Loose Ends

Wovember 2024 – Week 1

Wovember Wind-Downs

Happy Wovember fibre enthusiasts! This month is a time for celebrating all things wool. Wovember ran as blog campaign from 2011-2017 and was picked up again by Team Wovember last year who ran a weekly chat with wool enthusiasts on Instagram, where there is also a daily word prompt challenge going on (that I will be taking part in). Last year on the blog, I explored some wool based myths and legends after falling down a research rabbit hole over the summer, however this year I am working on my university dissertation which has left me with very little time to venture into wool based research.

I’ve been filming some of my wool ventures this year and have been told by several friends and family that they find watching me spin and weave relaxing. With my own deadlines fast approaching, I find slowly working with wool all the more comforting, so felt it appropriate this year to celebrate the slowness of making and the positive impact it can have on our wellbeing. When I edit my videos, I condense months of work into 15-30 minutes worth of footage, so every Sunday this Wovember I’ll be bringing you an ‘unedited’ video, showing some spinning and weaving in real time. It’s a little different to my usual research-based Wovember content, but I hope it brings you some calm ahead of the busy festive season and keeps you company while working on your own projects.

I’m going to keep these videos in a rough order of the process, so first up is some carding of Clun Forest fleece filmed way back last year when I was working on my Victorian Cycling Jumper.

Feel free to use the comments section to share some woolly facts or let me know what you love about working with wool! Wovember posts from previous years can be found on the new Wovember’s Past page.

Happy Wovember!

Zwartbles Hats

During Tour de Fleece I was spinning some gorgeous Zwartbles wool from a local farmer who was reluctant to accept payment for it as he saw it more as waste, so we eventually agreed that I would contribute some money towards the fleeces, but make him some hats from his wool as part payment too. He requested plain knit beanie hats, so I found a vintage pattern in my stash (the same one that I used to knit my Ryeland Gloves a few years back) and followed that, adjusting it so it could be knitted in the round to avoid a bulky seam.

The Zwartbles was a joy to knit with and the colours are really gorgeous – I have plans for a project I think would look really beautiful using some more of it, which I’ll hopefully be able to begin in the near future. I’ve never knitted hats before, but I think they came out rather well and it was really wonderful to see the farmer’s reaction to something created using fleece from his flock.

I’ll be doing a proper write up of the history and processing of the breed in the new year when I’ve had time to film. As always let me know if you have any tips or advice in the comments below!

Happy Crafting!

Herdwick: Lots of Woven Rugs

Weaving

After making my sample square I warped up my Kromski Harp Forte with the commercial Herdwick yarn, initially starting with just enough length for one rug to see how it went. I found I had plenty of yarn, so ended up making several rugs and have some yarn left over to experiment with in the future. To make hemstitching easier, I wove a few rows at each end using the commercial yarn, which also secured the handspun a little better and should prevent it from coming loose. I began by plain weaving the Herdwick with a single strand of yarn, however after my first rug decided that I wanted to have a slightly thicker weft as some sections were much thinner than others, so I held the yarn double for subsequent rugs – you can see the slight difference below.

Left rug has yarn held double, right rug has yarn held single

I experimented with making a warp long enough for two rugs to reduce the amount of threading needed, which worked well, however I did need to remove the first rug after I’d finished it, as the cloth around the front beam was a little too thick and making the shed tighter (but I was able to hemstitch first to keep the tension, which sped things up a bit).

One finished rug with the Hemstitch for the second complete

I’ve made a video showing the whole process below (the first two sections are the same as have been shown in my fibre prep and spinning posts for this project, so feel free to skip ahead if you wish).

Overall I’m very happy with how these turned out, they are very soft and have the added bonus of resembling a dry stone wall, which is very apt considering the Herdwick’s origin in the Lake District.

Happy Crafting!

