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!!! 

Fleeces here, there and everywhere...............

Over the last couple of years I have bought far too many fleeces and then what with the Paralympics I got Mr S to put them in the loft in an attempt to forget the task ahead, and then last weekend despite declaring loudly to any one in hearing distance 'that I don't need/what another fleece I caved in and bought another one.

This one is a beautiful Wensleydale X from Yvonne Hoskins

and it must be good because Molly spent nearly an hour rolling and grooming amongst the dirty smelly fleece!  Interestingly she is only interested in unwashed fleece - never rolls in clean fleece

which I can leave out to dry all day and she completely ignores them

This one of the poor forgotten 2011 fleeces (another Merino X from Yvonne) and this only got a sniff from Molly so obviously the newer the fleece the greater the attraction for her............... this one I washed yesterday before the Men's Singles Final which by the way if you aren't aware MURRAY WON!

Today Mr S went up into the loft, where hanging in a row like in an abattoir, were five poor unloved and unwashed fleeces - well they aren't there now four are here and the fifth is already in the wash!

There is a Black Welsh Mountain and three Merino X's. As I am not washing these for combing I put these into mesh bags and plunged them in hot water with Power Scour, hotter than the bare hand can take and submerged with a potato masher.

Then into the spin dyer to get rid of all the dirty water ready for a rinse, again in very hot water. Fortunately we have a wet room so I can and do splash and slop water all over the place.

These trays are from Ikea, originally drawers for their Pax wardrobes (but they had silly plastic runners which broke and were long ago replaced with better wooden ones) and are the perfect size for the large mesh laundry bags.   Another spin and then out in the sun to dry.  So far in this gorgeous weather we are experiencing I have washed three fleeces and 100grams of Stein (Shetland/Gotland X bought at Unravel), spun 230grams of Polwarth and watched far too much sport on TV...............

This one will be drum carded and made into rouers (this is what Liz Northern Lace calls them) for my Tour de Fleece challenge (this day the riders go twice up Alpe d'Huez) on July 18th - long draw............

Smelly Wednesday.............

Its Woolly Wednesday and be grateful that you aren't in my kitchen today!

Before we went a travelling I put some avocado pitts and skins in an ammonia solution to ferment preparatory to dyeing.  You are supposed to get a rosy pink from the pitts and skins...........

Well the instructions said to leave for at least a week, so I thought that leaving it a bit longer would only create more colour!  We have some nettles fermenting for garden feed which is smelly, but not even close to ammonia fermented avocado!!  If you have smelt nettles you might have some idea what the smell was like when I took the lid off the jar if you multiply by 100 at least.  Mr S is not amused and I have to say the smell is currently beating the air freshener hands down...

Currently I have some mordant fibre simmering in the solution but there doesn't seem to be much colour transferring to the fibre yet - I may add some just wetted fibre to see if the alum mordant wasn't necessary!  But be warned this is a real pongy one!

For the last two weeks of June we went a travelling for two things: one was a day at Wimbledon and the second was to collect a new acquisition......

A Herring Alpha - which to my amazement folds!  It really is a wheel before its time.......... All metal and very light - the treadle is tucked up behind and swings round for spinning!

 

Here she is ready to spin

and a bit fuzzy close up of the flyer

 



Now it is July so it must be Tour de France/Fleece and like many other Ravellers I have been dutifully spinning every day. In Chez Sassy me spinning for a lot of the day isn't a problem as Mr S is a keen cycling fan and is happy for me sit next to him as he immerses himself in all things bikes.

Progress so far:

Day One was done at the North Somerset Fleece Fair, so not all my own work

Day Two I plied some BFL/Ramie Blend that I have oven dyed with Wild Raspberry and Wombat dry powder as an experiment.

Day Three I finished plying

Day Four: I spun and watched the Team Time Trial (I also watched some tennis too!)

For the next few days I shall be spinning some SCF that I got in a detash - 230 grams of Polwarth called Eric

Take one greasy fleece.......

Having had the most wonderful weather here for the last week I decided to make use of the excellent drying weather to wash some fleeces.

Most I did in a regular way - hot water, power scour, rinse, spin and dry!  But for one part of the Texel fleece acquired last week I tried a new method to me.  Dyeing a greasy fleece - sounds a bit crazy but I was assured that it worked.


Here's the Recipe.

Ingredients:

1 Greasy Fleece
A good slug of Vinegar
Five squirts of Power Scour
2 litres of warm water or to cover the fleece
Dye Powder in colours of choice

Method:

First take a large pan put about 1/2 inch of water in the bottom, add a good slug of vinegar and detergent of choice (I used Power Scour because I like it, but washing up liquid works or so I am told)  then top up with warmish water and submerged your fleece so that the water just covers the fleece when you press it down.

This roasting pan I bought in T...o and it just fits into my oven and on top of my little two ring electric hot plate.

Once the fleece is in the pan sprinkle dry dye powder over the fleece, leaving quite a lot of white.  I used a teaspoon of Landscape dye in three colours, Wombat, Wild Raspberry and Broome.  First I tried to cook it on the stove top.....

But I couldn't get an even simmer, so I popped into the oven (covered with kitchen foil) at 180C for 45mins.

 

After 45mins I left the pan in the oven to cool down until it was cool enough to handle, then rinsed using water at the same temperature as the fleece .

Here's the finished fleece clean and dyed and drying in the sun.  The water left in the pan was dirty and all the dye had been absorbed so I didn't add more fleece as the original instructions suggest.

