Targhee, a New Favorite

I initially had a bit of a fight with my new Nano2 electric spinner, but after sorting out a problem with the developing single not wanting to wind on, all went well and I had three little bobbins of lovely Targhee breed wool singles as a reward for my perseverance.

I then plied the 3 together to get this luscious 3ply 100g hank of squishy, bouncy goodness.

 

I think Targhee may be my new favorite to spin. It is soft to the touch and easy to spin. What more could a spinner want? Well --- MORE Targhee, that's what I want! Several sweaters worth would be nice.

Targhee is an American breed of sheep developed by crossing Lincolns and Rambouillets. I hope it soon becomes a more popular, and therefor more readily available wool, in Canada.

Nano2 Arrival

My little Nano2 spinning wheel from Dreaming Robots has arrived. I backed the Kickstarter for it with no hesitation whatsoever since the inventor, Maurice Ribble, has such an excellent track record with his Kickstarter funded projects.   

I've individualized mine with a few vibrant green 3D parts printed locally by "Got Wood Customs".

Here is what it looked like before the customization:

Each tiny bobbin only holds 2 ounces, so I will continue to use my EEW6 for plying. 

My first skein is 2.65 ounces (76 grams) of Gotland wool spun to a 2ply laceweight. 

It's All About Timing

 I discovered today that I can spin in peace, if I pick the right moment.

The right moment happens to be when both dogs are sleeping.

Still Spinning Daily

The daily spinning for the Tour de Fleece continues. This 50/50 merino/tencel blend, hand dyed by Jude of Ewesful Creations, is on my EEW6 right now. I'm almost finished spinning the last of three 4 oz braids of it and then will likely get to the plying this afternoon. 

When that is complete I'll dive into this huge pile of fluffy batts. Both the white and the green were carded on my Patrick Green "Deb's Delicate Deluxe" drum carder from Superwash mill ends I purchased many years ago. I'll likely start with the green since there is less of it to get through and then I can recycle the cardboard box I have it stored in.

Somehow I totally skipped posting these two completed spinning projects. Both are BFL hand dyed by Jude. 8 oz of the green, 4 oz of the yellow. I love the vibrant colours!

Too Busy for Updates

 I've been lagging behind in photo updates of the ongoing spinning for the Tour de Fleece. As pledged, I have been spinning every day of the tour. This is what I've accomplished so far:

6 skeins of BFL in the "Crayon Box" colourway, from 4 oz. braids hand dyed by Jude of Ewesful Creations. The two on the left were spun and plyed as a fractual. The remaining four were chain plyed. I think I'll use all of them together in a Saori weaving.

These three skeins are also BFL wool from 4 oz. braids hand dyed by Jude and then spun and chain plyed by me.

I've now started in on a lovely wool/tencel blend. No pictures of that one yet.

Day 2

The second day of the Tour de Fleece was quite productive. The family was hiding out from extremely hot temperatures by staying indoors in air conditioned comfort. I spun through a movie and then a long visit with family and got quite a bit done.

I finished the first braid, all of it on bobbin one, and I'm now about 1/2 way through the second braid. 

Even with central air conditioning running constantly it is 80°F (26.67°C) in our house this evening! I feel so sorry for those suffering through this extreme heat without air conditioning! We've only had it ourselves for the past few years. 

The Tour de Fleece 2021 Begins

I began the Tour de Fleece 2021 at 10am, spinning outdoors in the (hot) shade, but by noon I had to retreat indoors to air conditioned comfort. It's 40°C, (104°F) out there and will be getting hotter as the day progresses! 

My goals for the 23 day tour are to spin every day, and to finish up with enough handspun of this colourway to make something worthwhile. 

I have six of these vibrant BFL braids, all dyed by Jude Pilote of Ewesful Creations.

Jewel Splint

I've been having trouble for a number of years now with a trigger thumb. It doesn't happen all the time, but once it snaps once, it is painful, swollen, and takes time to heal. During that healing time I keep reinjuring it over and over. I've found a beautiful solution!

This trigger thumb ring-splint immobilizes the joint and prevents the "trigger" from occurring. Since the trigger thumb is most often set off by a period of hand spinning it was important to me that I still be able to spin with the ring-splint on. It came through the "test drive" with flying colours! It doesn't impede my spinning at all.

What is really amazing is that this custom ring, though it must fit both above and below the joint, as well as over the joint itself, and it came all the way from Israel, still fits perfectly, right out of the box. JewelSplint, the occupational therapist/jeweler, requests photos and measurements of the joint(s) in question and makes each splint to fit the customer. She did a wonderful job! I'm so pleased.

