There is a big chunk of June that really requires several blog posts to get everyone back up to speed...including myself :-o.
Showing posts with label weaving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weaving. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 3, 2024
Wednesday, June 12, 2024
Meanwhile, Back At The Wool House
While it sure appears that all I've done lately is yard work and gardening, I actually made something. Out of wool even!
A couple of months ago I spilled a cup of tea on the carpet at the Wool House. Yes, the white carpet. It didn't blend. A friend came over and we got the carpet cleaned and while we were working on it and the place where I always sit and my dirty pant cuffs have grundged up the floor I thought, hmmm, why don't I have a rug here?
So I made a rug.
The light and dark gray warp (the threads that go longways) is Lamb Camp Legacy yarn. I used a strand of each color together in every dent (space). I knew Rocky and Jared's kids could hold everything together with ease. The white weft (the threads that go back and forth) is the old Punkin yarn from the beginning of everything wool here. This was the yarn my now friend spun before I knew I even liked yarn.
I'd asked her to spin it bulky without either of us knowing the bulky yarn for a sweater should be very lightly spun and lofty. While it did make a sweater and Punkin and I had our pictures taken together dressed alike, it was not a warm sweater (needs loft to trap warm air) nor was it super comfortable to wear. I ripped it all back out (my sweater frogging started early ;-) and I tried to reknit it on a larger needle, but it just wasn't to be.
Rebecca was over here last week and I told her what I was doing. I was worried she might be sad that I was using her yarn for a rug, but we both looked at the yarn and she said something about how differently she spins now and I said "Yes, but look at what all this yarn started!"
It made a perfect rug. Something I'll be able to use and enjoy for the rest of journey.
Gratuitous picture of Pinot, napping in his favorite spot on the porch. He naps for a bit, does a little grooming, eats some snacks over in his portable cage or litter box, hops around exploring, does a little jig and some zoomies and then goes back to his spot, takes a nap... :-)
Tuesday, September 26, 2023
On A Wool Farm
Storing wool, raw or finished items, is an ongoing job that should never be taken lightly. Well, it should be taken lightly...but I'll come back to that and add a few more wool storage tips in a minute.
Most people storing wool are concerned about moths. Opening a bag of wool to find a clump of moths inside is a terrible feeling. As I finished skirting (finally) this spring's fleeces and started sorting through the saved fleeces from past years, I found...chicken eggs :-o.
Broken chicken eggs.
In three bags...including my last Petunia fleece.
Next pandemic I'm just going to starve to death.
As I was picking out chunks of egg mess I came up with a better plan to keep the chickens from having access to their favorite nesting [bags]. The previous plan of a horribly annoying and apparently not effective piece of cattle panel precariously hooked across the front of the area was just as annoying as the stupid chickens.
Luckily my friend Ed was bored enough to come out here and make the plan work. He built a frame around the back of the left side and covered it with wire and plastic netting. The fronts are easily removed to access the wool. The whole thing looks so neat and tidy and now I feel confident it will stay neat and tidy...and egg free.
Side note: when I posted this picture on IG, several people commented that it looked like the fleeces were in jail. Three people in our neighborhood have seen it and all three said it looked like either a liquor store in downtown Chicago or when they used to block off the beer aisle at the grocery on Sundays. I'm not sure what that says about us...well, I guess I do ;-).
Moving on to the Wool House. Twice a year I pull everything out and check each bag and basket for any sign of trouble. This year I found lots of tiny holes in quite a few of the roving bags up in the loft.
Nothing amiss with the wool...just tiny holes everywhere.
What on earth...
ARCHIE!!!
I'm not going to add plastic netting to the inside of the Wool House and if I try to limit his access to the ladder he'll just try to do something heroic like jump up there from the loom and then rack up a vet bill to add insult to injury so I'm going to just keep adding tape to cover his needle sharp claw holes.
Don't even think about it, Pecky Becky!
* * * * *
Here are some wool storage tips that have worked well for me. This is going to be heavy on the plastic, sadly, but this is one application where I just hold my nose...
