Spinning some Faux Cashmere

If I can spin 100% Silk yarns then spinning another braid of Faux Cashmere should be a breeze.  I've tackled a braid before, back in 2022 for the TDF, where I spun that as a 2ply yarn and just pre-drafted and spun from the end and plied. Faux Cashmere is actually 100% Nylon

This time I decided to try something different with my new found confidence in different spinning techniques that I have been trying out in more recent times.

I'm working on spinning my way through some of my older braids of fibre and this one I got from Yummy Yarns UK back in August 2018, 6 years ago!  The colour of this is called Pebble.

What I noticed when I undone the braid is that the dye didn't go all the way through the thickness of the braid in most places.  A lot of it was just on the surface which means that there is way more white fibres than anticipated.  I decided that I would probably be best to pull off small chunks and spin over the fold to try and keep the splodges of colour together in one long single and then to chain ply to keep the colours together even more.  For this to work effectively and give me a decent amount of meterage to knit with I will have to spin as fine as I can.

As you can see from the spinning on the bobbin, this method is working pretty well, producing lengths of different colours/shades.  I like the way this is spinning up, it's really pretty.

I think this has spun up much better than the braid I spun back in 2022.  It has a different feel to it.  The first skein feels "heavy, dense" whilst this one feels light, airy and soft and that has to be to do with spinning it over-the-fold which traps more air between the fibres.  Maybe I should spin over-the-fold more often.  Choosing to chain ply has helped keep the colours together but I think this could have been improved on further had I been more selective and flexible in the lengths of my chain loops to keep like for like colours even more together. This yarn is still gorgeous and is 97g/244m and comes in at a fingering weight.

Dyeing all kinds of plant based fibres using Dylon cold water dyes

I've had a full day in the kitchen playing with a variety of plant and cellulose fibres and some cold water dyes.  My usual Greener Shades Dyes are not suitable for this kind of fibre and I now have quite a lot of it thanks to the two years of Advent Calendars and the occasional purchase by me, like the lap waste bags and a sample pack. 

I've bought some small packs of cold water hand-wash dyes by Dylon, they also do dyes you can use in the washing machine, I don't want those.  It doesn't say on the packets but working things out logically you can actually just use the amount of dye you need to use for the amount of fibre and keep the rest for later, you just need to be able to seal the packets up in between uses.  I have some food packet clips from Ikea which are really good and provide a nice tight seal.  You can also mix the dye colours to make new colours and shades, like my usual dyes, again it doesn't mention this on the packets but it does work. 

Each 50g packet dyes up to 250g of fabric or fibre.  The instructions say to weigh and then soak the fabric or fibre and to dissolve the whole pack of dye in 500ml of warm water.  Weighing the fabric seems like a daft instruction amongst the rest of the instructions to me, other than to make sure that what you are dyeing is less than 250g, because you would only weigh the fibre if you are weighing out the dye to achieve a specific depth of colour and these instructions are assuming you don't care about the finished shade or depth of colour, just shove all of the dye in and hope for the best.  It then says to fill a bucket or sink with 6 litres of warm water.  Next you have to add 250g of salt followed by the dye and then the fabric or fibre.  Stir for constantly for 15 minutes followed by regularly stirring for 45 minutes.  Rinse in cold water and its done.

My revised instructions for enabling these dyes to be used in smaller amounts is as follows: 

• use 1g of dye for every 5g of fibre
• Dissolve the required amount of dye in 10ml of warm water for every 1g of dye
• use 5g of salt for every 1g of dye
• add the dissolved dye to a further 120ml of warm water for every 1g of dye
• add the fibre and stir
• rinse in cold water after being in the dye for about an hour

So, the fibres that I have dyed are:

I also planned to dye a 10g sample of Egyptian Cotton, which I don't have a before photograph of and I have over-dyed two pink fibres that I have in my stash, 11g of pink Bamboo and 75g of Pink Soybean/Soysilk.  The pink soybean isn't too bad a shade of pink but I do have quite a lot so I have split it into 3 lots, keep one in the original pink and dyed the other two lots.

