Catching up

I was busy and productive last week.  

I started a hat from the ribbing I used for class and helical stripes are fun to knit and a nice option instead of a solid color.  The gray is carded with color bits of mohair locks and sari silk.  The colors pop beautifully against the brown striped fabric.

On Thursday, the plain air painters had to work inside.  Paul and Cathy opened their home to us.  It was a fun session...

...I worked on another painting in progress and blocked in this portrait of Gus.

Wearing my newly-patched bibs and continuing to spin the Finn roving from Gale Wood Farm.

Mary and I washed our Lincoln Longwool fleeces (from Snake River Acres).  We will be prepping and spinning up this beautiful, silvery gray fiber.  I am taking the time to read about the sheep and spinning the lovely wool into yarn appropriate for knitting and weaving.

Gus continued to work on his artistic blanket series.

Jim and I went to the zoo on Friday.  We went in the afternoon, and while some of the animals were napping, there were a few that were awake and fun to watch.

The wolves came running when their keeper was in the area outside the fence.  

The beaver was busy!

Weaving a top

Last week on Weaving Wednesday I warped my loom for the first half of the top.  Using the shape of a top from the book I got last month, I worked out the calculations and Mary helped me with the warp.  Kathryn was out of town, so we just plowed through and with lots of laughing Mary and I managed just fine.  I believe Kathryn would be proud.  I went through the stash at home and found some fluffy wool that looked wonderful in the small section I sampled along with a second sample of using the warp yarn for the weft.  I liked the white until I began to weave with it...too fluffy, too sticky, and removed after a few passes of the shuttle.  The warp yarn was not what I wanted either because it looked boring.  This morning I dug through my handspun stash and found a lovely tweed in what I think will be enough for the top.  Now I am ready for Weaving Wednesday!

 

I liked the texture of the white wool but the warp as weft was less than inspiring
for a large project.  

29.04.16 Weaving along!  Kathryn's husband, Steven, came to take our photo on Wednesday for the magazine.  One side of my top is almost complete.  Fortunately I took the time to remeasure the length and was just shy in a couple of spots.  On Wednesday I unwove the sleeve so I could add a bit more to the body to make the full 12-inches under the arm.  Time goes quickly when you work as a group because of all the chatting and support.  Now to gather the yarn snippets and put my thoughts into 800 words.

The body of the weaving is on the left and the waste yarn filling in the side before the sleeve is on the right.

The sleeve is finished and the other side of the body is in progress.  Small safety pins mark the measurements:  12-inches below the sleeve, 20-inches for the sleeve (to be folded), and 12-inches below the other side of the sleeve.

Disengaging the forward pawl relaxes the tension and I can get an accurate measurement.

It is almost Shepherd's Harvest Festival time!  I am taking the felted sheep rug class taught by Linda Johnson-Morke  and then doing a demo on top-whorl spindle spinning, although not on the same day.  I will be curious to see how many steps I chalk up in the foot stomping part of the felting process.  This week an email came from  Marcia of Joxer's Jacobs. ChiChi's fleece is available, which is hard to resist.  I'm waiting to hear the weight and price.  Last year's was a perfect 3.3 pounds, beautifully skirted.

On the needles is the ribbing for the second woven hat.  As of today the temperature is more spring-like and this will be the perfect weight for cool mornings and evenings.  What a difference a day makes; yesterday was cold with rain showers and today is sunny and warmer.

Working the ribbing on the beanie hat.

 Last weekend five of us from the Crew took the Wilderness First Aid class.  The CPR portion was on Friday evening and the first aid on Saturday and Sunday.  The scenarios were helpful and we had to MacGyver the materials on hand to create splints, stretchers, and such to help the victims.

A screen with gauges at the waist of Ambu Man pops up for the responders to see if the compressions and breaths are correctly administered.  If the compressions are off the proper spot on the chest, it makes a clicking sound.

Jim was a victim with hypothermia and became a human burrito.

 Jim's birthday was this week and I made his favorite cake for the occasion. There were only two candles, but the rest were implied.  It would have been a mess to light more ;^).

Happy birthday, Jim!

Ben made reservations at Pittsburgh Blue for a family celebration.

Getting in the 10,000 steps daily is not difficult and helps to keep in shape for the upcoming backpacking trip.  Geese, ducks, and birds have returned as well as the green grass and leaves on the trees.  

On the walk...the geese were sounding the alarm while protecting a nest.

I love the way the morning light highlighted the birch tree.
Ever watchful white birch trees are so pretty.  

Grayscale

gray·scale/ˈɡrāskāl/

noun a range of gray shades from white to black, as used in a monochrome display or printout.