Previous Herdwick posts and the Breed Society website can be found below:

A Little About: Herdwick
Fibre Prep: Herdwick
Spinning: Herdwick
Breed Society Website – https://www.herdwick-sheep.com/

Herdwick: Breed Study Square 3

Since I planned to weave with my loose spun Herdwick which wouldn’t be strong enough as a warp (not to mention being too thick to fit through any of my reeds), I decided I would use a commercial yarn as the warp and would make a breed study square before my project as a sample to test how the yarns behaved. I picked up some grey commercially spun yarn cones from EAYF 2023, which judging on their coarseness and colour are probably Herdwick or a Herdwick blend, so thought they would make a perfect warp, particularly since my handspun Herdwick was a lighter cream colour.

I made a simple warp on my pin loom, passing my warp yarn around 2 pegs each time and missing one either end so the warp would be wider and the handspun more dominant in the weave (you can just about see in the photo below). I then repeated the process with the weft yarn threaded through a large weaving needle, which was pleasant enough to begin with, but became challenging as I neared the other end of the pin loom where my needle was too thick to pass through, so I had to do my best with a tapestry needle that had a very small eye!

Completed Herdwick Breed Square on the Pin Loom

Although I loved the look of the sample (it reminds me of drystone walls, which is quite appropriate considering Herdwicks originate from the Lake District), I was worried that it wouldn’t hold it’s structure after coming off the loom, however after washing, the weave tightened up (as shown in the top photo) and I was happy to move onto my rigid heddle loom for the final project…

Happy Weaving!

Spinning: Herdwick

Spinning Singles

My aim for this project was to turn the Herdwick into a rug, utilising the softness of the fibre, while tapping into the hardwearing nature of the fibre that is utilised commercially. I used the jumbo flyer on my Ashford wheel, spinning torn strips of batt very loosely, letting the fibre draft how it wanted, slubs and all. After spinning fine yarn recently, this made a nice change, however I struggled at times to get the balance between tension and uptake on the wheel, particularly as the bobbin filled (the video below was filmed before I noticed that I’d left the orifice reducer in – I did take it out as soon as I noticed and it did make the uptake of slubby sections a little easier!)

Below is a video of some of the Herdwick spinning on the jumbo flyer:

Setting the Twist

Since I didn’t want to ply these skeins, I washed them in quite hot soapy water and gave them a little agitation in the hope that they would slightly felt together and become more hardy. The internet seems to suggest that Herdwick felts quite readily, however, I found that although several fibres were a little stuck together, it didn’t seem to be particularly felted. Since it was spun loose, the overcoat had a tendency to shed everywhere (I’m still finding bits of Herdwick around the house!), but the undercoat held together well and I imagine that spinning the fibres tighter would have anchored the shorter, coarser fibres in better.

Happy Spinning!

Fibre Prep: Herdwick

The Fleece

This fleece was an unexpected acquisition to my stash. I sent a fellow crafter a scanned copy of a vintage sewing machine manual, we got chatting about crafts and it turned out they kept Herwick sheep and wanted to send me some wool as a thank you, so a while later I received a fleece sized package in the post! It’s taken me a while to get round to working with it, so Herdy Lodge if you’re reading this, I hope I’m doing your fleece justice! Herdwick sheep come in varied shades and this one was a beautiful oatmeal with a grey and white overcoat. It wasn’t overly greasy and was fairly free of large VM so didn’t need much skirting before washing.

Washing

I used the suint bath which brought it up well, however I washed this in late summer and the weather turned very wet, so I had to forgo a rinse in fresh rainwater in the interests of getting it dry for storage over winter. I was a little worried that the fleece might retain more of the suint smell when I began working with it; there was a smell slightly different to just sheep, but it wasn’t overpowering or particularly unpleasant and has gone completely after washing to set the twist.

Herdwick Fleece drying after the suint bath

Picking & Carding

Even after washing there’s always a lot of dust, so in the interests of opening up the fibres I decided to put the fleece through the wool picker. I had also decided that I wanted to spin the fibre loosely from a batt and passing it through the wool picker would make it easier to put on the drum carder.