But it worked and the fleece is ready to card or even just to flick the ends and spin from the lock!  Not sure that I would want to use this method on a really soft and expensive fleece - I am a bit of a fleece snob in that respect, I like to wash lock by lock and comb my more expensive purchase, but for a everyday fleece it is a super way of processing a greasy fleece.

Busy, Busy but not a lot to show

Woolly Wednesday again and although May has been a busy month but I feel that there isn't a lot to show for all my hard work!

First the solar dyeing now one month on and really not a lot of change except that the dye stuff has lost colour so hopefully some colour has leached into the yarn.

 

Red cabbage has produced less colour than I had hoped for.  This is the yarn modified with iron is probably the best of the three so far....

 

 

The garden has taken up more of my time than spinning but hopefully the results will be well worth the effort...

 

This what I grandly call the 'veg plot' originally everything was sowed in nice straight rows, but Molly decided that she prefer the more random look - so the rocket and lettuce have spread over a much larger area than first envisaged!  Currently she is completely confused by the netting cage we have erected over the veg - she keeps pushing her head against the net and walks round and round looking for a way in!

Here is the fruit bed and where our first strawberries are plumping up nicely and finally the new Dyers Garden

In the left front corner I have sown Anthemis Tinctoria  (Dyers Camomile) and the other four corners will have Rubia tinctorum (Madder), Reseda luteola (Dyers Weld) and Coreopsis.  All are good for bees which is another plus as we have a steady stream of bees visiting our garden.  I am probably being over ambitious but my philosophy is to cram in the plants so as to not leave room for the weeds to grow!  The sticks are an attempt to stop Molly re-organising the seeds!  So far so good....... 

My new wheel Miss Bliss has been put to good use spinning up the natural dye samples and so far I am loving the wheel, it is very light to treadle and seems to cope well with what ever I have tried so far.... and a big bonus is that I can spin from my wheelchair comfortably.....

This was yesterday's production of samples, nettles, onion skins and cochineal.  Most of the red cabbage is still on the bobbin and will get plied later this afternoon.  When I have finished mordanting the next lot of fibre I shall be trying my luck with the colour I extracted from the leaves of Cotinus coggygria 'Royal Purple' (Smoke Bush)!

            


I did finish my St Kilda Shawl in May, it is one of the biggest shawls I have knitted so far this year

and another view this time with the first shawl pin Mr S has made - American Cherry for the ring and Indian Rosewood for the pin

I also got a big surprise on Monday evening when I was presented with a very large Texel fleece - I vaguely remember saying how nice it was in comparison to some Texel I had spun and that I wouldn't mind trying some!  Note to self - do not to make encouraging noises when presented with lovely fluff! 

I am going to try dyeing fleece in the grease with this one - which will have to be done with Mr S out of the way as the method uses vinegar - not tried this method before, but the idea of getting a clean fleece ready dyed does appeal..................



Who knows best?

As a wheelchair user one of the biggest banes of my life is non-disabled people telling me (and other physically challenged people) what they need and how to live my life.  Despite never spending a day in a wheelchair the so called expert will confidently make sweeping statements that just do not work!!

What is the reason for this rant?  Well a few months ago Honest John in the Telegraph was asked to suggest a car suitable for a young wheelchair user just getting their first car.  Why ask Honest John when there are specialists in this field I don't know, but ask they did!!

The recommendation was a Ford B-Max because of the lack of side pillar and also and here I quote from Honest John's own review of the vehicle "And the disabled can stash a wheelchair behind themselves without having to summon help."  Imagine the scenario - you have successfully transferred yourself into the driver's seat and your wheelchair is now outside the car and lower than you are (this might not seem a big problem - but if I lean out too far I fall out.............) and you are going to put the wheelchair on the seat behind you - how?

Picture if you can, or best of all try to lift a folded pushchair (which are much lighter than most wheelchairs, although mine is probably is as light) and without using your legs for balance twist and place it on the back seat behind the drivers seat.............  Il est impossible.  Use your seatbelt I hear you say - tell me how can you reach around behind you with a seatbelt holding you in?

Like most wheelchair users that I know I place my wheelchair on the passenger seat, by lifting the chair minus its wheels over myself and hooking the footrest over the headrest - you can if you so desire put the seat belt around the chair, but I have found that there is no need the chair 'ain't going nowhere man'.  Stash the wheels in the foot well and viola - job done!

Forgetting the problem of putting a wheelchair on the back seat the lack of side pillar is a real bonus, it means that lifting the chair up and over is not restricted by the said pillar - currently I have extra rails so that I can push the driver's seat way back, giving me the extra space I need to manoeuvre said chair.  So the lack of pillar seemed a real plus but the back door slides out and backwards - so how easy would it be to open the door from my chair.  Thursday I visited a local Ford Dealership with this in mind - the car is everything I had hoped for - I could open both doors and the space for the wheelchair manoeuvre was fantastic - BUT and it is a BIG BUT the back door cannot be closed from the driver's seat!!!  Ford in their wisdom do not provide an electronic closure..................

Good things come to those who wait, and wait and wait........

Finally after nearly two weeks my Bliss Wheel has arrived! 

Here is the box

Beautifully packed - just love the tube for the bobbins - and it comes with a screwdriver for you to assemble the wheel with...

These are all the bits and bobs laid out and ready to go....

The main parts go together very simply - this in about 10mins into the assembly and just the treadle and spindle to go..

This is my contribution to the process - adding the hooks!

Viola - the completed wheel ready to go................ and here is the first singles I have spun on the Bliss!  All in less than an hour............

The best thing so far - I can spin from my wheelchair! So that's a big plus!!