On the road again................Part Two Yorkshire

For me Yorkshire means wool, sheep and spinning, for Mr S it is where his maternal ancestors come from.  But we both agree that it is a beautiful county despite/because of its industrial past and as historians we both find that this makes visiting well worth while.

But this year my focus was wool, having discovered that the last weekend in September was Yarndale and The Masham Sheep Fair - well that was too good to miss. I have talked about both in my Woolly Wednesday post, so I won't go over old ground other than to say that I would recommend the Sheep Fair which was a wonderful day!  Yarndale has had mixed reviews mainly because lots of people couldn't get there - apparently they were turning people away because the car park was full!!!!!!  Well anyone who knows Skipton at all knows that there isn't a lot of parking in the town itself and it was a market day - not good!!  Lots of people just turned around and went home.  This makes me feel sad and a tiny bit angry to think that some people just sat in a traffic queue - what an anti-climax to what should have been a fun day out.  Let's hope that the organizers learn from this year's mistakes.

I was one of the lucky ones - no problem parking at either venue.  In fact at Masham the parking for the disabled was right in the middle of the town.  Not that you have thought that when following the signs - go down the hill the man said and I did, then I went up hill and round a hairpin bend, then through a very narrow gate and up a gravel driveway, round the back of a large house and into a field - only to discover that I was next to the church and a stone's throw from the market place where all the action was - perfect!

Actually Yorkshire is full of woolly places to visit so a spinner's heaven but this year I had to content myself with a visit to World of Wool and The Piece Hall in Halifax where there was a cute little wool shop called Three Bags Full crammed full of wool and things, but for knitters really.  Halifax is a nightmare in a wheelchair - steep hills, cobbles and high kerbstones all come together to make it real hard work and lots of the old shops had steps, but it is the cobbles that make if really difficult - nice to look at though!


As you know, I'm always on the look out for natural dye stuff and I wasn't disappointed on this trip - 'coz in the hedge at the back of our pitch there was a small elder bush, full of ripe berries but not for wine!

Elderberry is, according to my book, supposed to give purples, but I had a limited amount of dye stuff, so couldn't go for the full range!  For this one I tried the method using vinegar and got a more muted mauve - this is on Bombyx Mori silk.

This is definitely a dye stuff that needs further experiments - as alum will give purple and an iron modifier will deepen that to an almost black purple.  The only downside is that stuff dyed with elderberries fades in daylight - shame.

I have also read that the Himalayan Balsam (the whole plant not just the flowers) gives a yellowy brown and there was a whole bank of the stuff right next to the elderberries - so next year.....

Woolly Wednesday October....

September was a month of two halves - at home, dyeing and spinning silk and away, knitting and a bit of spinning, but a lot of woolly things...

First home and silk dyeing - I have been experimenting with different dyes on silk - acid dyes I have found do not penetrate the silk well, even after extended soaking, Procion Dyes on the other hand do and you need a lot less dye powder.  The natural dyes (cochineal, lac, Coreopsis petals and madder) I have tried so far also work really well on silk

Bottom row: from right to left - madder on mulberry silk. madder on Tussah silk, lac on soy fibre,
Middle row: -Coreopsis on Mulberry Silk, Procion Raspberry on Tussah, Cochineal on Mulberry Silk, Lac on Mulberry, and Lac on Tussah
Top: - Violet Navy (Procion) on Tussah Silk, some natural samples and top left Merino/Silk - dyed with black and claret.

Then we went to Yorkshire for Yarndale and the Masham Sheep Fair!  Yarndale was OK, nothing really new and very focused on knitting, so lots of indie dyers and commercial yarns.  Very little for the spinner and very crowded.  There was no where to sit down if you couldn't get up steps, and the food outlet was slap bang in the middle with no extractor fans - so the awful smell of bacon was everywhere and the queue went down the aisles so that it was impossible to get to see some of the stalls.  Oliver Twist packed up and went home as they were next to the cafe area - really an impossible situation - would you want to buy silk that smelt strongly of frying bacon?

There was a stall selling pre-loved reconditioned spinning wheels at ridiculous prizes - e.g. a 1970s Ashford Traditional (not very well reconditioned) for £225.00 and a Haldane Orkney for £325!  Really hope that no one was daft enough to pay that sort of money.

Masham was completely the opposite - all sheep and fleeces and a terrific day out!

Some photos of sheep

A beautiful Border Leicester ram, slightly unhappy as his wives were in the show ring!

Lincoln Longwool - champions in the long wool classes

Three Borerays - these won the Primitive Breed class

Kerry Hills, these were supreme champions in each of their classes and were really outstanding - sadly I was unable to nab one of the fleeces, beaten by another spinner who knew her fleeces!