I finished carding the rest of the fleece and it turned out exactly as I planned.  It is so pretty and the colors remind me of a box of Conté crayons.

  

Sample spinning of each color

I altered the photo of the batts.  I am very happy with the gray scale range.

Each step of the process from fleece to yarn is fun.  

On Sunday the bubble in my eye disappeared.  It did its job to keep the retina in place, I have my vision back and other than a future adjustment in the prescription of my glasses. I have had a rough couple of days with some pain  that feels like sandpaper in my eye, but right now it is not as irritated and feels better.  I made an appointment yesterday to make sure everything was okay and the doctor said everything looked good even though it did not feel like it!  

ChiChi

The fleece I bought at Shepherd's Harvest came from ChiChi, one of Joxer's Jacobs.  Marcia Hathaway is the shepherdess.  It was beautifully skirted and has barely any VM (veggie matter) in it.

Jody teaching us how to skirt a sheep fleece (The table was Theresa's and for her alpaca fleeces.)  The fleece is spread out on the table and the person skirting the fleece goes around pulling out the really dirty bits and large veggie matter before selling the fleece.  

 I started the scouring process of the 3.3-pound fleece on Monday and finished the last two batches yesterday. Click on the link to read more about Jacob sheep.

This is the sample and photo that came with the fleece.  I cleaned the sample and it shows the beautiful variation of black to white.  Compare the white in this photo to the one below.  

The light in the basement is not very good, but this photo shows the colors nicely.   I divided the colors into batches and started from black to white.  The yellow tinge is from the lanolin and any dirt on the wool--in the grease, so to speak.  After sorting the wool my hands were very soft from the lanolin.

I have five of these little tubs.  The sink fit two, so one in the soap and one in the rinse worked out well.  I was able to do two runs through the soap (Dawn) and two runs through the rinse for each batch.  Note the clear water in the yellow tub.  Hot water and soap (I used a bit of Dawn dish washing soap) cleans the wool nicely.  When scouring, be mindful of the water temperature and agitation because shocking the wool in transition between wash and rinse soaks can cause felting.  

The water in the yellow tub shows the water after the first soak.

Handling the wet wool gently I placed two batches in the washer and spun out most of the water.  The spin cycle does not agitate the wool, so it is a safe way to get the moisture out of the wool for faster drying time.

I spread out a towel on the table and spread out the wool.  

A panorama of wool.  Scouring is finished, now the fun begins!

A day at the festival

On Saturday I went to Shepherd's Harvest Festival in Lake Elmo.  I did not take any classes, but did do a demo on top whorl spindle spinning.  It was such fun.  The demo area was in Building A and Andrea from Black Cat Farmstead was beside me.  Seeing the antique wheels lovingly restored is always a treat.  The first purchase of the day was a spindle sporting a glow-in-the-dark whorl 3D printed by Andrea's son.

A 3-D printed spindle whorl...

...that glows in the dark!

There were lots of vendors, some new some familiar.  I love the patterns from Ewetopia and purchased a few including Daisy and the October Cowl.

Sheep were sheared on the hour and Jody, one of my friends from Anoka Fiber Works, was skirting fleeces.  Between the shearing we talked about fleeces for sale in the barn.  I mentioned the beautiful Jacob fleece from Joxer's Jacobs.  Jody's eyes lit up and she said how nice they were.  I was not in the market for a fleece but her comments piqued my interest.  We went to the barn together and looked at the fleeces.  I had two in particular that I liked (Jody, you taught me well) and she agreed.  The smaller 3.3-pound fleece was mine!  Yesterday I roughly separated the colors.  Today I began the scouring process.  The wool is even nicer than I originally thought and nicely skirted.  ChiChi is the sheep with the lovely fleece.  The scouring is going well so far.  I worked from dark to light, which is my last batch.  The wool is fluffy and soft and the combination of natural black, gray and white is really pretty.  I will be interested to see how many yards of each color I can spin.  Perhaps enough for a Fair Isle vest?

Baaa!

Jacob fleece before dividing and scouring.

These little lambs were chilling in the barn.

It is always nice to know the names of the sheep.

Cinnamon Toast Crunch or Cookies n' Cream, although they are all cute.

The sheep surely look different when sheared.

Baa baa black sheep.  This little fellow was  so soft and sweet.

Pretty roving for sale in the barn.

My friend Jennifer.  It was so good to see her!

Mary from Anoka Fiber Works gives a spindle spinning lesson.

Andrea from Black Cat Farmstead grows flax.  Preparing the flax into linen is labor intensive. I did it one time before we moved to Minnesota.   

My new spindle, Stella with the beautiful Shetland wool roving I bought.