Fiber Monday - Work Basket
Well, the lull in interesting things to write seems to have come to an end, but writing about the house falling apart doesn't seem fun or relaxing, so I'll let that go until tomorrow. We'll just focus on nice, fiber-y stuff for tonight.
My big accomplishment for the week was using my handwoven fabric to create a work basket for the studio.
What I like best is that it turned out size-wise exactly as I hoped it would. It will be really useful for storing my current spinning project skeins.
The other side:
I lined it with some material that was in my stash.
A close up of the fabric I wove. This part is using that "interesting" skein of hand spun that I made when I was first getting my spinning skills back. It is significantly mellowed by the dark blue warp.
And there are all the skeins for the cardigan I've spun. Well, minus those that I have already knitted and the last few that are hanging in my bathroom drying. I've spun about 1200 yards of this particular yarn. I'm kind of thinking that will be enough to finish the sweater, but if it's not, I still have more unspun fiber that I can use to make what I need.
The pattern will be as long as the stockinette portion, so I have a ways to go. It's not as fast to knit the pattern, though it's not difficult. I really like the way it looks.
I also received a box containing about 7 pounds of an unwashed fleece. This is a different breed (Morrit, which is endangered) than the fleece that B. gave me for Christmas. I will be teaching a 'Sheep to Scarf" class for our co-op next fall and I want to start playing around with how I'm going to make it work. Assuming I sort out all the details, we'll take some of an unwashed fleece and do all the steps to eventually do some simple weaving to turn that fleece into a scarf. I'm more than a little excited about teaching this. [If you are local and think this sounds fun, I was also toying with the idea of offering the same type of class here at the farm, so let me know.]
It is a lot of unwashed fleece. My studio now has a distinct hint of lanolin about it. I don't fine it a bad smell. In fact, it just reminds me of my nursing years since I used a lot of Lansinoh at that time, which is fancy packaging for pure lanolin. Here is the box it came in.
Finally, my passport for the Livestock Consevancy's Shave 'Em to Save 'Em program arrived.
Inside is a page for each endangered or threatened US livestock breed. The thought behind the program is if they can match fiber artists with shepherds and create a market for the wool of these animals, it will encourage shepherds to continue to breed them. Inside is a page for each breed in question. When you buy wool from a participating shepherd, they will give you a sticker. Then once you have created something with that wool, you document it. Along the way, you earn swag from the Livestock Conservancy for every five (I think) projects.
Now, you don't have to be a spinner to participate because many growers also sell finished yarn that you can then knit or crochet or weave into a project. So if you are a knitter or crocheter, it could be fun to look into.
And with that, I think I've finished with my fiber news. I have to decide what spinning project I want to take on next. I really did enjoy having a big project to spin. I will probably keep working on the CVM fleece and see if I can spin a workable sock yarn. This also means I have a lot of wool combing ahead of me. I also have two projects I want to get warped and weave on the rigid heddle loom. The trick between projects always seems to be to narrow down all the tons of ideas floating through my head and focus on one thing. That always seems like the most difficult part of the process.
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