I did however get a shearling Border Leicester £10 and prize wining White-faced Woodland £7 and a superb Llanwenog £4 - not a bad haul! I did turn down what look like a very nice cross Texel/Beltex for £3 because there was a break in the locks!  Was tempted by Badger-faced Welsh Mountain £4, but again although cheap there was a break in the locks - clearly this last year hasn't been kind to sheep.  There were some beautiful Corriedale/Manx Loaghtan cross fleeces, but they were huge. although a bargain at £10, I really didn't think that I could fit another fleece in the car/caravan for the trip back home.  Still there is always next year..............

Sadly there were no Masham fleeces, but I did managed to get a small sample from a lovely lady at  Yarndale, thus adding to the breed samples for SpinDyeWeavers.

This is my fleece haul from Masham with a small amount of North Country Mule from a ewe called Postie, because she had been found in a ditch next to a post box!


With the weather warm and sunny while we were away I did managed some outdoor spinning and have a sun burnt nose to prove that I did!

First up Toasted Teacakes

This is Perendale fibre, a New Zealand Sheep created by crossing a Romney with a Cheviot - interesting spin, but not the softest of yarn, from Southern Cross Fibres

I also spun up some some more natural dye samples - this one is from Rowan Berries - not what you would expect from such a vibrant red berry - light tan.

 

On the knitting front I finished my Clarice Again Shawl - not blocked as yet and began another...............

This one is Pizzicato by Linda Choo that I am knitting using some handspun/dyed silk and merino.

Oh, and I did get to visit World of Wool - fibre heaven and while there made a modest purchase of carefully selected fibre.................... 

One Day at a time......

I am a day late, not for the first time, for a Woolly Wednesday............  My excuse is that yesterday was such a lovely sunny day Mr S and I went for a walk rather than say indoors!

August was a month of spinning and dyeing, the only knitting project I had on the go, fell lost and forgotten under a chair until discovered covered in Molly's hairs and only partially on the needles.........  So I frogged and started over again as part of the holiday KAL on 12shawls4ever!

So spinning and dyeing - some of the dyeing was of the natural kind for samples on the SpinDyeWeavers display.

Marigold and Eucalyptus produced paler than expected shades, but the Marigold was the best - a really beautiful pale yellow here on some Falkland Merino.

I am still collecting petals for another dye bath as I think that this is one of nicest colours I have got from nature.

Dyeing silk, is very satisfying, the colours really sing out, but I have got the best results using Procion dyes which seem to penetrate the silk better than acid dyes!  But which ever, the results are stunning, well I think so!

Golden Rain

This is one of my favourites, acid dyed with lots of white, this 50grams is enough for a shawl.

Dark Summer Morning

Continuing with the luxury theme I ordered 500 grams of Superfine Merino and Mulberry Silk 50/50 from World of Wool - wow what a fabulous fibre, so silky soft it almost drafts itself

This is the first bobbin, the second is done and I shall 2ply tonight.  I have fractal spun this, so with luck it won't be too barber pole.

Actually I haven't spent the entire month spinning, there has been the ongoing/never ending fleece washing!  But by washing using littlemarchhare's method it hasn't been that onerous.

Every morning I wash two envelopes and hang out to dry, in the afternoon I 'try' to comb the day before's washed fleece!  I have slipped a bit, but for the most part this method is working and I have lots of lovely fibre nests waiting to be spun

Also washed is some Dorset Down, Poll Dorset and Exmoor Horn samples kindly donated for the display table by David and Ruth Wilkins of Rampisham Hill Farm. I have been lucky enough to source some Clun Forest, Border Leicester from this year's clip and have been promised some Blue de Maine from next years!  But as according to the British Wool Marketing Board (BWMB) there are 86 distinct British breeds so we still have a long way to go!

Silk the final frontier....................

Like many spinners I started with an easy fibre - I think my first spinning was done with a Portland fibre and plied with Corriedale.  Also like most new spinners it was thick and tin and over twisted and under plied - but it was my very first yarn and I was proud of it!

Time moves on and your spinning improves, as does the variety of fibres spun - recently for the SpinDyeWeavers display board I have been helping out by spinning some British breeds and dyeing using nature's harvest.  All this has been great fun, some fleece is a joy and some you can understand why they make carpets................  but they are all different and were and still are bred for a particular purpose.  For the natural dyeing I used a Cheviot (mainly because it was the cheapest British fibre available from World of Wool) and it is rather coarse - well it is a Hill breed, with a fleece designed to keep out the wind and rain and rather more important to keep the sheep warm!

