Hillcrescent Farm Jacob Fleece No.4, Part II

Further to my post back in January about Jacob Fleece No.4 from Hillcrescent Farm, this time I have been working on making yarn from the mixed colours part of the fleece.

I decided to have a go at dying this fleece, knowing that colour would be taken up by the white or lighter parts of the fleece but not sure what would happen with the darker fleece.  I chose to combine two different dyes together to make up the amount of dye needed for the amount of fleece and see what would happen.  I chose Olive Green and Golden Yellow.

Hmmm, interesting!

I combed 212g of my dyed fleece, blending the colours together and was left with just 89g of combed top for spinning.  I had some similar coloured Kid Mohair that I bought from My Heart Exposed Yarns back in 2012.

I split the Mohair proportionately to the Jacob and drafted them side by side, and then spun from both simultaneously holding the two lengths at the same time.  I made a double knit yarn that is 160g/495m.

I didn't really like the colour of the finished yarn so I over-dyed it.  I ended up over-dyeing it twice in the same colour because the first time it was a little patchy and I had left the ties too tight and the dye didn't take in these parts, a bit like tie dying.

This time I used Greener Shades Dye at 1% made up of 75% River Blue and 25% Amazon Green and I love the colour that it has turned out.

First, it came out patchy but looks lighter than it actually was in these photos as I used the flash on my camera.

Then I done it again and took some glamour shots.

I will blog about the black from this fleece at a later date, once I have combed and spun it.

We've been camping in Wales!

I'm 42, I have never been camping in my life, ever, not even as a kid.  Hubby suggested earlier this year that we should go on camping holidays as it would be easier with the dog and the kids and its something he used to do years ago.  We go shopping at Go Outdoors for the tent and other equipment but I didn't like the look and feel of the tent he was looking at, with the girls growing up fast it wouldn't last us long as we would soon need a bigger one to cope with bigger people and I don't like to feel cramped up/penned in.  If we are doing this we are doing this BIG.

Big tent and equipment bought of a period of a few months and off we go camping during the school half term holiday at the end of May, Monday to Friday.  Hubby booked the pitch, based on recommendations from his brother and online reviews.  Hendre Mynach Campsite in Barmouth, Wales.

He had a large pitch with electrical hook-up and there are basic shower and toilet facilities and a shop on site.  The weather wasn't the best, we did have some cloudy days and some rain but it was a nice break and we did lots of walking and we all had a good time.  There is a railway line that runs between the beach and the campsite for local trains, which are about 1 an hour and it is segregated off from the campsite and you have to use the special crossing to get to the beach but other than that it is pretty quiet.  The campsite is really close to the beach, just across that railway line!

Above the town is a National Trust walk, Dinas Oleu.  The stone wall, in the second photo, can be seen on the first photo below, just slightly up from the centre of the photo.  There are some great views up there and plenty of fresh air!

The beach is dog friendly up towards the north end and so we spent a lot of time up there as we took our little dog with us on holiday.  Plenty of space too as not many people about.

The bottom photo below is about as north as we walked, and we walked a long way, and shows you just how close the railway line is to the sea.

Walking around Barmouth town we came across Dragon Theatre with a beautiful mosaic and interesting decoration either side of the front door.

Of course, we are in Wales, so we are bound to find some of these.  The sheep with the coloured spray on I think are Welsh Mountain sheep and the photos of the sheep on the hill with large stone areas I think are Lleyn Sheep but I'm not totally sure.

It was a good break, very windy, we could have had better weather but we could have had far worse too.  For a first camping holiday it certainly was an experience.

Lilac Blue-faced Leicester Wool Shawl - Design D198

My next project was a holiday knit.  We were camping at Hendremynach in Barmouth, Wales for a few days and knowing the Great British weather I was prepared for time spent inside the tent.  It was extremely windy for most of our stay, as we were camping about 100 yards from the coast line.  The campsite is fairly quiet, it has a shop and shower block but not a clubhouse and that suits us perfectly as we go on holiday for the peace and quiet.  The most noise came a couple of families that were camping not far from us but thankfully they left the day after we arrived.  I have to say that we got a bit of a shock on our first night as the last train came past at 11pm and we were already tucked up in our sleeping bags and dozing off when it sounded its horn as kids from "the noisy family" were obviously near to the track crossing.  I would recommend the campsite, tents and caravans allowed, if you want a quiet walking type holiday or somewhere that you can just get away to for some fresh sea air and sit knitting or spinning or other crafting.  I've put a link to the website at the beginning of this paragraph.

