Things I've learned/tried this month

Magic Loop, washing fleece, creating yarn blend, and spinning from the lock:

I'm knitting the feet of the BBS (Big Black Socks) for SFS two at a time on Magic Loop. I work the socks one at a time when doing the heels, then switch to two at a time to keep the feet the same length. Can't wait to finish them so I can switch to the olive drab. It's such a relief to work with the OD after the black.

I tried spinning from the lock for the Yarnspinners Tales April SAL on some pre-washed Merino cross fleece. This particular fleece has a lot of well defined locks, making flicking and spinning fun and easy to do. I'm going to try it on a Longwool and maybe on the Jacob I washed. Which reminds me...

I washed my first fleece - some pretty multicolored Jacob. I soaked it overnight in cold water and then hot washed in Power Scour with two rinses. Got the lanolin and dirt out but not the VM, and there are sections with ALOT of VM.

My first attempt at making my own sock yarn is coming along. I'm blending Friesian and Border Leicester wools on my hand combs, eyeballing an approximate 70/30 F/BL ratio, and spinning worsted for a 3-ply heavy fingering wt yarn. I'm hoping the Border Leicester will give the yarn some strength without too much coarseness as well as some luster. My first skein doesn't have as much luster as I thought it would, but it's definitely got some shine. It's a nice looking yarn but more sport wt than fingering (it bloomed a little) I can work with that though. I need to swatch it for gauge.

Wool Breeds Challenge - Coopworth and Blue-faced Leicester

Coopworth is a Longwool breed developed in New Zealand during the 1950s and 60s by crossing Border Leicester and Romney breeds. It has luster or shine, an average staple length of six to eight inches, and a micron count of thirty-five to thirty-nine.

My sample is a commercial top preparation, and has a staple length of about four inches (maybe a little more) - shorter than the breed standard.

I spun my sample long draw from the fold for a 3ply yarn. I enjoyed spinning this, but I think that if the staple length had been truer to the breed standard, I might not have liked it. I've found spinning staples of more than five inches (six max) is a struggle and takes me out of my comfort zone (not always a bad thing).

Blue-faced Leicester is also a Longwool breed. It originated in Hexam, Northumberland County, England and is a decendant of the Leicester Longwool. It is sometimes called a Hexam Leicester. Under certain lighting conditions, the short white hairs covering the black skin on their heads makes their faces/heads look blue, hence the name. Blue-faced Leicester, or BFL, should have a micron count of twenty-four to twenty-eight and an average staple length of three to six inches.

My sample is commercially prepared top with a staple length of five plus inches. I've spun very small amounts of BFL before, but as I have two pounds of BFL top that I'm planning on spinning for a sweater project, I thought I'd use this sample as a test on how I'd like to ply for the sweater.

I spun the top from the fold worsted (well, I guess technically that's semi-worsted) for a 3ply yarn. It spun easily. BFL is soft with a bit of shine. Like spinning Merino, I find spinning BFL kinda boring, but I did like the feel of the wool better than a Border Leicester or Lincoln. Anything feels better than Lincoln.

I left a third of my total 3ply yardage as 3ply sample. The remaining two thirds I used to make a 6ply cable yarn which I liked much better than the 3ply. When I get around to testing the actual project BFL, I will try a 4ply cable to see if I like it as much as the six.

Breed information provided by "The Knitter's Book of Wool" by Clara Parkes and "In Sheep's Clothing" by Nola & Jane Fournier.

Wool Breeds Challenge - Clun Forest

Clun Forest is one of the Down type breeds, originating in the Welsh Border area. It should have an average staple length of 2.5 to 4 inches, and a micron count of either 25-28 (In Sheep's Clothing) or 28-33 (Knitter's Book of Wool) depending on which book you check.

This is a very nice wool, and I really, really like it. My sample came from pre-washed fleece from Katrina's Wool World. It is soft (by my inexpert guess probably around 26/27 microns), fuzzy, silky, and has an average staple length of 4-5 inches. The locks were mostly intact with a nice crimp and yellow tips. I'm hoping the yellow will come out in the finishing. If not it will just make the wool more cream colored than white. Or I could dye it.

A good deal of the locks I carded were closer to five inches than four which made the carding a little tricky, but as long as I was careful, it made really soft, fluffy rolags that were a pleasure to spin long draw. I only carded enough for the sample. I am combing the rest.

A 2ply and a 4ply sample spindle spun long draw from hand carded rolags:

February/March update

I've done a lot of spinning over the last two months, but not much knitting. Well, at least not enough knitting. And I have a ton of pics to take for the Breeds Challenge, but first I have to set the twist on all the samples. At the rate I'm going, if I wait until that's done, it'll be June before I post again, so....no pics this time, but anyway....

I did finish the pretty blue Gluttony colorway socks. They were plain vanilla cuff down heel flap socks in Lizard Toes yarn from the now defunct Cables and Lace.

The first socks for both the Cherry Tree Hill "Rustic" and the Opal Rainforest "Cassandra?" colorway are done and the second for both started. These are both afterthought heel socks (something new for me) vanilla cuff downs. The Rustic I've been working on in between spinning while visiting Mom, and the Opals are my nighttime DVD knitting.

