Zwartbles - DK weight yarn

This yarn was meant to be spun to a certain weight for my current W.I.P. The Non-British Sheep Breeds Project and it was going great until I washed it.  It bloomed big time.  What appeared to be spinning and plying to be a yarn that measured about 16wpi, and perfect for my project, puffed up to 11wpi once it was washed and dried.  Some wools will do that and its all to do with the amount of crimp the wool has and this varies from breed to breed, some breeds don't have crimp in the wool, some have a little, some have a lot.  Not all wools are the same and crimp is just one of many factors to take into consideration.  This is one of the reasons why we have so many different breeds of wool producing sheep, all the different factors and possible combinations that affect the wool - crimp, staple length, fibre diameters, soft or scratchy, hardwearing or cuddly, matte or lustrous or something in-between, and many more, and that is just about the wool side of things, never mind about the physical abilities of the sheep that farmer is interested in such as size, how many lambs they can have a one time, how often can they lamb, do they birth easy, good mothering skills, how much meat do they produce, are they prone to footrot or other diseases which will determine the kind of environment that is best for them, can they live on poor quality grazing, can they thrive at low altitudes, high altitudes, flat land, hills, windy areas, wet areas, dry areas.  The mind boggles at the things that have to be taken into consideration.  Anyway, I digress.

Yes, so this yarn that is now no longer destined to be used, or partially used, in my intended project.  I used two bumps of spinning fibre, from two different supplies.  I had a 100g bump that I bought in 2018 from World of Wool and I had a 50g bump that came in mixed breed box called "Viking Varieties" that I bought from Fibre Hut in 2020.  I decided to use the both together and make one "larger than usual" skein of yarn, knit the sample piece and still be left with enough to make something useful with what was left.  I split both lots in half and paired them together for 2 x 75g lots of fibre and pre-drafted them together so as to begin to mix and blend the fibres from the two different sources together and even out any differences in quality, colour, tone etc as there will always be differences, even between sheep from the same flock.

As I had already checked before spinning as to whether or not this was one of the wools that would bloom after spinning, and being armed with this information, I thought I had spun it fine enough to allow for any post-spinning blooming and for the yarn to still be within my target thickness.  It turns out that I was way off in my estimations of the amount that this would bloom.  

This yarn is 11wpi, making it a double-knit weight yarn and it is 147g/438m, which is equivalent to 100g/298m.   I started my spinning on 29th May and finished on 1st June and I know that I am only now blogging about this one today, 22nd June, but I had to know for sure what was happening with this skein before I wrote about it.

Luckily, I had another 100g bump of Zwartbles fibre in my stash that I got from yet another different fibre supplier and so I spun that up, taking even more time and care to get it extra extra fine and, although that one has bounced up a lot as well, it is close enough to my target thickness and so I will be using that one to knit the project piece and I will complete the Zwartbles breed blog post, with all the information of the history of that breeds, once I have knitted the project piece up.

Spinning the Llandovery Whiteface Hill blend - Foxes and Pumpkins

At the end of November I was playing with my blending hackle and created this fibre for spinning.  I have finally found some time to sit down and get some spinning done over the Easter break.  During the pre-draft I had to try my best to ensure that various lumps and bumps of the additions to the wool were spread out along the length and then during the spinning process, which I started on 2nd April, I had to make sure that I pulled apart and thinned out the lumps of Silk Noil as I went and ensured that they were well secured in with the spin and again on the ply.  

I've not gone for anything really fine due to the amount of lumps and bumps that I put into the blend and so I've spun this up to Double Knit weight (11 wpi), producing two skeins for a total of 193g/457m.  The fibre content is 75% Llandovery Whiteface Hill Wool, 9% Tussah Silk, 6% Trilobal Nylon, 5% Silk Noil, 5% Hemp.

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2023 Stage 5

The Cycling: Stage 5 is 165km of a mountain route that starts in Pau and ends in Laruns, both in the Pyrenees, France.

The Daily Challenge: We're all about texture today!  Grab something that feels different to your main fibre and give it a blend.  Extra points if it is something you haven't blended before! 

Suggested Fibre: Railway Grey Tweed

What I did

I don't have any of the suggested fibre but I do have a textured braid called "Taste the Rainbow by Damo, it's one of the WoW Team Blends 2022 and is 100% Tweed Wool

I split this into two equal amounts and spun it over the fold and then plied the singles together.

I wasn't too sure about whether I liked the single that was being spun, I think it could have been better, nicer, it certainly looked prettier in the braid than as a single.  I wasn't the only team member who was using this particular fibre for today's challenge and we've come to the conclusion that it is probably prettier and nicer either plied with a plain white or add more white fibre at the drafting and spinning the single stage.

The finished yarn is 100% Tweed wood, double knit weight and is 173m/100g.  It's not the softest or the prettiest yarn in the world but its a bit nicer now that its plied, compared to how it looked on the bobbin as a single.

Spinning the Llanwenog brick red blend

Way, way, way back at the beginning of the year, 28th February to be exact, I created an interesting blend with some rust/brick red Llanwenog wool.  Well, the four hand-blended fibre braids have sat in a bag across the other side of the room looking at me until this week.  I've been so busy with the British Breeds project that it just got left, until now.  I did decide to make 3 larger skeins rather than 4 smaller ones so each are now 91g-94g rather than 70g or so each.

The final fibre content of this certainly won't fit on a postage stamp, it's 73% Llanwenog, 12% Merino, 5% Bluefaced Leicester, 2.5% Tussah Silk, 2% Soy Silk, 2% Shetland, 1.5% Trilobal Nylon (Firestar), 1% Silk Noil, 0.5% Alpaca, 0.5% Angelina.  It has been spun to approximately DK weight and in total there are approximately 574m so I can make something pretty decent sized with this or maybe two smaller shawls.