Disclaimer – In the video my wool picker is only clamped to the back of the chair it’s resting on, which is not the safest. If you are using a wool picker please ensure it’s secured safely.

When I began drum carding I found the fibres were getting tangled around the licker brush. I wasn’t holding them back, so turned to the internet and discovered some people had this problem with fine fibres like alpaca and angora, but Herdwick is naturally coarser, so I examined my fleece again. When I looked closely at the undercoat I noticed that the fibres were actually finer than I had thought, an optical illusion caused by the overcoat. Since my drum carder is a standard 72tpi I followed the online advice the slow down my carding speed and this worked well, with the licker brush taking on only nepps and short cuts (which I cleaned off regularly). I began with doing two passes on the drum carder, but there didn’t seem to be much difference between one or two passes and since I was going to be spinning this very loose, I opted for only one pass through the drum carder. The resulting batts were light and fluffy and a significant amount of VM and dust was still dropping out at the bottom of the carder.

As always, let me know if you have any tips/advice in the comments below!

Happy Crafting!

Autumnal Socks in Summer

It’s been a while since I’ve had a finished project to share, but back at the end of March I decided to cast on my first pair of socks. Like a lot of crafters I thought socks were the holy grail of knitting and would be highly complicated, but since I prefer technical knitting to long straight rows of scarves, I wanted to give it a try. I purchased some indie dyed sock yarn from Mamie & Florrie at East Anglia Yarn Festival 2023 – I don’t tend to buy much yarn as I spin so much of my own, but I spotted this gorgeous skein on the stand and I loved that it was geolocated using what3words to the location that inspired the colourway (in my case the Rembrandt Self Portrait in the Rijks Museum).

I wanted to start with a basic sock pattern and since I have wide feet I was also looking for one that was adjustable in some way. I had a Google and several people were giving Winwick Mum’s free pattern a good write up, so I thought I would try that since there were also diagrams on her ‘sockalong’ to help clarify some of the instructions if I got stuck. Knitting it up was a fairly straightforward process, though I realised I had got the width measurement slightly too big as I turned the heel, so I did a few more decreases around the gusset to get a better fit around the foot. This means the cuff isn’t as fitted as it could be (although I haven’t blocked them yet), but I’m not too worried as it gives off cosy autumnal vibes and I do want the cuffs to be able to go over the top of trousers to show off the beautiful colours of the yarn.

How the colours look when the light hits

Overall I can highly recommend both the yarn and the pattern. I think I’ve now finally joined the throng of knitters all telling everyone that socks aren’t as hard to knit as you think (and I’ll definitely be making some more in future)!

Happy Crafting!

Tour De Fleece 2024 – Week 3 Final Wrap-up

That’s all folks! The final week of TDF has flown by and I haven’t really had time to process what I’ve spun. Much of this week was spent working on the zwartbles and finishing one of my spindle projects. The hot weather hasn’t helped my productivity, but I did manage to get all my spins washed and dry to set the twist and the zwartbles is looking beautiful after washing. Below are the final weeks photos and links to the final two challenges on Youtube.

Day 16: Second Challenge Day – Spinning on two wheels at once – click the image to watch the video on Youtube

Reflections

This is my fourth TDF and this year I’ve managed to spin for 3.5km (that’s the length x3 to account for spinning two singles and plying) which is not too far off last year’s 4.8km. In previous years, I’ve used TDF to finish off a previously started project, so this year is the first time that all my TDF projects have been started during the challenge. It’s also been the first year when I’ve simultaneously been working on important non-fibre related projects, so I haven’t had as much time to spin, although I have still made good progress overall. I set myself a to-do list at the start of the challenge, so let’s see how I got on:

