Spinning some Romney, Silk & Linen fibre

I bought this fibre nearly 5 years ago and have finally gotten around to spinning it up.  

There are two braids and due to how it has been dyed, in a kind of splodgy fashion, I decided to Fractal spin it, which is a way to split the fibre braid up to manage the colours and amount of times that you split the braid can be adjusted if required.  

A basic Fractal spin is achieved by splitting the braid in half down the entire length and spinning one ply from one of those halves and then for the second ply you would normally split it 4 ways and spin them one after the other, starting from the same end as the 1st ply every time.  

For these braids, due to the colour distribution, I decided to split the first half into two lengths equally down the entire length and then spun them A-B and A-B.  For the second half I split it down the length 6 times and spun A-B, A-B, A-B, A-B, A-B, A-B in a bid to distribute the colours more evenly along the length of the finished yarn.  I worked both braids in this way.

The top bobbin is the second ply, with shorter colour changes.  The bottom bobbin is the first ply with the longer colour changes.

There is some visible colour differences between the two braids but if I use them together in one project I will alternate their use every 2 rows to blend and neutralise those differences.

It has come out to sport weight (12 wpi) with a combined total of 195g/546m and it is 50% Romney, 25% Silk, 25% Linen.

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2024 Second Rest Day

The Cycling: Today is the second official rest day of the Tour and the cyclists transfer to Gruissan in readiness for tomorrow.

The Daily Challenge: Think pink! Gruissan is known for it's salt flats and their vibrant colour.  This is a sharing one; share your favourite salty snack.  We're quite partial to a Mini Cheddar or two (not sponsored...).

Suggested Fibre: Have a snack, have a relax and give yourself some well earned TLC!

What I did

I didn't do any spinning, for a second day in a row, and I just chilled out until just after 10pm when I decided it was quite enough to concentrate on watching a couple of instructional videos I purchased and downloaded a few years ago on the subject of different types of silk; Mulberry, Tussah, Eri etc, different "put ups" of silk; bricks, hankies, cocoons, top etc and how to spin each type.  I did this in readiness for tomorrow's challenge and my chosen fibre to spin.

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2023 Stage 7

The Cycling: Stage 7 is 170km of a flat route that starts in Mont-de-Marsan and ends in Bordeaux, France.

The Daily Challenge: There's one every year - spin something watery, blue or water inspired! We've designed Midouze to help you float along with this one!

Suggested Fibre: Midouze

What I did

I was planning to spin a blue fibre I have that is called Boat Race but I haven't finished yesterday's spin yet so I will continue with that.  It is a kind of blue-green, although leaning more towards green than blue, and kind of looks a little bit watery anyway.

The finished yarn is 50% Romney, 25% Linen, 25% Silk, Light Fingering weight and is 430m/100g.

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2023 Stage 6

The Cycling: Stage 6 is 145km of a mountain route that starts in Tarbes and ends in Cauterets-Cambasque both in the Pyrenees, France.

The Daily Challenge: All change! Take your spinning outside and enjoy playing with a fibre in a different location.

Suggested Fibre: Merino/Flax/Tussah

What I did

I was going to try and sit in the back garden and try spinning out there but the weather was not playing nicely today.

I picked out a Romney, Silk & Linen blend from 2019 and the previous supplier.  When I undone the plaited braid it naturally split down the middle of the entire length of the braid.  I pre-drafted it and spun it quite finely.  For the second single I started from the other end of the braid so as not to have the colours pool too much. 

I didn't get around to finishing the spinning today and will finish it tomorrow.

Luxury blend Autumn yarn

Onto the next fibre braids, again I got this from someone else's de-stash and its only about 2 years old but this time I have two the same but that throws up a few choices or ideas that I need to consider.  Do I spin them both in the same way or do I spin one of them one way and the other one in a different way?  Regardless of whether I do both the same or both differently my first decision is "what are my options?", so I needed to list different ways that I could spin the fibre but to focus only on the methods that would produce a yarn that I would actually use, so not likely to choose any kind of chain spun methods.