We did get out and about and do a lot of walking and seeing as we were in Wales we met a few of these on our travels, although I am not entirely sure what breed they are and hubby had to drag me away otherwise I would have spent hours just standing looking at them.

Anyway, as I said, the Great British weather didn't let us down and I had a good few hours in the tent whilst it poured down outside and when the kids went to bed before us on the night time to get some knitting done.  I made the same simple shawl design that I just made in blue & white mohair but this time I used some of my own hand-spun from a "mule" fleece.  It's not the softest of yarns and when it was finished I noticed natural discolouration throughout the shawl and I tried my best on my return home to remove the staining through washing and soaking but it didn't budge so I dyed the shawl using Greener Shades dye made up of 65% River Blue and 35% Amethyst Purple at a dye depth of 0.2% for a lighter shade.  Had I dyed it at a higher dye depth it would have been a lot darker.

There is still colour variation throughout the shawl but at least it is now a lot prettier than leaving it natural where it looks like pee stains when in fact it wasn't pee stains at all but a stain that is caused by micro-organisms that live on the sheep combined with rain and the sun and when you buy a fleece you can't always tell if its a permanent stain or if it will wash out.  Its just one of those things that as a spinner you have to deal with when then come along.  I finished making this on 29th May 2015.

Want to know how I made yarn for this shawl? Just click "Mule" fleece

Blue & White Mohair Shawl - Design D198

A long time ago I bought a few skeins of Mohair yarn off Ebay.  Time to use them I think.  Due to the multi-coloured fluffiness of the yarn the design needs to be fairly simple so a nice little shawl with a few simple lines of eyelet lace would be ideal.

I found a sweet little design that can be used as a shawl or a scarf and is just right for the amount of yarn that I have.  This only took me a coupe of days to knit, finishing on 23rd May 2015, the yarn is 78% Mohair, 13% Wool and 9% Nylon.

Earthy coloured triangular shawl - Design A2

I decided to use up the leftover yarn from the last shawl to make a repeat of a shawl I made a couple of months ago.  Its the adjustable length Design A2 shawl that I previously made in bright blue mohair.  I cast on on 20th May and was finished the next day on 21st May 2015.

Once again I didn't take any work-in-progress photos at all and its such a simple knit that it doesn't need any explanation really other than that this one is slightly shorter than the blue version as the last section of eyelet lace has only 2 lines of lace as opposed to 8 in the blue one and this is because I had run out of yarn but that is the idea of this shawl, as long as you have enough yarn to make the main design the last bit is customizable depending on yarn left or how long you want it to be etc.

Earthy coloured scallop shawl - Design SB188

I got myself some more of the same yarn that I used for that huge blue-green pentagon shaped shawl that I made way back in 2010 only this time it was in a browny-peach colour combination.  Its a super bulky 100% Pima Cotton yarn.  The shawl I have chosen to make is very simplistic but works with this yarn perfectly.  I began crocheting it on 14th May and was finished by 15th May 2015.  I didn't take any work-in-progress photos so I don't have a lot to show you.

Anemone Merino Shawl - Design W187

Still staying with my own hand-spun yarn I enjoyed making the leaf edged shawl so much that I decided to make it again but this time with 100% Merino Wool that I hand-spun in 2012.  This time I adjusted the pattern slightly to use up all of this yarn so its slightly different in size to the Peacock one and I used 69 Size 6 Toho seed beads in shade 21 Silver lined crystal.  I started work on this on 11th May and finished it on 13th May 2015.

The beads don't show up all that much but do add a little something.  It was difficult deciding on what colour beads to use and I did consider getting some in a blackcurrant purple kind of colour but then figured that these wouldn't necessarily show up, given the amount of different shades of pinks and purples in the yarn.

Want to know how I made the yarn for this shawl?  Just click Anemone Merino