Keep everything in clear bags. Moths are looking for dark so a black plastic bag is exactly where they are hoping you'll stash your stash.
Keep your fleeces where the light hits them. Don't store wool in your dark garage or basement.
Do not store raw wool in the house. Get it washed as quickly as you can.
If you aren't actively using a wool item (sweaters, coats, blankets, yarn, roving...) keep it secure in a clear plastic bag and give everything a quick check a couple times a year.
I add bay leaves to all my yarn and roving baskets. I may not be actively using the baskets of handspun yarn or roving I have stashed around the Wool House, but I love seeing them sitting there. Scattering bay leaves into the baskets seems to be helping keep them safe. Definitely doesn't hurt.
I use clear plastic tubs to store my sweaters. I have concerns about the holes where the handles clip the lids on so I toss bay leaves in there as well.
Moths don't like to be disturbed...so disturb things as often as you can. More knitting, weaving, spinning!
When I'm doing my spring and fall 'clean up and check everything', I take my open yarn baskets outside in the sun and shake each skein out, turn the baskets upside down and refresh the bay leaves. You can get bulk bay leaves at a good grocery or find a friend in California with them growing in their front yard ;-).
Another way I shake things up is by tossing finished items (sweaters, blankets...) in the dryer a couple of times a year, especially in the summer. The tumbling and heat has never affected the fit of anything. Don't do that with wet wool items though as, yes, they would shrink right up.
Be vigilant! Keep an eye on everything and if you find a problem, remove the item immediately and check everything else nearby. You don't need to throw out your yarn, roving, sweater... Just get it away from your stash and out into the sun and shake it out. Washing it is never a bad idea either.
I don't like using chemicals and would only use them if there was a crisis situation. There is an aerosol dairy spray you can get at the farm store that you can spray into a plastic bag and immediately close up and hopefully not much gets out into the air.
Don't be so hard on those hard working spiders in your corners. They may be helping keep your wool safe :-).
Tuesday, May 16, 2023
State Of The Fiber Farm Address
I've had some questions about whether we'll be setting up at the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival this weekend and sadly, we are not. Auntie Reg and I had talked about it, but the way this year has gone so far, I'm incredibly relieved we didn't sign up. There have only been about two weeks all year that I felt like we could have pulled it off...and this one (even though it's only Tuesday) ain't one of them.
Between not having many any 2023 fleeces skirted yet and having done almost no spinning or other fiber work all year and the 7528 hours it took to knit a stupid simple sweater, I'm struggling to even feel like a real fiber farm/fiber artist right now.
But...the sheep are happy and healthy. I did finally finish that dang sweater and got to wear it quite a bit before it got hot. I wove a nice shawl during the Iknitarod. I've taught a couple of new people how to spin. We had good shearings here and at Tring Farm and I was able to help Annemarie sell a few of her fleeces.
Our fleeces are safe and sound and will be ready to skirt, wash, process and spin whenever I'm able to get to them. I've purchased several really fun looking project patterns including a tiny 7" tall fox who needs 29 pages to come to life. Wait, what? 29 pages?!? Yeah...I can't get out of my own way.
Wait, one other "win" is that our sweet little group of spinners, knitters, weavers, crocheters, sewers, hookers, felters, punchers, storytellers (and there have been some doozies :-), bakers, and their cats, dogs, sheep, chickens...from all over the country is still crafting right along via Zoom every Tuesday night. They're getting stuff done :-D.
So, yes, the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival in Lexington is this weekend and the Bluegrass Classic Stockdog Trial is going on just down the hill as well. Both will be lots of fun! I was talking to one of the local Crafters last week (oh, when I sheared her old sheep, so that probably counts too...if we're keeping score...which I need to stop doing) and we decided, in the spirit of the festival, to do an in person/on farm Crafter's meet up this Saturday.