Option 1: split the fibre into two down the middle, the full length of the braid, and spin one single from one end and spin the other single by starting at the opposite end and then ply these two singles together.  This would result in a barber-pole yarn, for the most part at least, and each of the colour sections would be quite large due to the amount of fibre in each half of the braid.

Option 2: split the fibre into two down the middle, the full length of the braid, one single being spun from each half with the second single being spun by starting at the opposite end to the first but before I spin each single to split it further, once or multiple times but each half needs to be split the same amount of times, along each length to make each clump of colour smaller and spin each split length starting at the same end and then ply these two singles together.  This would result in a barber-pole yarn, for the most part at least, and each of the colour sections would be smaller, so whilst technically similar to Option 1 it would look different because the colours would change more frequently.

Option 3: split the fibre into two down the middle, the full length of the braid, and spin each single from the same end and then ply these two singles together.  This would result for the most part at least, a solid colour yarn with long colour changes due to the amount of fibre in each half of the braid.

Option 4: split the fibre into two down the middle, the full length of the braid, and spin each single from the same end and then ply these two singles together. but before I spin each single to split it further, once or multiple times but each half needs to be split the same amount of times, along each length to make each clump of colour smaller and spin each split length starting at the same end and then ply these two singles together.   This would result for the most part at least, a solid colour yarn with short colour changes due to the amount of fibre in each half of the braid.

I went with Option 3, splitting it straight down the middle and spinning from the end so that I have long colour changes.  I also decided to spin both braids in the same way.  When I was spinning the first braid I had already spun the first single the previous day and  I spun the second single and plied them together whilst we had a couple of young workmen in fitting an air circulation system in the loft (roof space) with the vent over the stairs.  One of them was fascinated in what I was doing and couldn't believe I had finished it before they left and was watching me split the second fibre braid down the length and could hardly believe that this is what unspun wool looks like and loved the colours and the look of the finished yarn.  His mum knits, apparently, so he is used to seeing yarn but has never seen anything as amazing and as nice as this.

The finished yarn is 200g of Double Knit weight yarn, 360m in total, with a fibre content of 50% Polwarth wool, 25% Black Alpaca and 25% Mulberry Silk.  It is pretty amazing and the colours are spectacular.  There is a tiny amount of barber-poling in the areas where the colours change but this is minimal and has to happen to some degree, it's the nature of the beast with colour changing yarns.

A516 in Powder blue

One more of this design before I move onto another for bit.  This is some powder blue 70% Silk/30% Cotton yarn by Rowan that is now discontinued and I like this as its nice and textured.

It wasn't until after I had finished making the shawl and laid it out to look at it that I noticed that two of the skeins must have been from a different dye lot from the third skein as there is a slight difference in depth of colour at the top of the shawl to that at the bottom and thankfully I have somehow used all the slightly darker yarn first and then the lighter last and the depth of colour change falls right on ridge between two pattern sets.  I'm glad it didn't work out as dark, light, dark as that would have produced stripes, but uneven stripes.  I also made a flower brooch for this one but its a different flower design as I didn't have enough yarn left for the other flower type that I've been making.

Spinning up Slate & Chalk

Last week I had a bit of fun with the blending hackle and I have finally finished spinning it.  Its pretty, not as pretty and sparkly as I'd hoped for but there is colour in there amongst all that dark slate grey-blue.

The final fibre content is 65% Jacob Wool, 19% Merino Wool, 10% Corriedale Wool, 3.5% Other Fibres, 1.5% Silk, 1% Trilobal Nylon.  Its a Double Knit weight and there is 161g/371m of it and its lovely, not overly soft like Merino but its not really scratchy either.  I've not yet decided what to make with this but it won't take me long to decide.

Spinning the Aqua and Pink Falkland

I blended this fibre last week and now I have finished spinning it up.  I've got two skeins of double knit weight yarn and one smaller skein of worsted weight yarn from this.