I found (yeah, like they were lost) some new (to me) podcasts I really like: Electric Sheep, Ba Ba Blacksheep, Subway Knits, and The Fiber Files.

On the spinning front, my "Wash Me" finishing box for my spinning is almost full (it's small - 7x7x6) with completed samples skeins from Gulf Coast, Fressian, Montadale, Border Leicester and Clun Forest breeds, as well as five tiny Phat Fiber samples. I've also got four skeins of the Merino/Bamboo/Silk blend to wash, but I'm keeping them separate. On my spindles are Gotland, Hog Island (big yuck), Perendale and BFL. And the MBS blend.

The Wool Breeds Challenge has been very interesting. I'm learning a lot, both about the different breeds and about myself and my preferences. I like Down breeds better than the really long Longwools. I like prepping my own fiber. I like both combing and carding but prefer carding. I love spinning long draw even though it can be frustrating on a spindle. When it works, it's magic.

Wool Breeds Challenge - Jacob

Jacob is.... I'm not sure what.  It's listed in the Dual-Coated and Primitives group in "The Knitter's Book of Wool" and in the Other Breeds group in "In Sheep's Clothing".  Jacob has an average staple length of four to seven inches which makes it edge into the longwools.  It has a micron count of 27-35 which could make it kinda soft or kinda coarse.

The fiber sample I have seems to fall into the softer end of the scale with about a four to four and a half inch staple length.  It is dark brown with a lot of gray strands (kemp I presume).  Definitely softer than the Wensleydale I spun before it, but it doesn't have the silky feel the Wensleydale has.

I spun this longdraw from the fold for a two-ply and a four-ply sample.  It drafted easily and was very quick to spin and ply.  Almost boring. Nevertheless, it's nice to work with and I would spin it again.

Wool Breeds Challenge - Wensleydale and CVM/Romeldale

Wensleydale is one of the Longwool Breeds with a micron count of 33-35 and an average staple length of eight to twelve inches ("Knitter's Book of Wool")

This particular sample is combed top with a fairly soft (considering the micron ct) and slightly silky texture.  It is also a bit shiny.  The only other really long Longwool I've tried was Lincoln which I didn't like at all.  This Wensleydale is nice though, and I'd consider spinning this again if I needed a Longwool either alone or blended with other wools.

Since it's top and really long, I spun this fiber worsted for a three-ply yarn.  I had an uneven amount of singles for my three-ply which left me with two strands of singles sufficient to make another sample.  I doubled them for a four-ply.  However, I couldn't see much difference in the three and four-ply samples, so I took the four-ply and re-plyed doubled, making an eight-ply cabled yarn with very nice ply definition. My first cabled yarn and very interesting look. I'd like to spin up another sample of cabled yarn so I could see what a knit swatch looks like.













CVM/Romeldale is one of the Finewools and is a rare breed.  CVM (California Variegated Mutant) was developed in the US from a multiple-colored mutation in the Romeldale breed.  It is soft with a micron count of 22-25 and an average staple length of three to six inches (from "Knitter's Book of Wool"). 

My sample comes from a portion of a pre-washed fleece in colors of grey, tan, dark and red-brown and a miniscule amount of white.  It's staple length is from 1.5 to 3.5 inches.  It had an acceptable amount of vegetable matter and dust.  Some sections were matted (but not felted). The locks were highly crimped, and the lighter colors seemed softer than the darker, however, all of it is next to the skin soft. 



I separated the colors and hand carded into rolags which I spun long draw (very easy spinning).  The two-ply sample I made was spun and plied by counting the color sequence of rolags in an effort to keep the colors from blending or barber poling.  However, that's too fussy for me to continue for the rest of the rolags, so the remainder will be chain plied.    Unfortunately, I was unable to get a picture of the sample that shows the colors properly.  Everything looks dark brown or light gray and it's not.  There are three shades of gray and a very light tan, as well as the dark brown.

I liked working with CVM, both carding and spinning, and would happily do so again. 

Wool Breeds Challenge - Gulf Coast

I did not find Gulf Coast listed in either of my reference books.  however, according to the Gulf Coast Sheep Breeders Association (www.gulfcoastsheep.info), they are one of the oldest breeds in America, descended from sheep brought to the Gulf Coast area early on in American history by the Spaniards. They were allowed to range free and adapted to the hot, humid conditions of the Gulf Coast area. They are also presumed to have interbred with other sheep breeds in the area, particularly French breeds. Gulf Coast wool has an average micron count of 26-32 and an average staple length of 2.5 to 4 inches.


My sample fiber is squishy-spongey, very much like the Down Breeds I previously sampled but perhaps a little denser.   Because of this, I decided to experiment a little.  This sample's fiber prep seems to be top, but it begged to be spun woolen.  So I carded it on my hand cards into rolags and spun longdraw from the rolags.  OMG, I never had such an easy time or so much fun spinning longdraw before.   I really, really liked spinning this wool this way.  I wish I had more than just this little sample.

The sample skein is a four-ply yarn. The other little skein and the bobbin are singles.