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.

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.

Wensleydale Sheep

Wensleydale Sheep can be traced back to one individual sheep, a ram lamb born in 1839 in Wensleydale, North Yorkshire, that was a cross between an old-type Teeswater ewe (prior to that breeds improvement) and a new Leicester ram (the improved Leicester Longwool as bred by Robert Bakewell).  This new ram had a blue head and blue ears, which is a recessive trait of the Leicester Longwool, and the ram was named Bluecap by its owners.  Bluecap turned out to be very potent and was leased to other farmers to breed from, mostly to breed with Teeswaters.  He passed his blue-headed trait on to his offspring and by the 1870's these unique sheep were recognised as a separate breed.

The Wensleydale sheep, at the time of writing, is in the Rare Breeds Survival Trust category 4: At Risk (900-1500) registered breeding ewes. They are usually found in pedigree flocks throughout the UK.

They are a large, hardy English Longwool build sheep with a distinctive blue head, ears and legs.  Both sexes polled.

They produce a large size fleece that is kemp free and weighs 3.5kg-9kg, although most likely 4.5-6.8kg. It has long, lustrous, shiny, curly ringlets that hang independently from each other and is among the most sought after wool in the UK.  The wool is uniform throughout the fleece and doesn't felt well. The staples are 7-12 inches (18-30.5cm) long.  Most of the sheep are white but grey and black can also be found and these fleece are beautiful and very expensive due to their rarity. 

The locks can be spun or woven as locks to give texture or used unspun to make a fleece rug, as can any of the English Longwool breeds with long enough staples.  The locks can be flicked open for spinning and combing works very well but will need really long strokes and when you diz off the combs you need a combination of firmness, widely spaced hands and patience.  When spinning keep your hands far enough apart to draft the very long fibres.  Can also be used as dolls hair.  When dyeing the exceptional lustre produces clear, bright colours.

Yarns spun from Wensleydale fleece work well as weaving yarns and are unusually fine for a Longwool breed.  They lean more towards tapestry and upholstery rather than rugs due to their fineness.  Gives good drape and stitch definition to knitting and crochet.  

I have bought this breed in as pre-prepared fibre in a box containing 50g each of four British Breeds.

My finished yarn is of medium quality to the touch of the hand and is quite soft and supple for a Longwool breed but you can feel the slight prickliness of it.  I have 53g/91m of sport weight yarn.  My knitted piece for the project took 36g/62m so I have a small amount left to do whatever with.

Wensleydale X Texel Fleece

I follow a Facebook page for a local-ish farm, according to Google Maps the shortest route is about 31 miles, and they posted that they had some Wensleydale, Texel and cross-breed fleeces for sale and at a really good price.  Obviously, because of Covid-19, a visit in person to check out the quality of the fleece is not really practical so most transactions were taking place online.  After a little deliberating, mainly me wondering if it would be a case of "you get what you pay for", i.e. pay a low price get low quality, I decided to take a punt as at such a great price I would be stupid not to take the risk. 

My ideal fleece would have been the pure bred Wensleydale but these had all gone by the time I had made my decision to just get one and see and so I chose the Wensleydale X Texel fleece, as my preference is for the longer staple fleece.  So I paid my money and waited for the fleece to arrive and I have to say that I was not disappointed.

It was a little lighter than I anticipated, as with the long staples of the Wensleydale and the sheer size of the Texel I was expecting a fleece in the region of 4 or 5 Kg at least but when it came it only weighed 2.65Kg, maybe it is a lamb fleece and not a full grown adult, but still a great bargain as far as I am concerned.

I didn't leave it long before washing this fleece and I noticed that in places there seemed to be a significant amount of "rise" at the sheared end.  This is the point where last years growth ends and this years growth begins and given the size of the rise I would say that the sheep were quite late in being sheared, probably had problems getting a shearer on site due to this pandemic.

Aside from the rise issues, most of which I pulled off as I separated the locks for washing, the fleece is surprisingly fine and soft.  So my starting weight was 2.65Kg and after skirting and washing I'm left with 1.52Kg, which will reduce further when it goes through my combs but I am hoping for around the 1Kg of yarn from this in the end.

This isn't quite the full fleece, I had already washed a small amount and the blue area didn't wash out and so was thrown away.

Despite the muddyness of the locks the fleece is really fine and soft.

Side by side, dirty locks and washed locks, this process still amazes me.