My "dye pots" are re-cycled plastic take-away tubs and these hold enough dye to dye roughly 30g-35g of fibre.  The dye colours that I have used are Vintage Blue, Deep Violet, Tropical Green and Sunshine Yellow.  The results are not always what I expected but I am dying this fibre purely to put into my "ingredients cupboard" in a variety of colours.  The fibre base colour will have an affect on the final result, especially the Soybean.  The Mint fibre is a kind of pale mushroom colour in real life so that is likely to have a bit of an affect on the results too.

There were 16 "dye pots" throughout the course of the day and most of them had 3 different types of fibre in them.  All of the fibres were soaked in warm water with the addition of a small amount of Synthropol prior to being put in the dye to remove any finishes that may have been on the surface of the fibre. 

The Soybean, Trilobal Nylon, Hemp and Faux Cashmere/Bio-Nylon are larger amounts and have been pulled into lumps of about 10g each.  The other fibres that I am dying from scratch are 25g samples htat have been split roughly in half to be dyed two different colours.  I will let the following photos tell you all need to know.  Where there is no percentage figures on the dye photos means that it was 100% of that colour.  I have only put percentage figures where I mixed the colours in those proportions.

I'm pretty happy with my dyed fibre.  The Soybean/SoySilk fibres didn't take the dye too well on the first attempt and I went back through and re-dyed them in the same colours as the first time around but this time it was on its own in the dyepot.  I also over-dyed the Trilobal Nylon and the Faux Cashmere/Bio-Nylon blend that had turned out bright pink from the Deep Violet dye.

I will write a separate post to discuss the results, as this one is long enough already.

Advent Calendar 2022 Day 14

Wow, this one is proper proper pure brilliant white.  This one has given me a hard time trying to photograph it and its a fibre that will most likely go into my "ingredients cupboard".  It is called Faux, Faux, Faux and is 50% Faux Cashmere (made from nylon), 50% Bio-nylon so you could technically say that this is 100% nylon.

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2022 Stage 10 - Morzine les Portes due Soleil to Megève (France)

Stage 10 of the Tour de France and it is a 148.1km long hill race that starts in Morzine les Ports due Soleil (France) and ends in Megève (France)

The Map

Sights and points of interest along the route

Today's start town is a ski resort but back in 1181 the area was part of a grange that belonged to the Cistercian Monks of Aulps Abbey, 7km away from Morzine.  A grange was basically land owned by the monks and farmed by lay-brothers who reared livestock and cultivated the land which provided food, clothing, utensils and building materials to the abbey.  From 18th to 20th centuries slate quarries provided money before winter tourism took over from about 1930.

Morzine

Locally there is Morzine Village with its interesting old buildings and Les Dérèches Park a large green space what offers horse ridge, adventure trails and much more.  As they start today's race one of the first things to see is the remains of Aulps Abbey, one of the most important monasteries in medieval Savoy and the buildings were all but destroyed in 1823 and until 1998 it was still a farm but is now a place of historical recreation telling the story of life as a monk as it would have been back then.

Aulps Abbey remains

The cyclists pass La Baume, Lake Jotty and Jotty Dam and Devils Bridge Gorge near La Vernaz and then onto Publier, a former spa town on the shores of Lake Geneva and Thonon-les-Bains and 14th century Château de Ripaille and 2km away there Château d'Allinges-Vieux and Château D'Allinges-Neuf, which were built in the 10th century before being dismantled in the 18th century.

Reyvroz and Chablais Geopark are next along the route followed by Onnion, with its 19th century Saint-Maurice Church built on the site of a primitive church and has a 18th century bell.  Onto Saint-Jeoire and Beauregard Castle, which has endured much history and belonged to one family for more than 8 centuries before becoming a religious building.  Thyrez and Cluses are the next towns on the route, with the later being renowned for its watchmaking and screw-cutting.

