one as its pretty much a single colour, with varying shades, and sparkle.  I do like a bit of sparkle as it adds interest and makes for pretty lace shawls.

There's not a lot to say about how this spun up really as I didn't encounter any problems with it so I'll just get on and show it off.  I spun it to fingering weight and I got 364m out of it.  To re-cap the fibre content from the linked post about the fibre it is 58.% Merino, 25% BFL, 12.5% Mulberry Silk, 4% Stellina.

Spinning up the Texture Sparkle blend

Last year I bought some spinning fibre using money/vouchers that I had for my birthday.  I've just spun up one braid from that purchase.  It was a bit of a challenge for me as it is so textured, lots of bumps of sari silk, and I am a little OCD with wanting to create a nice smooth even yarn but I am trying to get out of my comfort zone from time to time and push my own boundaries of creativity a bit.

Its 28% Manx Loaghtan, 28% BFL, 28% Sari Silk, 10% Merino, 6% Stellina.  I've spun it at sport weight and I have 246m of lovely squishy to play with.  Its not super super soft but it is really nice.