The double knit yarns are 107g/308m and 106g/311m, lovely and soft and slightly sparkly and was spun short forward draw. The final fibre content worked out at 70% Falkland, 12% Other wool and fibres, 11.5% Merino, 3% Silk Noil, 2% Silk, 1.5% Angelina.  So now you're probably thinking "Other wool and fibres?", yes, there were some elements that went into the recipe that I didn't know for sure what fibres they included and that is one of the downfalls of buying bags of leftovers/oddments/botany lap waste from fibre producers/sellers but in my opinion the positives outweigh the negatives when you buy that stuff.

The worsted weight skein was spun using the blending hackle waste and I have 73g/153m.  I spun this semi-worsted/semi longdraw just as it come which has produced a slightly thick and thin slightly slubby yarn.  The fibre content is a little different on this one due to the fact that there is no silk noil in it but its not all that different at 70% Falkland, 15% Other wool and fibres, 11.5% Merino, 2% Silk, 1.5% Angelina.

Jacobs Gold

I am thrilled with how this has turned out and I am having trouble capturing the sparkles and shimmers that this yarn contains.  It positively glows in real life due to the Angelina and the Firestar (Trilobal Nylon) content in this yarn.

I blended it just a few days ago and now it is finished, soaked, snapped and dried.  I have 95g/246m of double knit weight yarn and its lovely and soft.  The final fibre content is: 75.5% Jacob Wool, 10.5% Trilobal Nylon, 5% Corriedale Wool, 5% Silk, 2% Merino, 2% Stellina/Angelina.

Blending some black Jacob fibres

Today I have got my blending hackle out and finally taken to task the small bag of Jacob fibre that I combed back in the first week of July last year.  It was from a fleece I got back in 2014.  This is the fleece it has come from, fleece 2 from Home Farm in Elford, Tamworth.  Its a lovely fleece but mostly white.  I am using the black fibres from this one.

I started out with 127g of black fleece last year but after it was combed this was reduced to just 77g of beautiful combed top.  I did forget to take any photos of the combed top but I have borrowed one from another Jacob fleece I prepared and spun a while ago to give an idea of what it looked like before I blended it with all the other bits and pieces, although the dark fibres from this fleece are less brown and more grey-black.

Top Row: Jacob, Yellow Silk, A sparkly white and gold blend
Bottom Row: Yellow Corriedale, Firestar (Tri-lobal Nylon), Bronze Angelina

 All the other bits and pieces have come from either one of the HilltopCloud Ingredients boxes that I've bought or from a big bag of lap waste that I got from World of Wool.

 I will be spinning this over the weekend and I can't wait to see the finished yarn as it is ever so slightly sparkly all over.

I've used my Christmas vouchers

Part of my Christmas present were some vouchers for my favourite spinning fibre supplier and I wasn't going to spend them until later in the year but I saw this fibre and it just called to me and I had to have it.  There were two braids available so I had them both so I can make a larger amount of yarn and make a larger shawl.

Its 50% Romney Wool, 25% Silk, 25% Linen and just look at those colours.  The first two photos below are not of each braid but both braids lay side by side and wound to create a wonderful effect and they are each side of the coil to show the variance of colour throughout the braids.

I also got a little freebee in with the package, 4g of 70% Superfine Merino, 30% Tussah Silk in shade Soft Fruit.  It's gone into my bag of "ingredients" for making my own blends.

July's Fibre has arrived - Singer

I had no idea what to expect this month other than that as far as my knowledge of Singer sewing machines goes, I think they are black and gold and I didn't Google the model mentioned in the letter.

Its nice and soft, 50% Merino Wool, 25% Corriedale Wool, 25% Eri Silk.

I've bought more spinning fibre

What am I like, I've only gone and bought more spinning fibre to go with the vast amount I already have.  To be fair I've had gift vouchers for my favourite fibre seller and money for my birthday so I went and ordered some lovely stuff that she's just put in the shop.

The first braid is this 50% Romney Wool, 25% Silk, 25% Linen.  The description is that it gives and unusual texture but beautiful stitch definition. Romney is a long stapled British wool of 28-29  microns and by blending it with silk it softens the blend and increases shine and it can worn around the neck.  I love the colour, a pale blue-green colour.