The next major town is Sallanches, which was all but completely destroyed by fire in 1840.  63 people died and all that was left standing was the church and 5 out of 273 houses.  It was cleared and rebuilt, financed by King Charles-Albert of Savoy-Sardinia.

Sallanches

Passy is the next place on todays route, where Marie Curie died 29th June 1934 suffering the effects of too much exposure to radiation.  Saint-Gervais-Les-Bains is a spa and ski resort and then onto picturesque Combloux with its St Nicholas Church.

Combloux

The race ends in Megève, which is a well known ski resort near to Mont Blanc and featured in the 1963 film Charade when Audrey Hepburn's character, Regina Lampert, met Cary Grants character, Peter Joshua.  It also featured in the 1969 film Downhill Racer starring Robert Redford and Gene Hackman.

Who Won the Stage and Who Won What Jersey

The Stage winner is Magnus Cort Nielsen for EF Education - Easypost/USA

The Yellow Jersey won by Tadej Pogacar for UAE Team Emirates.

The Green Jersey won by Wout van Aert for Jumbo-Visma.

The Polka Dot Jersey won by Simon Geschke for Cofidis/FRA.

The White Jersey won by Tadej Pogacar for UAE Team Emirates.

Combatif Award won by Alberto Bettiol for EF Education - Easypost/USA

Leading team: Ineos-Grenadiers

The Challenge: It wouldn't be a Tour de Fleece without some cryptic or tenuous link; and this is what we present to you today!  The race leaves its rest spot of Morzine les Portes du Soleil and winds its way to Megève, known as a luxury ski resort. Megève is twinned with Oberstdorf in Germany within which you will find Richenbach.  Funnily enough there is another Richenbach in Switzerland where the detective Sherlock Holmes tussled with Moriarty before going over the Richenbach Falls.  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle named this short story 'The final Problem'.  If you've followed this, you deserve a biscuit!

Today's challenge is to spin something that has been problematic and difficult for you - wrestle with your fibre nemesis on the precipice of the Falls!

Suggested Fibre:  No suggested fibre other than your nemesis

What I did

I have a fair amount of silk that I've been putting off spinning but most of it is actually smaller amounts of many, many colours and are part of my "ingredients box" for use in my own blends.  I do have a fibre advent calendar from a few years ago that is a "luxury" braid of fibre with colour co-ordinating silk.  Silk is very slippery to spin and also very fine and one day I will tackle it but its just too hot and humid right now.  

The other fibre I've been putting off is some faux cashmere that I've had a while and for the double whammy of it being my nemesis, one of the braids is pink so I will spin this.  Faux Cashmere is very soft and is actually 100% Nylon.

It is more of a delicate pink leaning towards lilac with just a couple of small areas of a more vivid pink so I the hope it that is spins up more of a soft pinky lilac.  I folded the length of the braid in half to find the mid-point and then pulled it apart at that point and then pre-drafted each half separately.  It is very fine and floaty, not as bad as silk but bad enough.  Please excuse the sexy crocs, they are very comfortable, especially for spinning.

The finished yarn is fingering weight (4ply in old UK money) and is 100g/229m and is super soft and a bit more pink than these photos make it out to be and in terms of the TdF length calculations is 687m - 2 singles plus the plied length = 3 x finished yarn length.

More fibre!

There was a sale on at Yummy Yarns and oh dear, I couldn't help myself, just look at how pretty they are! 

Top left: Handpainted 70% Shetland Wool, 30% Tussah Silk in colourway Dapple

Top right: Handpainted faux cashmere in colourway pebble

Bottom left: Handpainted 70% Merino Wool, 30% Bamboo in colourway Posy

Bottom right: Handpainted faux cashmere in colourway Orchid

Like I need any more spinning fibre, really!