If you are a handspinner with a similar issue with your thumb, I highly recommend a custom made trigger thumb ring-splint by JewelSplint.

As always, links in this post are there for your information and convenience. I'm happy to send interested persons to good businesses, but I am not affiliated nor do I get kickbacks for your "clicks". 

2020 Tour de Fleece

Spinning outside on our first really nice day this summer. Not too hot, not too cold, not too windy, nor raining. The mosquitoes weren't even too bad.

I'm participating in the "Tour de Fleece" this year. For about three weeks spinners spin along, most years while watching the Tour de France bicycle races. The actual races were postponed until August this year but the Tour de Fleece will go ahead now, since for this event social distancing is entirely doable. 

I'm spinning wool and wool blends on my Majacraft Little Gem and cotton on my Mahatma Gandhi Centennial Charkha.  

Natural Green Up the Nose

A pound of natural green cotton arrived early this morning.

Of course I had to get spinning it right away! I must say it's a little different than spinning the Acada White or the Sarepta Brown cotton. I had more trouble getting started and my results, at least so far, are a little less consistent. I'm sure that will improve with practice and experience.

I also noticed that I'm getting a lot more airborne fluff flying about clinging to my face and getting up my nose. I think it would be wise to wear a facemask while spinning this. 

Of course with all this CoronaVirus hysteria going on the chances of being able to buy a facemask right now are practically nil. I guess I'll be looking up the home sewn variety before I continue.

Storage Bobbins

The cotton spinning continues but lately I've been transferring the singles to Bobbins-Up storage bobbins and allowing them to add up so that plying will result in bigger skeins rather than the tiny half ounce ones that come directly from the charkha spindles.

 

The protruding "bits" of these storage bobbins fit directly into a standard drill for faster, easier transfer from the spindles. Later the bit is removed and the bobbins can be placed on a Lazy Kate for plying on a spinning wheel.

Back With the Yak

The yak I mentioned spinning on my charkha the other day is now a tiny 3 ply skein.

I should have thought to include some sort of size reference in the photo. In the photo the yarn looks like it is thick, but that's just a matter of perspective. The skein itself is very small. Only 0.72 of an ounce, and still 32 yards of 3 ply. It's very soft and squishy but I won't be looking to spin more yak in the future. It's not that it was terribly difficult, it just didn’t want to draft as easily as the cotton and turned out rather uneven with tufty bits as well. I'll happily return to the cotton.

4 Fat Cops Lying in Wait

I spent a considerable portion of my day getting these chubby cops ready for tomorrow.

For tomorrow I'm borrowing a kind guild member's Woolee Winder so that I can try it on my Majacraft Little Gem wheel and see if I like it enough to request one for Christmas. I'll ply these cops of Sarepta Brown Cotton into a skein and if that goes well I'll also try spinning wool singles with the Woolee Winder as well.

(All links on my blog are only for your convenience. I get no compensation of any kind.)

Wandering a Little

Though I remain committed to spinning up all of the pound of white Acala cotton before moving on to other cotton preps, a whole pound of beautiful natural brown cotton showed up in the mail yesterday, a gift from a very generous online friend and mentor. I couldn't resist giving it a try.

After a few minutes getting to know what the shorter staple length wanted of me, I found the brown cotton spun up beautifully. I spun two cops worth yesterday and plan to ply them together today before going back to spinning the white Acala Cotton.

Nine Ribbons

I entered 8 exhibits in the 2019 Chilliwack Exhibition and managed to win 9 ribbons! 7 firsts, a second, and a Best in Show.

Firsts for a "counted cross-stitch on aida",

an "adult hat and scarf", (my Year in Temperatures Scarf with a hat to match)

a "recycled article with a major style change", (a tunic made from duvet cover)

"Spinning - any natural fibre, plied" (a 2 ply cotton)

"Collection of 3 or more decorative items", (16 of my Stitch Meditations")

"Yardage of woven material", (my travelling inlay Saori yardage)

"Wearable article woven with recycled material" (my coat from denim strips).
The coat also won a "Best in Show" rosette.

And in the "Scarf or cowl" category I received a second place. 

Khadi Khanoo

Such a funny yet fun name for a shuttle, The Khadi Khanoo. What a gorgeous shuttle this is in the African Bubinga wood.

