note: I started this post over a month ago - in july, took pictures, but things got insanely busy and the two never made it together.
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I haven't had a good post in a while. It's been pretty crazy here. On top of the things like having an exploding printer, an almost 5 year old, and a part time job... My sister is getting married next month (!) so we've had dress fittings, invitation production lines, favor shopping, showers, etc. Crazy doesn't describe it accurately enough! As we're done with the showers (thankfully) and there's no fiber fests that I can attend until September, I find myself with the briefest of breaks (at least until I have my next dress fitting...) so I can spend a few minutes here.
I signed up for the Tour de Fleece again this year. my goal, as it was last year was to work down the stash a bit. i have at least 10 fleeces that i need to process, and a large volume of top, roving and other fluff i've accumulated since i started spinning. I probably would be doing better with my goal, if people weren't trying to SABOTAGE me (and i mean that in the nicest way - how can i really be mad at people who give me fiber?) one friend was given 8 garbage bags full of alpaca instead of the 8 lbs she was expecting, and passed some on to me. another friend in her travels picked up some mill end top from a shop and gave me some.
Back to my tour goal. The first couple of days we were out of town, so I took my spindle and got some silk bells spun up. It's 120 yds of lace weight, and i have no idea what i'm going to do with it. i'm thinking that i will spin up some more at some point so i can do something more than a skinny scarf.
then i started in on processing some of the fleeces i have. (of which there are many.)
I'm trying out a new process i'd read about. You let the fleece sit in plain water until it ferments itself. the result is quite possibly one of the foulest smelling things i have ever encounterd, except for raw sewage. maybe. it's been a while since i've been around the leaky sewer in Georgetown so it's hard to compare. so, while that was fermenting, i spun up the mill end top from my friend. it's overall a dark charcoal, but on closer examination there's browns, blacks, and white (we suspect the white is mohair and the rest is wool) and that's spun up to a 2 ply worsted/heavy worsted. I think there's around 8 oz, but that's just because i filled up 2 bobbins. I haven't weighed or measured it at all. (it's spun, and that's what counts!)
next up, is plying the romney i started long ago. it is the first yarn i did mostly worsted as opposed to semi-woolen. it's a nice pale grey, a bit rough, but i'm hoping that some of that is remedied when it's re-washed. there was a lot of lanolin left in the wool, and after sitting.. it's a bit stiff. Laceweight. again, no stats yet. this may wind up as lace bookmarks or something of the decoration kind if the washing doesn't remedy the scratchyness.
on the bobbin now:
some alpaca silk in black. i've got a lb of black and 1/2 lb of brown. originally i had planned on blending this with some charcoal bamboo, but i was too impatient and started. it's a sport weight single, spun from the fold, and will be 2 plied.
the fermented wool has been drained, rinsed, rained on, and dried. it came out pretty good, no soap, no hot water... i'm pretty happy with the results, and plan on doing it again with some of the other fleeces i have.
------------------------------
I haven't had a good post in a while. It's been pretty crazy here. On top of the things like having an exploding printer, an almost 5 year old, and a part time job... My sister is getting married next month (!) so we've had dress fittings, invitation production lines, favor shopping, showers, etc. Crazy doesn't describe it accurately enough! As we're done with the showers (thankfully) and there's no fiber fests that I can attend until September, I find myself with the briefest of breaks (at least until I have my next dress fitting...) so I can spend a few minutes here.
I signed up for the Tour de Fleece again this year. my goal, as it was last year was to work down the stash a bit. i have at least 10 fleeces that i need to process, and a large volume of top, roving and other fluff i've accumulated since i started spinning. I probably would be doing better with my goal, if people weren't trying to SABOTAGE me (and i mean that in the nicest way - how can i really be mad at people who give me fiber?) one friend was given 8 garbage bags full of alpaca instead of the 8 lbs she was expecting, and passed some on to me. another friend in her travels picked up some mill end top from a shop and gave me some.
Back to my tour goal. The first couple of days we were out of town, so I took my spindle and got some silk bells spun up. It's 120 yds of lace weight, and i have no idea what i'm going to do with it. i'm thinking that i will spin up some more at some point so i can do something more than a skinny scarf.
then i started in on processing some of the fleeces i have. (of which there are many.)
I'm trying out a new process i'd read about. You let the fleece sit in plain water until it ferments itself. the result is quite possibly one of the foulest smelling things i have ever encounterd, except for raw sewage. maybe. it's been a while since i've been around the leaky sewer in Georgetown so it's hard to compare. so, while that was fermenting, i spun up the mill end top from my friend. it's overall a dark charcoal, but on closer examination there's browns, blacks, and white (we suspect the white is mohair and the rest is wool) and that's spun up to a 2 ply worsted/heavy worsted. I think there's around 8 oz, but that's just because i filled up 2 bobbins. I haven't weighed or measured it at all. (it's spun, and that's what counts!)
next up, is plying the romney i started long ago. it is the first yarn i did mostly worsted as opposed to semi-woolen. it's a nice pale grey, a bit rough, but i'm hoping that some of that is remedied when it's re-washed. there was a lot of lanolin left in the wool, and after sitting.. it's a bit stiff. Laceweight. again, no stats yet. this may wind up as lace bookmarks or something of the decoration kind if the washing doesn't remedy the scratchyness.
on the bobbin now:
some alpaca silk in black. i've got a lb of black and 1/2 lb of brown. originally i had planned on blending this with some charcoal bamboo, but i was too impatient and started. it's a sport weight single, spun from the fold, and will be 2 plied.
the fermented wool has been drained, rinsed, rained on, and dried. it came out pretty good, no soap, no hot water... i'm pretty happy with the results, and plan on doing it again with some of the other fleeces i have.
posted by Dragon In The Rain at
12:35 PM
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