I've made something for myself

I needed to make something for myself, I never make anything for myself so now is my chance.  I started this way back in September and it got put the side whilst I dealt with all sorts of family issues and you may notice a little bit of a line on the second work-in-progress photo.  This is where I stopped, left it for a while, and then picked it back up again and just shows a little bit of difference in the tension but it all washed and blocked out.  Blocking helps to even the stitches out.

I made it using this Whistlebare Yeavering Bell yarn that is 60% Mohair, 40% Wensleydale and I found that it shed like hell.  I was covered in Mohair every time I knit.  I have no plans to add this design to my range as the pattern designer does not allow you to use the pattern for commercial purposes, however small amount of sales you might have, so I won't be going there.  I will be sticking to patterns from designers and yarn companies that allow you to use their patterns to make items to sell.

I apologise for the variation of colour in the photos, I just can't get them all the same due to different lighting at the point of photography.  I have tried to edit them as best as I could to represent the actual colour but I'm still finding this almost impossible.

Scottish Bird of Paradise Shawl

I was looking for patterns to use up some multi-coloured Wensleydale Wool that I had in my stash.  I have 2 skeins, both the same colourway but they look completely different to each other so I really need to use each skein in a different project.  I didn't find anything suitable or that I liked that required just one skein so I looked at the possibility of using a second yarn with it and what I had in my yarn stash that would work well with the multitude of colours and was the same thickness.  I found a stunning pattern, not lace, but never mind I will make it anyway.

The yarns are some Shetland Wool by J C Rennie in bottle green and Wensleydale Wool by Elvincraft in shade Rose Garden.  I cast on on 11th March and was excited to get started on such a stunning design.

It is made using garter stitch throughout, except for the line that defines the centre of each feather, short row knitting and a gradual shift along by casting off stitches at the neck edge whilst adding them on at the feather edge.  Its quite a tiring, boring knit as you have to constantly count how many stitches you knit on every row.  I often felt myself drifting off to sleep as I knit.

I finally finished making this on 24th April 2015 and was so glad to cast off.  I know it is a visually stunning design but I really really could not face making one of these again.  Fellow craftsmen and craftswomen will understand what its like to make something when you are not enjoying making it.  Blocking the shawl made a big difference to how the shape of the shawl and it does kind of hook around the neck and stay in place.

Anemone gradient Wensleydale shawl - Design F213

Seeing as we are now in Spring/Summer I wanted to make a small, lightweight shawl that is just perfect for the season.  I found a sweet little pattern and decided to make one using my own hand-spun yarn.  It is a top-down shawl so I decided that I wanted the lightest colour at the top and so made sure that I began knitting with the lightest end of the yarn.  I also chose to use the same colour beads as on the Victorian lace shawl that took me almost 2 years to knit as the colour went perfect with this as well and they are Size 6 Toho round seed beads in shade 1076 Magenta lined grey.

I began knitting on 2nd April and finished on 4th April 2013.  Its pretty much a stocking stitch knit, with a few rows of garter stitch to add interest with "lines" or "ridges" throughout and finished off with a lace edge to which I added my beads.  I used 244 beads in total which added a little bit of much needed weight.

It was so crumpled up when it came off the needles but soaking and blocking soon sorted that out.

I am so proud of this shawl as it the first one I have made with my own hand-spun yarn.  I have made hats and things like that with my own hand-spun but this is the first shawl.

Want to know how I made the yarn for this shawl?  Just click Wensleydale Gradient Yarn

Wensleydale and trying to make a gradient yarn.

One of my favourite colours is purple and I just could not resist buying this fab purple Wensleydale top from Yummy Yarns UK in shade "Anemone", yeas another Anemone!.  I could have left it as it was but I decided to tone it down a little by blending it with the white Wensleydale that I got from Griffiths Mill.  I also decided that I wanted to try to make a gradient yarn as I was seeing lots of fantastic gradient yarns showcased by others spinners.

I started with the purple and separated out the colours as best as I could given that due to the staple length of the fibres, most were more than one colour.  I combed the fibre to loosen it and fluff it up a bit and then arranged the fibre into gradients and re-blended some of the fibre where necessary, as you can see in the long photo below.

I then blended some of the White Wensleydale into it and pulled the longest of the fibres off my combs, laying the shorter fibres to one side and then spun the longest fibres as a single and set the twist.  I got a skein of yarn weighing 117g and giving me 417m. 

I made this sweet small shawl, with simple beaded lace edging with the yarn, but I only used about half of so I have the other half to use on something else.

The remaining, shorter fibres I hand carded together and used to make a thicker, bulkier yarn of 78g and 41m, which I used as part of a scarf.