This super casual on farm event is open to all the farm friends, not just Crafters. You do not need to be a fiber person. If you would just enjoy sitting on the porch or bringing a picnic dinner out to the farm, come on! Everyone and their house cat is welcome...but please leave your dog at home ;-)
I'll be here from 3:00 on on Saturday and would be happy to teach spinning or fiber processing or sheep care...* You can bring your own wool or spindle or wheel or borrow one of mine. There are plenty of sheep to borrow who would be happy to teach you how to feed them cookies.
I doubt I'll pull off anything fancy in the way of food or beverages, but I'm sure Auntie Reg won't let us go hungry. Feel free to bring snacks or a picnic with you or call in a pizza for pickup on the way. You should probably toss in a chair.
Update on food - we're going to set up an ice cream bar! Throw on some nuts and a banana and you've got yourself a nutritious dinner. Bang! :-D
* * * * *
*I'm also happy to teach fleece skirting, wool washing, barn cleaning, field mowing, flower planting, weed pulling, chicken wrangling, corgi 'wrasslin'... ;-D
I say all that sort of joking, but if you are interested in buying a fleece, especially if you are new to raw wool, this could actually be a good thing! I could help you pick one out, we could skirt it (and maybe a few others ;-) together and talk about how to go on from there!
I am also happy to bring out various colors and types of roving, some Lamb Camp Legacy yarn and there are six skeins of Lamb Camp Bottle Lamb yarn left, too, so just ask if there's something you'd like to see.
If you have any questions or need directions, please send me an email. We are about 35 minutes from Lexington and about 20 minutes from the hotels in Georgetown.
Saturday, April 1, 2023
March
I took out as many pictures as I could and it's still a long one. I left a bunch of weaving pictures in because there were so many steps for that project that I wanted to remember. There are a lot of Archie and Possum pictures, too. And Maisie in her puffy coat. We can never have too any pictures of that :-).
Wednesday, March 22, 2023
The 2023 Iknitarod Warp Is A Wrap
Sweet little Maggie, once again demonstrating her wool worthiness. She has shown a significant interest in everything I've brought out to the barn or barn lot and she's equally interested in WIPs (works in progress) and finished items. I think I'll be making something from her wool this year!
Aside from the interesting structure, the beauty of a V shawl is how easy it is to wear. No shawl pin needed. It will stay put on your shoulders even as you are carried outside on a breezy afternoon :-).
This is where the two pieces are woven together after the front panels are finished. The pattern I used is a representation of the Fibonacci sequence. I used five warp threads for each "one" so instead of 1,1,2,3,5,8 I threaded 5,5,10,15,25,40.
I was prepared to really only focus on the back pattern, but I'm equally happy with the simple stripes on the front as well. I think it's a nice, clean look.
I really enjoyed working with this yarn - the Lamb Camp Legacy blend from all the sons and daughters of Rocky and Jared when they were working over at Tring Farm. It was easy to warp and weave and it held up well to all my weaving and unweaving and weaving and unweaving and weaving and... It fulled really well and is surprisingly soft, even up next to my face.
I waffled on what to do with my fringe. I am not a huge fan of twisted fringe. I just don't love the look or the feel. Being a Cotswold cross yarn I was concerned about the fringe felting together into a big mess so I sampled a couple of ways to keep it under control.
I had the best luck putting big pieces of shipping tape over all the loose yarn before I washed it. The knots still got a bit fuzzy though so I'm going to keep thinking on it as I get ready to warp up another version. I think my next V project is going to be a mobius scarf.
All in all I, now that I'm a few days out from the fiddly joining work, I can say I really enjoyed this project and another successful Iknitarod is in the books :-).
"I somehow thought there'd be more knitting."
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
Scenes From The Iknitarod Trail
It's been a crazy couple of weeks and I missed out on a bunch of the actual Iditarod race coverage and was only in and out of the Iknitarod Ravelry group chats which are always so fun, interesting and educational, but I still enjoyed my run this year. I love learning new techniques and the V shawl did not disappoint.
Here are some highlights. There are a few more on IG, but these hit the high spots. I was going to just stick the official photo here at the top, but there are a few I'd like to share so they'll come later today.
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