Tag: fibre

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Wool Show Fun

Posted on by Jackie B

There was a clash of events in Newcastle the other week. I ended up attending both Novum, the arts festival, to sing with my choir who were supporting Cirque Bijou (as I described in the previous blog post) and also the North East Wool Show

This is the second year of the Wool Show – I thoroughly enjoyed it last year so was glad it’s back again.

On the Saturday I joined some fellow members of the North Northumberland Spinners on our stand and spent a very enjoyable day demonstrating spinning.

One of my fellow spinners, J, in front of our stall

Our stall looked fantastic, with loads of lovely handspun and hand knitted items on display, some of them hand dyed too.

A, who runs the group (originally set up by her mother many years ago) was responsible for all this amazing work, including her lockdown project, a Fair Isle jumper (the handspun yarn is hand dyed too.

These sheep samplers attracted loads of attention. Each one represents a different sheep breed and is made from handspun yarn from that breed, with a needle felted head.

This was my first experience of demonstrating spinning and I absolutely loved it. Of course at a wool festival you are preaching to the converted! Spinning is a bit of a natural progression if you already knit or crochet – what could be better than making an item from yarn you have spun yourself?

Between us, we had three completely different spinning wheels: a traditional one, a modern folding treadle wheel and my e-wheel. A lot of our visitors had never seen an electric powered wheel like mine before and were quite intrigued. Without the need to work the foot treadles, e-wheels are perfect if you have limited movement or co-ordination in your feet and there was quite a lot of interest from disabled visitors.

We also operated a ball-winding service, for those who had purchased skeins of hand-dyed yarn at the show – there were so many to choose from in every colour imaginable. For a small contribution to charity, we converted the skeins into ready-to-knit balls of yarn.

I really enjoyed explaining the principles of spinning and showing people how my e-wheel works compared to the foot-powered ones.

At the end of the day I changed out of my handspun, hand-crocheted jacket and into the sequins to return to singing with the circus!

I was back to the Wool Show the following day for the shopping! I saw so many people I knew, including friends from my knitting and spinning groups and Amble Pin Cushion, so it was quite a social occasion too.

Of course I had to buy some fibre to spin! I bought more of this Siri alpaca and merino blend from Bettina of Tine and Floyd – I love that she always adds a lavender bag and tea to your bag! – I bought a skein of this colour way (it’s called Blackberry Fool) last year and was spinning it the previous day.

I also got some black Shetland tops from Adelaide Walker. I’m thinking of plying it with the pink/purple to make myself a jumper.

I also fancy making something in shades of green and I saw this. It’s hand dyed Leicester – look at those beautiful locks! It will take some preparation before I spin it but could make some gorgeous yarn.

As I said earlier, there was a massive selection of had-dyed yarn available from lots of traders, but I particularly loved the deep rich shades on Yarn Tings stall – this is a merino/yak/silk blend, sock weight and it’s so soft – this shade is Firebird.

There were some fabulous tools and accessories too. I bought some of my favourite Knit Pro Zing needles. I got the interchangeable circular set some months back but I needed some extra small ones for a couple of projects – the interchangeables don’t go below about 3.25 mm.

I got this wraps-per-inch gauge from Threshing Barn. I’m thinking of attaching it to the orifice hook on my spinning wheel, so it’s easier to find if I drop it.

Then there was this needle case. isn’t it pretty?

There were all sorts of kits and patterns available too. This shawl pattern caught my eye, though when I’ll ever get around to making I, who knows?

When I got home I downloaded a couple of other patterns that were made up on stalls . I certainly have lots to be getting on with.

What a weekend!

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Retail Therapy at the Racecourse

Posted on by Jackie B

I had a lovely day yesterday. I went to the first ever ~North East Wool Show with two friends who are also keen knit/crochet/sew/crafty people. The event was held over two days at Newcastle’s Gosforth Park Racecourse. The main building is full accessible. I’ve been to events there before so I had no worries about getting round on my disability scooter.

Inside the building we found dozens of stalls, full of yarn, spinning fibre and all sorts of woolly paraphernalia .and spent several very pleasant hours, browsing and buying, with pauses for refreshment. As we went on the Sunday (Saturday sold out) we missed the sale of sheep fleeces, but it was not hard to guess this has been held in the tunnel at the back of the building that retained a distinct sheepy odour…..suspicions were confirmed as a stray wisp of white fluff wafted by!

I came home with quite a haul, though I think I was quite restrained when you consider all the lovely items on sale….and it was all so colourful, with all those gorgeous skeins of wool on display, There were also kits of every type (knitting, needle felting, hookwork, embroidery….you name it) and some beautiful knitted, woven and crocheted garments and softs furnishings.

We all end up with magazines and books we no longer need or want and a rather nice idea was the book swap table – people had donated their unwanted knitting/crochet reading matter – items could be taken in return for a donation to a local hospice. I donated to get this book about Fair Isle knitting – it’s full of information, pattern and design ideas, and even full instructions on methods of steeking -when knitting in the round you have a continuous pattern, but steeking enables you to cut into the finished knitting to create an opening – at the front of a cardigan for example – The idea of it has always sounded terrifying to me but this could give me the confidence to try.

My next purchase was this natural dye starter kit from Blotz Natural Dyes– something I’ve wanted to try for ages – it includes small quantities of three dye plants and three mordants along with protective gloves and a mask and items to measure out the materials . While I was buying this the loud reversing beep on my scooter may have drowned out a tiny bit of the stallholders’ interview on local radio. Sorry Blotz!