The second braid is this 28% BFL, 28% Manx Loaghtan, 28% Sari Silk, 10% Merino, 6% Stellina.  The description is that this is a gorgeous fluffy textured blend that is not super soft but will have lovely bounce form the Manx Loaghtan, and ancient breed from the Isle of Man with a micron count of 29-31 with fantastic crimp. This won't spin smoothly so embrace the joy of sari silk and add some bling.  I was totally attracted to it by the colour, sparkle and texture.

February's Fibre is here - Gold

I've been anticipating this one ever since I got the letter come through which said it is very much similar to Illuminated Manuscript.  Really beautiful, sparkly and soft.  Its 58.5% Merino, 25% BFL, 12.5% Mulberry Silk, 4% Stellina. I do love a little bit of sparkle.

December's Fibre is here - Pink

It has arrived a few days after the letter.  My worst nightmare has arrived this morning.  Thank you Mr Postman, not!

It is definitely very pink and very, very soft but it is extremely pink, I don't see this as an accent shade of pink.  The natural grey of the Peduncle Silk definitely softens the vulgarity of the pink a little though.  75% Merino, 25% Peduncle Silk.

So, Peduncle Silk, what is that?  Well it comes from the tropical Tasar Caterpillar in India and when it spins a cocoon the first thing it makes is a kind of stem, which is called a Peduncle, and the cocoon hangs from that.  It has a shorter staple and greater bulk than many other types of silk and is a gorgeous natural grey-brown colour.

I don't like this one, its just the colour of it but then I have to knit and spin for my customers who do like pink so I will probably get around to this one at some point and if I really, really can't face it I could always over-dye it with blue to get something in the purple range.

October's Fibre has arrived - Iron Age

I was excited to receive this one, its gorgeous whilst being unusual.  Really soft with a slight sheep smell.  I do miss the sheep smell that you get with raw natural fleece straight from the animal and I've not bought any for a while, other than the Llanwenog.  After reading the letter with the hints I was right about it having some greeny-blue!

The fibre content is 58.5% Merino, 25% BFL, 12.5% Mulberry Silk and 4% Stellina and its called "Bronze".

I love this one and it looked familiar so I got out my bag of samples from the recently purchased goody bag and it matches perfectly with 4 small samples that weigh 24g so I now have 124g to spin, bonus!

Making natural dye from carrot tops and using it

Today I've boiled up the chopped up tops of the homegrown carrots.  The strained greens were added to the compost heap and then I prepared the fibre for dyeing.  The problem with natural dyes is that whilst the dye itself is eco-friendly the mordant that you need to use to make the dye fix to the fibres are all metal chemicals and far from eco-friendly.

With carrot greens you can get a range of colours depending on the mordant that you use so you can get yellow, bronze or green.  I decided to try and obtain bronze which means using Chrome as the mordant.  I had to leave the dye to one side whilst I mordanted my chosen fibre in Chrome at a rate of 4g Chrome to 4.5 Litres of water.  I have some washed but unprepared white fleece so I used 55g of Falkland Merino, 40g of Alpaca and then a chunk of Mulberry Silk that I had left that weighed 6g.

Once they were mordanted they all went into the dye pot at the same time, keeping them in their own little section of the pot, trying not to let the fibres mix at this point.  They simmered in the pot for about an hour then left to cool before I took them out and rinsed them in salt water, washed it, rinse again and then put them on my hanging drier to dry.

In the photo below, from left to right is the Falkland Merino, Mulberry Silk, Alpaca with the top row showing the unprepared but dyed fibre and the second row shows the combed Falkalnd Merino, which was reduced to 33g after combing, the Mulberry Silk which didn't need anything doing to it and finally the Alpaca, which was reduced to 28g after combing.  The last photo shows all the fibres together, looking wonderful.  I'm very happy with the results.

I have ordered a blending hackle, as this was the right thing for me, so I am just waiting for that to arrive and then I can get blending all these fibres together.

Parcel of Fibre from World of Wool

I have treated myself to a range of commercial ready-to-spin fibres from World of Wool.

