Hillcrescent Farm Jacob Fleece No.7

Time to get cracking on with another of the Jacob fleece from a local farm.  This time I randomly selected Fleece No.7.

This was sheared on 26th May 2013, had not been skirted and had a good amount of surface VM.  After I skirted it it weighs 1.35kg, photos were taken after skirting had taken place.

I separated the colours as best as I could into black/brown, white and a mixture of the colours.  I washed and dried the colours separately, the water did go really really dark brown, and was left with 843g of clean fleece, a loss of 507g of dirt and grease, broken down as follows: 323g white, 263g black/brown and 257g mixed colour.

The White Fleece

I took 148g of white fleece and dyed it with ColourCraft All in One Dye shade Magenta.  After I combed it I was left with 74g of lovely combed top, a yield of only 50%, but it was full of rubbish and VM and what I got out of it was very lovely.

I spun two singles and plied it to make a Sport weight 2ply yarn, 74g/280m.

The other 167g of white fleece was dyed using ColourCraft All in One Dye in shade Cyan and after combing I was left with 81g of lovely combed top. A yield of only 48.5% but again, what I got was very very nice.

When it came down to spinning, I decided to add a bit of sparkle so I got out my Angelina Fibre and spun my first single adding that in as I went along.  The second single I left plain, without the Angelina.  I then plied the two singles together to make a Double Knit weight 2ply yarn weighing 82g/207m.

The Mixed Colours Fleece

I then took the 257g of mixed colour fleece and combed it, blending the colours as equally as I could as I went.  This gave me 120g of hand combed top, a yield of just 46.6%, which I spun 2ply into a lovely Double Knit weight yarn which I have called Thunder Cloud and it is 120g/373m.

The Black Fleece

I combed the 263g of black fleece which was soon reduced to 133g of hand-combed top, a yield of 50.5%.  I plied the singles together to make a Double Knit weight 2ply yarn which is 133g/386m.

So that is all of the fleece used up to make these fabulous skeins of yarn.

"Mule" Fleece - the second fleece

Further to my earlier post regarding my buying of 5 "mule" fleece, this is what I did with the second fleece.

The Second Fleece

The second fleece that I have chosen to tackle I didn't make a note of how heavy it started out at  before any washing or preparation but after being washed and combed there is 1400g of clean combed top ready to be spun.  This time I wanted to have a go at dyeing all of this fleece, in different lots and different colours.  I got a lot of different skeins from this fleece between 7th March 2014 and 21st April 2014, all of it was dyed and all of it was spun as 2-ply.

The first yarn I actually combed some of the fleece first and then dyed it using ColourCraft All in One Dye in shade "Orange" but it is more of a pale peachy orange than bright clown fish orange.  I split the amount into two and just spun it as it come and plied it to make a Worsted weight 2ply yarn, 2 skeins weighing 220g/410m total.

For the second yarn, again I combed some of the fleece first and then dyed it using ColourCraft All in One Dye in shade "Lemon" and again I split it into two equal amounts, this time making a Double Knit weight 2ply yarn of 143g/420m total.

There was still a lot of dye left in the pot after dyeing the lemon skein so I grabbed a load of fleece and just threw it in the dye pot and left it there for a good while to see what would happen.  Well, I didn't get Lemon, I got Daffodil yellow!  After combing and spinning I made 2 skeins of Double Knit weight 2ply yarn of 262g/883m total.

The fourth and fifth yarns were a bit of mish-mash of colours, with the dyes not seeming to be taking hold on the fibre at all and me kind of doing an impression of The Muppets Swedish chef, with everything just getting thrown in the dye pot.

I hope you will be able to keep up with what I did.  After dying the two lots of yellow wool, there was still some colour to the water so I thought I would try my luck at getting some more pale lemon and threw in the last of the fleece but as it turned out the dye was more exhausted than I thought and all I got was a couple of patches of "urine yellow".  I decided to go green and chose ColourCraft All in One Dye in shade "Leaf Green" but even after 30 minutes that dye did not appear to be taking at all and when I lifted the fleece out of the dye pot it all appeared to be white.  I made up another green dye from ColourCraft, this time in shade "Emerald Green" and added that to the pot also, just in case there was something wrong with "Leaf Green" dye.  I left it with the heat on for 20 minutes but still not taking up any dye.  Totally confounded, I added a good glug, glug, glug of white vinegar to change the acidity of the dye pot in the hopes that this would solve the problem.  It didn't work.  Here is where I really lost the plot and turned to food dye.  Yes, food dye!  One bottle of green food dye followed by one bottle of blue food dye.  Arh, a bit of dye uptake but too patchy to be useful.  What to do, what to do...  I know, there is some Chestnut Brown dye in the dye kit that I am unlike to ever use on its own so by throwing that into the pot as well is not really wasting it seeing as this fleece seems hell bent on remaining white.  I made it up, threw it in, gave it a stir and made a forest!  This is my "Autumn in a Dye Pot".  I really don't know what happened, why it wouldn't take the dye in the first place but that brown dye worked like magic and the fleece turned all the colours that had been thrown into the pot.