There were several stalls selling fibre for spinning in all sorts of sumptuous and soft blends and colours. It was a very difficult decision but I ended up with these:

  • From Adelaide Walker A Merin0/Shetland/Corridale blend in shades of green and teal with sari silk adding little pops of red – This colourway is named “Rainforest”
  • From Wooltops some undyed Corriedale roving – I’ve never spun sheep from this breed before but hear good things about it. I had an interesting chat with the stallholder about the lineage of the breed, which includes Merino for softness and Lincoln Longwool for lustre and staple length.
  • From Tine and Floyd, two braids , one is in a merino/suri alpaca blend, in shades of pink and purple, the other is merino and bamboo, in vivid pinks with streaks of shimmery white. There were some little thank you gifts in the bag too – herbal tea and a lavender bag.

I enjoyed a lovely long chat with Tine from Tine and Floyd. That’s one of the things I love about events like this – you get to meet the traders and ask questions, handle the wool and fibre – it’s essential with something so tactile. Online shopping is really convenient but nowhere near as much fun.

I also bought some knitting accessories – a short circular sock needle and some stitch markers – you can never have too may stitch markers – both were bought from Knitting for Fun

Finally, I couldn’t resist this. It’s a set of markers on a shawl pin – very pretty, and useful too, purchased from The Cocoon Tree.

I bumped into several friends from my knitting and spinning groups too so it became quite the social occasion.

With a sellout first day and great comments from the traders about how successful it has been, we’ll all be keeping our fingers crossed that the event will be back again next year.

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A Jacob’s Fleece Challenge

Posted on by Jackie B

A while back I had an email from a friend – someone she knew had some Jacob fleeces available. She knows I spin and wondered if I was interested. It turned out that the lady in question’s daughter was house sitting and looking after a small flock of Jacob’s sheep. They had been sheared and the fleeces would be thrown away or burnt if nobody wanted them.

I asked for four – two for me and two for my friend Y. The fleeces were at the other end of the country but another family member was visiting and brought them back so I could pick them up locally.

I didn’t know what to expect really. I have read about premium spinning fleeces where the sheep are coated to keep the fibre clean and free of vegetable matter (VM). I certainly wasn’t expecting that but when I unpacked the fleece I knew it was going to be a bit of a challenge.

It had been packed away wet and absolutely stank. It was pretty dirty, with discolored tips, lots of VM and a fair amount of second cuts (very short bits of fibre where the shearer had gone over the sheep twice).

I took it outside and put it on the skirting rack to remove the dung tags and as many second cuts and bits of VM as I could before washing it in the sink with washing up liquid and boiling water. Urgh! The water turned the colour of builders’ tea!

After repeating the process three times the water was running clear – hopefully I’d done enough to remove the lanolin from the fibre too. I hung it up to dry and thankfully the dreadful smell had disappeared.

I’ve recently acquired some fibre combs and these have come in handy to prepare the fleece for spinning. There is some wastage (those pesky second cuts). I’ve separated out some of the black and white fibre and combed it separately. Where the colours can’t be separated they blend to a rather lovely grey. The fibre feels quite soft with a lovely crimp……I’m looking forward to spinning it.

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A Productive Week

Posted on by Jackie B

I finished off a couple of projects this week which is always satisfying.

I crocheted this horse – a commission from a friend who will be giving it as a Christmas gift to a horse owner.

He’s a sort of caricature of her actual horse and I’ve replicated the colour and markings. His eyes are glass beads and the details are needle-felted. He’s wearing horseshoes embroidered in metallic thread.

I’ve made several of these over the last few years. One of the hardest things is finding the right colour yarn. I’ve modified the design from a pattern I found online and have refined it a bit more every time I’ve done it.

The second item I completed was a pair of brioche hand warmers for K. They will be part of his Christmas present. He’d requested some similar to some I made for myself a while back, but he wanted them in a much more neutral colour than the bright pink and grey stripes I used last time. He intends to use these for fishing – hopefully his hands will stay warm and his fingers will stay unencumbered for tying on lures and so on. I used this from my stash. It’s lost its band but I think it’s Stylecraft Special DK 100% acrylic. Most importantly it’s machine washable as, depending of how successful the fishing is, could potentially end up slimy, wet and stinking of fish after every wearing!

With a knitted project done I had nothing cast on so I’ve started some socks for myself – the pattern was given to me by a friend at one of my knit and natter groups – I’m using the version with the contrasting welt, heel and toe and using more yarn from the stash – I have a feeling both may be from Flying Tiger. I’ve bought all sorts of crafty things from the Newcastle store in recent years but I hear that this branch has now closed – I’m quite sad about that.

I’ve also been prepping and spinning alpaca fibre. I spun some I prepped a while back. The three larger skeins are 2ply, each about 100 yards. The smaller skeins (the white is more alpaca and the blue is merino) are my first attempt at chain plying, using some singles left over on bobbins after plying. I felt that this got better as I went along, but I must remember not to overtwist next time.

I washed a batch of the alpaca fibre I skirted last week and hand carded it. I’m improvising with pet grooming brushes until I get proper carders (I have it on good authority that Santa Claus is bringing me some…if I’m good). I’ve braided the roving as I intend to dye it eventually. It does look rather messier than the braids of fibre that you buy, but in it’s current undyed state I thought it resembled the hair of Elsa from Frozen. I promise not to put it over my shoulder and start singing Let it Go!