Well after all this I decided that I needed a treat and perhaps a bit of luxury, pampering in fact.  So I delved into my stash and found a 25gram samples of silk that I had dyed back in May 2011 using Procion MX Dyes.

The brown was gifted, but the turquoise I still had, and here it is spun up

What an absolute delight it was to spin - Demelza definitely a wheel for silk, a double drive and crossed on the flyer to get more twist - this is so fine I could do cross stitch with it....

This, not very good photo of the crossed yarn on the flyer, shows Lavender's Blue being spun.  Well I just had to experiment with dyeing more silk - this is Tussah silk (that's wild silk where the grub is allowed to live) which I dyed in the oven, using Landscape, Saltmarsh, Dusk and Sun Orchid....

The colours were inspired by the lavender growing in our garden which the bees love.....

A Tussah Silk Moth - isn't it beautiful, so more colourful than the Bombyx Mori?

Here's some more dyed silk, again Tussah (I like the idea that the grub gets to become a Moth!)

Which I call Mr Tangerine Man

Spinning Tussah silk is very different to spinning Mulberry Silk (or the silk from the Bombyx Mori moth where the grub is smothered before it can eat it way out of the cocoon) very smooth and soft and spins up like a dream, you hardly have to draft at all!

This I called Golden Rain, again oven dyed (at the same time as Lavender's Blue, so two for the price of one) with Landscape Broome and Dusk and spun cobweb

 

 

Another thing with silk that makes it so rewarding is you don't need vast quantities - all these are 50 grams and produced enough yarn for a shawl - so luxury at a bargain price!

The perfect drying/dyeing month.................

I can't believe that it is Woolly Wednesday again... Another month gone, albeit a gorgeous one weather wise!  The Tour de Fleece and France is over and most of Team Blissful Woolmakers made it to the finish line and prizes were awarded!  With the weather so very hot we felt that it would be unfair to Molly to spend days in a hot caravan, so we stayed home until Fibre East.  Last year Fibre East was practically washed away by monsoon rain and people moaned, this year it was sunny and very hot and again people moaned!!!!!  I was very good and spent very little, well I was a volunteer, so not a lot of shopping time!

July was certainly a productive month - all my fleeces are now washed and I have started a fleece book, grandly named Fleece Book Volume One, in which I have a lock of washed fleece and very soon a spun sample for each fleece.  I still have to wash some BoDo which is a Bowmont/Dorset X and rather lovely. Also I have finally got my one kilo of Fawn Bond, ordered nearly a year ago, but well worth waiting for.....

I am currently sorting the locks as there is a surprising amount of colour variation from the palest fawn to quite a deep fawn almost light tan/brown - very difficult to describe - but lush!  The crimp is amazing and impossible to capture on my camera.  There is also a chocolate bond currently sitting by the door waiting for Saturday's meeting of the SpinDyeWeavers when we will split our booty!

Perhaps not the dark chocolate I pictured more milk chocolate, but again a gorgeous fleece which is going to complement the fawn!  I see some colour work on the horizon...

But more than anything else July has been a silk month.  Inspired by some gorgeous spinning and colours by LindaCC on Ravelry.  I have spun camel and silk before and loved it, but looking through my spinning book I hadn't really just spun pure silk, it was always with something rather than standing alone. Remembering that many moons ago I had experimented dyeing silk with Procion Dyes I dug out the samples and these were the results!

 2plied

 

 N-plied

 

I wanted more so I dyed some silk, from my stash.  There are two types of silk available to the spinner - Wild or Tussah silk and Mulberry silk and here are the first samples that I dyed, from right to left, Tussah, Mulberry and Silk Hankies

The 50 grams of Tussah Silk (orange) then became Mr Tangerine Man, 456 yards with 48 wpi.

 2 plied

I loved the Mulberry silk sample so much that I dyed another batch - the skein looks like molten gold and I can see a shawl in this colour.

I found that Tussah silk takes the colour better - this I call Lavender's Blue as I took inspiration from the lavender plants in the garden

It is dry now and my fingers are itching to get spinning...................

Tour De Fleece/France 2013

Chez Sassy has been a hive of industry over the last past three weeks........ 

Well one half of the household has been beavering away creating lots of lovely yarn and clean fleeces, the other half has been watching the race unfold and very little else!!!

The Tour de France represents a special place in Mr S and my relationship, for it was during the race way back in 1987 that we had our first and only proper date - July 21st to be exact!  He took me out to dinner (we both had garlic mushrooms!!!!!) and the rest as they say is history!.