It's specially designed to accept a loaded spindle rather than the usual boat shuttle bobbin. This way singles can be woven straight from the charkha spindle rather than being rewound first onto a bobbin. 

I purchased it from NewWorldTextiles.com but apparently they are made by BlusterBayWoodworks.com.

First Cotton Skein

My first skein of handspun cotton. I'm so pleased with the way it turned out.

I filled 3 spindles on the charkha (about .25 oz each), placed them on a charkha spindle lazy kate that my husband is making for me (not quite finished but I got to take it for a test drive), and then plyed them together using my Majacraft LittleGem wheel. 

The resulting skein weighs 20gr (.705 oz) and is approximately 80 yards long. I forgot to measure WPI before skeining it, but it looks to be about a fingering weight. So soft and cuddly! I love it.

Wagging Tails and Vicious Snarls

A peculiar yarn with long waggling loose tails created quite a mess of snarls during warping today. Those tails did not work alone. A rather innocent looking, smooth but stretchy yarn was co-conspirator. They clung to each other mercilessly throughout the entire beaming process.

But I eventually won the war and I'm up and weaving. In fact I'm over 1/4 of the way through an eternity style scarf.

That's one of the beautiful benefits of a Saori loom. This pink yardage was off the loom and I had another project sleyed, threaded, beamed and tensioned later the same day and was up and weaving again. 

There is enough of this lightweight pink cotton yardage to make some sort of simple top I think -- if I ever find the time! So many hobbies, such short days!

• I have 2 knitting projects on the go with another 2 waiting in the wings. All of them I'd like to see finished and being worn. 
• I'm really enjoying working on a rather time consuming Boro/Sashiko stitching project. I'd love to be able to work on it all day, every day but unfortunately chores and other commitments intrude.
• My most recent Upcycle sewing project, "The Michelle Dress", is stalled because I am just not able to drape it properly on myself so I simply must get my dress form fitted and carved to better represent my true shape and size. Not an easy or quick project!
• My granddaughter and I gathered a large pile of pine needles and I need to get them sorted, washed, and then soaked so I can try my hand at making pine needle baskets. 
• When I can I like to get to the guild's Tuesday spinning so I can justify my spinning fibre stash.
• My fish tank has had an outbreak of what I think is Cyanobacteria, commonly called Blue-green Algae, though it's not an algae at all but a form of fast spreading aquatic bacteria. It's making a mess of my tank and I've got to get it under control. 
• And -- last but certainly not least, I walk Kona, my son's dog, for about and hour to an hour and a half 5 days a week.

So there you go Louise. That's what I've been up to lately.  ;-)

Spinning Revisited

Okay, so it's not much, but at least it's something. It's been a long while since I've done any spinning. I think the last time was at a spin-in back in October of last year.

This is a 50g skein of 50/50 camel/silk spun at a lace-weight. It has a lovely sheen not fully captured in the photo and is very soft. Not sure what to use it for though. It might be enough for a  small scarf.

Seconds Count

So, as promised, here is a lineup of the fair items I received second place ribbons for.

The Saori hat I blogged about some time ago came second in the Handweaving, "open" class. It's a catch-all category for things like soft sculptures, toys, and tapestry of any technique. I put the hat in that category because there wasn't one specifically for hats and because this hat includes both knitting and weaving. I'm not sure what the competition in that category consisted of because the items are not displayed together by category once they are judged.

The hat is for sale, $60 Canadian, no tax. That's a bargain for American shoppers. With the way our dollar has been falling it works out to about $46 US. The hat is hand woven almost entirely from handspun wool and wool blends. There are a few accents of commercial yarns that contain some man made fibres.

The little handspun sweater I knit for my granddaughter's doll at Christmas also received a second. It was in the "Knit or Crochet, Small Article" class.

A last minute construction, this second place ribbon was won in the "Small Expressions" class of the hand weaving category.

The bookmark was created from a narrow end piece I cut from my handwoven rainbow yardage. It was about an inch of weaving with hemstitching and twisted fringe. After going to all that work to twist the fringe before washing (not knowing what I would use the yardage for), I was loathe to just throw it out when I cut it off the yardage to make a purse.

I manipulated that narrow piece of weaving down a small rectangle of felted handweaving and after stitching it in place with meandering machine quilting I trimmed it back to a rectangle shape. It still needed something so I added a few star shaped sequins held in place by beads.

The little hat I crocheted for my youngest granddaughter's Christmas doll received a second as well.

And here are all the second place items posing together with their ribbons.