Fiber Monday - Threading, thrifting, and more sampling

September 11, 2023

First, the Sheep and Wool Festival. I loved it... all the sheep, all the yarn, all the fiber, all the spinners. I was actually pretty restrained in the vendor hall. I had thought I wouldn't buy (another) fleece, but would instead buy a sweater's worth of nice yarn for my next project.

But ten or twelve skeins of nice yarn is jaw dropping expensive. And having just purchased a new alternator, it didn't seem financially wise to also spend a lot on yarn. (If the budget would have allowed, I would have bought yarn at the Green Mountain Spinnery booth. Gorgeous yarn.)

Instead, I spent far less money on (another) fleece.

It didn't help that there had been a fleece judging as part of the festival, most of which were for sale, plus at least a third of the vendors were also selling raw fleece. And then you see people walking around happily carrying the bags of raw fleece they had purchased. Then when I ran into a woman I know who is a spinning teacher and she was buying a fleece from a vendor that I was intrigued by and agreed that he really did have the best fleeces in the festival. Well, what can you do? You buy the fleece.

This is a corriedale fleece and should spin into a next to skin soft yarn. There's three pounds, so I should be able to get a fair amount of yarn out of it. Look at all the different shades! I'm not going to dye this because I really want to see how I can use the natural colors.

I've also continue my various sampling projects. Remember I had combed some of the merino, but wanted to try flicking the locks to compare the yarns. Here are both types of preparation.

The combed skein is on the right and the flicked is on the left. The differences are very subtle. The flicked skein is a little less uniform.

If you look closely you can see some bits that are just a little thicker than the rest. Here is the combed skein.

I really liked spinning the combed wool more than the flicked locks, so that is probably what I'll do with the rest of the he fleece. It is incredibly soft and would be great in a sweater.

Next, I'm sampling the Clun Forest wool to see how it behaves. This first sample was prepared using hand cards and spun long draw, so a true woolen yarn. (I'm guessing no one really wants me to go on (and on) about the difference between worsted and woolen yarns, right?) What that means is it is a very lofty yarn.

It is not anywhere near as fine as the merino, but I've read that Clun Forest makes excellent sock yarn. The next thing I want to try with this is to use the drum career to prepare the fiber and see what difference that makes. I don't live hand carding wool, so I hope it works well. I also think dying the Clun Forest before spinning would make it more interesting to work with.

I also spun another sample for the breed study I'm teaching. This is Swaledale. This is the first fiber I've spun that I have actively disliked. It is course and prickly and was unpleasant to work with.

Do you see all those short fibers sticking out in all directions? You don't want this anywhere near your skin. Rugs would be an appropriate use if anyone could bring themselves to spin that much of it.

Hang in there, I'm almost done.

I found this book at the library and found myself needing to make a couple of the bags.

(Omiyage by Kumiko Suds)

Like this one,

or this one.

But they should really be made out of silk, and my collection of silk scraps is non-existent. I decided to look for some blouses at the thrift store during the Taylor Swift (!) outfit buying party. I found some that I think should work. And while the fabric is interesting for bags, I'm really doing everyone a favor by taking these blouses out of circulation. I can practice and if I enjoy the process and like what I made, I'll think about moving on to silk.