Zwartbles – Although I had hoped to process a whole fleece from scratch, I think it was slightly wishful thinking! The fleece was still drying on day 1 but had retained quite a lot of it’s lanolin, so I did get to experiment a little with spinning in the grease (I was quite pleased with how it turned out, my hands are now very soft, but it does mean all my spinning equipment is now sticky with lanolin!). The zwartbles has been a real pleasure to spin – it’s so fluffy and has fulled nicely after washing. I have a commission project to work on with this yarn before it turns cold again here in the UK, so although I haven’t yet spun the whole fleece, I have enough yarn to get started on that (and I’m already thinking of all the other things I can make with it!)
BFL/Camel Roving from Yarntings – I got halfway through this roving on days when I was away from my wheel and it spins beautifully, the different tones of mustard yellow where the dye hasn’t taken all the way through are really pretty. I’m going to save the rest to take whenever I need a portable project over the rest of the summer.
Shetland Sample – This was the one project I completed. I combed and spindle spun the sample, while the combing waste was carded and used in my third spinning challenge.
Spinning Challenge Sunday’s – A new element of my challenge for this year and something I had a lot of fun with – I hope they were enjoyable to watch (all videos will remain available on YouTube via their links). All were very silly but made good technical challenges, although editing the videos did take up quite a bit of my spinning time on Sunday’s. I really enjoyed doing these though, so will definitely consider bringing them back next year (perhaps with some follower set challenges next time? – if you have any ideas let me know and I’ll make a note of them).

Overall I’m happy with the progress I made over TDF this year and it shows how much spinning can be done even with limited time. Before TDF I completed several projects and am in the process of writing up and editing the videos for these, so although my non-fibre projects will keep me very occupied over the next couple of months, there will be more fibre adventures forthcoming!

If you’ve been joining in with TDF I’d love to hear how you got on – feel free to let me know in the comments below. Happy Spinning!

For more information about this years tour de fleece challenge my introductory blog post is here and you can find Weeks 1 & 2 by clicking the links.

Tour De Fleece 2024 – Week 2 Wrap-up

Well that’s a wrap on the second week of TDF! It’s been hectic and I’ve not been at home much this week, so have taken spindle projects with me but have not always managed my 1 hour target. I’m feeling a little behind where I would normally be at this point in the challenge compared to other years (in the past I’ve been plying from week 1), but with lots of other commitments this month, spinning time has been in short supply. However, I’ve continued to make some progress with the zwartbles, my spindle projects and had a lot of fun with my second Sunday challenge (like last week, you can view the video by clicking on the image).

Day 9: Second Challenge Day – Spinning while Tap Dancing – click the image to watch the video on Youtube

If you are also joining in with Tour de Fleece (whether part of a group or going it alone like me!) I’d love to hear how you’re getting on, let me know in the comments below!

Although I usually like to post on a Sunday, next week’s wrap up (the final wrap up for TDF 2024!) may be posted on Monday 22nd to allow time for me to edit and upload the final challenge video that will coincide with the final day of TDF.

Happy Spinning!

For more information about my tour de fleece challenge my introductory blog post is here. I’m also posting my progress photos daily on my instagram.

Tour De Fleece 2024 – Week 1 Wrap-up

The first week of TDF has flown by and I haven’t got as much spinning done as I’d hoped. I had quite a few unexpected commitments, but did manage to spin for at least 1 hour per day, often continuing spinning after posting my daily update. Looking at my pictures for the week, I think I’ve still made good progress considering, and I’ve been enjoying doing the Sunday challenges (if you click the image of Day 2 it should take you to the video of my first challenge).

Day 1: Began spindle spinning this Merino/Camel Braid from Yarntings

If you are also joining in with Tour de Fleece (whether part of a group or going it alone like me!) I’d love to hear how you’re getting on, let me know in the comments below! Until next week…

Happy Spinning!

For more information about my tour de fleece challenge my introductory blog post is here. I’m also posting my progress photos daily on my instagram.