I've bought a couple with the intention of spinning these as they are, a sample pack of British Breeds because I've heard a lot about some of those included in this pack but not sure if they're right for me and my needs and I don't want to fork out on buying a whole or part fleece only to discover its not for me, and the rest I've bought with the intention of using as ingredients with other fibres to create my own blends, although this means that I will have to look at buying dyes specifically for plant based fibres because I only have dyes for animal protein fibres.

The first one is 100g of 50% Polwarth, 25% Alpaca, 25% Silk and the last one is 100g of Zwartbles combed top as I wanted to try Zwartbles again following the poor quality fleece I had the unfortunate opportunity of processing previously.  The samples of British Breeds contain 25g each of Dorset Horn, Whitefaced Woodland, Moorit Shetland, Brown Bluefaced Leicester, Light Grey Herdwick, Light Grey Swaledale, Black Welsh and Black Jacob.

Dorset Horn I have only tried previously as a cross breed fleece I had.  Shetland I have had a few times but never in the Moorit colour.  Bluefaced Leicester I have spun once before, back in my early days of spinning and Black Jacob, well, I've spun lots of Jacob fleece, I've probably spun more Jacob than anything else.  The other breeds, Whitefaced Woodland, Herdwck, Swaledale and Black Welsh I have never spun before so it will be interesting to see how they handle.

The Merino/Suri Alpaca blend I might spin that and then dye it afterwards, not sure yet exactly what I will do with that.  The other fibres are all plant fibres and can be used blended with each other or I can blend them with any of the fleece as I process them.  These will become part of an "ingredients box" along with the various colours of Angelina that I have.

Alpaca and Silk Lace Shawlette - Design A197

Straight on with the next little shawlette, this time with one of my very first handspun yarns.  This is some Alpaca/Silk that I spun up back in 2012, although I have re-plied the yarn since, and you can read about the Alpaca and the yarn here.

This is 97% Alpaca, 3% Mulberry Silk and is aran weight.

This is heavy compared to the other two mohair shawls but its really soft and silky.

Its washed up and blocked really well.

Baby Jackets made with Eco-Friendly yarn

Some time ago, when mooching through the "end of line/end of batch" baskets at House of Fraser on the rare occasion that I travel into Birmingham City Centre, I came across an interesting yarn called Rowan Purelife Revive and I bought a few balls of it in two different shades.

From Rowans' website : Recycling is becoming increasingly important in a world coming to terms with the challenges of environmental, economic and climatic change. Rowan Purelife Revive is made from used garments which have been selected according to the silk, cotton and viscose content. These are then carded to make regenerated fibre, which is then spun into this beautiful, high quality yarn, which gives life to new hand knitting designs.

I like the idea of this yarn because I recycle as much as I can myself.   The yarn is 36% recycled silk, 36% recycled cotton, 28% recycled viscose and is a double knit weight yarn.

 

The pattern that I chose to use with this yarn is a vintage Wendy Peter Pan pattern and I got started on 28th June with the first one.  It wasn't until I had finished and sewn it up that I noticed that one sleeve was darker than the rest of the jacket.  Not knowing what to do at this point I carried on with the other colour yarn and made another one.

As you can see, the sleeve to the right in the picture is darker than the rest of the jacket.  Meanwhile, the jacket made with the darker shade has turned out lovely.

Because of the varied fibre content of this yarn and the fact that I only have dyes intended for use with animal protein fibres I was not sure what to do with the first jacket.  Do I bin it, do I dye it, if so what dyes do I use?  After much deliberation I decided to just try dyeing it with the dyes that I have and see what happens and if it goes wrong it can't get any worse than it already is.  I made up some dark blue dye and just went for it.

I have to say that I am seriously liking the result.  You can no longer see that the one sleeve is darker than the rest of the jacket and because it has only dyed the animal protein fibres in the yarn it has created a marl effect.  Fantastic!

If I ever have a problem like this again, or fall out of love with a yarn colour that is a mixed blend or don't like the way it knits up I will have no hesitation in getting the dyes out because I really love this effect.