Certainly the coverage of the Tour has improved - from a half hour of highlights to almost full coverage of the entire race....  Not sure whether that is a good or bad thing - for me it means that I can spin without fear of interruption, but it also means that a large part of the day is taken up in just watching TV.  Actually sport is our major TV viewing - don't do soaps, quizzes or anything that is featured as essential viewing.....  We have eclectic tastes and are generally very particular about our viewing - currently boycotting the golf as Muirfield  doesn't allow women members!!! Sexist or what - they employ women, but women aren't allowed on the course!

So to the other part of the Tour, the Tour de Fleece - an event held on Ravelry, in which you challenge yourself in the fine art of spinning.  This year I have been co-ordinating a Team for the Blissful Woolmakers which has been fun!  The only rule for this team is that all spinning must be done on a Bliss spinning wheel - so a small select team!

I have spun over 3000 yards on my Bliss in three weeks and haven't really made any impact on the stash at all!

Two days stand out - the first individual time trial - we used this day to spin for the same time as the riders the longest singles!  This is when I found out that I treadle really quite slowly - I average 53 a minute compare to others who go at over 100!  Anyway I managed a very creditable 96 metres of white Shetland.

The second was Stage 18 - the day the riders went up Alpe d'Huez twice, when I challenged myself to master long draw - no  cheating and slipping in some short draw!  Well I have to say it wasn't my best spinning ever - but I did managed to let go and pull the fibres out in what I may say was quite a stylish manner.

This was carded Corriedale, in a particularly lurid pink and lime green with added Angelina and this is what I managed during the entire television coverage of the stage - not a huge amount, but it was done using a long draw.  Yes I know I am labouring the point, but it really does frustrate me that I haven't master this technique yet.

I couldn't wait and plied up my efforts straight away and yes if you look closely there are some thick bits, but they held together!

Here are some of the yarns I have spun during the Tour

Eric - a double dose of SCF Polwarth 1040 yards, 2 plied.

Wildcat - a 60 gram sample of World of Wool Lynx - 272 yards, 2 plied

Aquamarine Sari - from a Loop Bullseye Bump - not sure of the yardage, forgot to write it down - dumbo!

Dark Wings - my take on a SCF colourway - 100 grams, 275 yards, N-plied

Light Wings, so called because the wrapping split and I lost a lot of colour (i.e. same as Dark Wings, but lighter)  100 grams, 300 yards, N-plied

A small sample skein of BFL and silk that I oven dyed.

80 grams of Polwarth - to finish of a small shawl....

And just for relaxation in the evenings, because it has far too hot to knit - some silk spun on Demelza

Need to find something special for tonight - the first evening stage on The Avenue des Champs-Élysées.  Chris Froome is the second British winner (Bradley Wiggins won last year) and will Mark Cavendish win for the fifth consecutive year?  I will have my fingers crossed, well not really as you can't spin with crossed fingers!!! 

Of Wonderwool and other spinning things

Last Sunday the girls and I went to Wonderwool - that's it really because if you have been then you know what a fantastic day we had, and it you haven't then GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO next year and get a truly memorable fibre fix.

I probably spent too much, well OK I spent too much but I had a great time, talked to loads of people, put faces to names and finally discovered what is so special about the Scotch Egg man!  When I wrote out exactly what I had bought it did seem to be rather a lot especially as my list was so small.  But the important things were a WooLee Winder for my Matchless, (but that doesn't count as I had pre-order and paid for it) and some extra bobbins and a fast whorl as I am determine that Demelza will spin my finest lace yarn ever.

For not only have I discovered the pleasure of woollen spinning from my punis I have also been experimenting with the concept of cross lacing having recently watch 'Three Bags Full' and 'Spinning Luxury Yarns' with Judith Mackenzie.

This is my Black Sparkle spun from punis - 55grams and 230yards, woollen spun and 2 plied..

In fact I liked this so much that I have blended another bigger batch this time using Amethyst in both merino and silk - but there is still more black than any other colour (is black a colour??).

And some more batts this time blending Oatmeal BFL, White Shetland, Turquoise Merino and Ramie - Bluebirds over White Cliffs..

I am particularly pleased with these especially as I have finally worked out how to roll them like in the shops - well I did need some help, but that's what friends are for aren't they - thanks Fibrefrog!

This is pure luxury - cashmere, superfine merino and white tussah silk - a special blend from World of Wool  which I spun cross laced, spun worsted and 2 plied 493yards.

This is some Camel and Silk that I am spinning using Scotch tension and crossing the yarn back and across to reduce the take up and increase the twist.  Pretty happy so far with the results of this technique.....