So, the fourth yarn I made by separating some of the colours and combing them into individual coloured nests and spinning them randomly so that when they were plied I would get a barber pole yarn.

I got a huge skein of Double Knit weight 2ply yarn weighing 156g/568m.

The fifth yarn I used the other half of the "Autumn in a Dye Pot" fleece, this time blending all the colours together to produce a Khaki coloured Sport weight 2ply yarn weighing 166g/626m total.

So, it just goes to show that sometimes you can make something half decent out of a right old mess.

I decided that I had had enough of "mule" fleece and sold the other 3 washed fleeces on.

Little Love Shawlette - Design S145

I know I was planning on working through my thickest yarns first, and I will, but I am itching to make something with some of my own hand-spun Alpaca.  I found the perfect little shawlette that should leave just a small amount of leftover yarn.  I ordered in some beads for the project too, size 8 Toho round seed beads in shade 2110 Silver lined milky light topaz.  I began this project on 6th March.  The lace border is knitted first and I added beads in as I worked.  You then pick up and knit the edge stitches and work in short rows from the middle, gradually working more and more stitches from the each end.  I also added beads to the picot cast off edge and used 270 beads in total on the shawlette.

It was a little crumpled when it came of the needles but not as bad as full lace pattern shawls.  The lace edge design didn't really do anything and until I soaked and blocked it, when it seemed to come to life.

Its really pretty and warm and is the natural colour of the Alpaca that the yarn came from.  I finished knitting it on 11th March 2014.

Want to know how I made the yarn for this shawl?  Just click Alpaca Amorcita yarn

White Romance Bridal Shawl - Design B144

I decided that I wanted to work through my vast yarn stash using up as many of the now discontinued yarns as I possibly could, starting with the thickest of the yarns, as I was running out of storage space for my yarn and this method would potentially free up the most space in the shortest amount of time.

I loved how Betty's shawl had turned out and I had only used about half of the white Rowan Romance that I had.  I decided to make another one.  I started knitting on 27th February and finished on 28th February 2014.  I then soaked and blocked it.

This is a really dreamy shawl, its not a pure brilliant white but more of a soft warm white with a hint of glitter and is so soft and warm too.  If I could still buy this yarn I would and I would make more of these shawls because I think they are perfect for weddings.

The lovely lady who went on to buy this shawl for her wedding very kindly sent me a photograph that I could use.  She looks stunning.

Twilight Capelet - Design SB168 Small

I loved working with the Rowan Romance so much that I stayed with it for my next projects only this time I used some blue that I had in my yarn stash called Twilight and I decided to make the small capelet again that I had previously made using Colinette Point 5 in shade Morocco.

I wasn't entirely sure if I had enough yarn to make two of these but as it happens there was just enough to finish them both and both were made in one day, 25th February 2014.

Falkland Fibre

I've been shopping with Mandacrafts again and this time I have bought some lovely Falkland fibre.  Now, confusing as this may seem there is not an actual breed of sheep called Falkland and the Island does not have its own native breed of sheep per se.  The term "Falkland" is just a reference to where the wool comes from geographically.  Most of the sheep on the Falkland Islands belong to one of a handful of breeds: Polwarth (a breed in its own right these days but originally 75% Merino and 25% Lincoln Longwool), pure breed Merino, Corridale and Romney and the fleeces are all of exceptional quality.  There are no known sheep diseases on the Falkland Islands and so there is no need for chemical dipping.  The fleece and fibre from the Falkland Islands is certified as organic.

I purchased 220g of combed top in colour way "Peaches and Cream", split into two equal parts and spun a single from each part.  Plied together to make a sport weight yarn with a total of 623m.

A Wedding Shawl for Betty - Design B144

I was contacted by a relative in the U.S. to ask if I could possibly make a soft, white wedding shawl for her mother as her parents, Betty and John, were renewing their wedding vows after Betty was diagnosed with a terminal illness.  I immediately set to work and was able to get it on its way to the U.S. within a couple of days.  Inevitably it got caught up in the Christmas Post but it made it to its destination with a couple of days to spare before the ceremony.

I made the shawl using Rowan Romance in shade Glitter, a super bulky yarn of 36% acrylic, 27% nylon, 26% mohair and 8% polyester.  The yarn is no longer manufactured, which is a shame because it was so lovely.

Betty was given the shawl on New Years day but was too ill to sit up and so she snuggled it like a blanket and was able to appreciate its softness and how beautiful it smelt, as I soak all of my shawls in a product called Soak.

The renewal of vows ceremony took place on 4th January at their home with all of their family around them and Betty passed away in the early hours of 5th January holding hands with her loving husband of more than 55 years, John.