Welcome to my blog. I live, knit, crochet, spin and craft near the Northumbrian Coast (but not too near – the waves won't be splashing my yarn!).There's a story in every stitch, every grain of sand, every blade of grass. I thought I'd blog about it…
Having spent hours hand carding alpaca fibre over the last few weeks I’d been dreaming of owning a drum carder, but it did seem to be something of an extravagance until one of my fellow Knit and Natterers told me about hers. She found it on Etsy and it came from Russia. It was much cheaper than the well known makes and works really well. I looked online and found the seller. Sure enough, full size manual drum carders were available for under £200 plus post and packing and the reviews were excellent, so I took the plunge and ordered one. The only negative stated on the reviews appeared to be delivery time, but I was in no particular hurry. I was delighted when just 16 days later, on Christmas Eve, a large package arrived from Ukraine (not quite Russia). Today I finally unboxed my new drum carder and used it for the first time.
It was certainly well packaged, but after removing plastic, brown paper and two cardboard cartons the drum carder was finally revealed.
It came with a hand card (to clean the drums?) and a doffer (a long spike used to remove the batt of fibre from the drum) – I do love that there is a whole new vocabulary attached to spinning and fibre preparation.
All I needed to do to make the drum carder ready to use was fit the hand crank and the table clamps.
I couldn’t wait to get started so I grabbed some alpaca that I washed the other week, teased it out and gradually fed it in until the large drum was covered.
I used the doffer to remove the fibre and fed it through a second time.
This is the beautiful alpaca batt that resulted. I love my new toy!
I was very lucky with my Christmas presents. There was a definite theme running through many of the gifts I received. Father Christmas obviously wishes to encourage me to continue with fibre and yarn-related hobbies!
This year’s new skill was spinning. I have made a point of learning something new every year, especially since I retired and this one has really got me hooked. I was given a load of accessories for preparing and spinning yarn. I’d asked for this Ikea Variera pot lid rack to use as a Lazy Kate to ply yarn spun on my Electric Eel Wheel Nano e-spinner – the bobbins fit the pins perfectly. For carding and blending I got a pair of Ashford hand cards. Then there is a cute sheep design niddynoddy and some lingerie bags for washing raw fleece.
I also got a yarn swift…
…and a ball winder.
In 2021 I plan to start dyeing fibre. This acid dye starter kit from DT Craft and design includes 12 different colours of dye, along with citric acid to fix the dye, protective gloves and a measuring spoon. There is also a very detailed instruction booklet.
I also got some books. I’m still trying to use up all my oddment of yarn and I got three books for exactly that, including one full of designs for knitted and crocheted flowers. The others are for the dyeing adventure to come: “Dyeing to Knit and Spin” by Felicia Lo and “Wild Colour” by Jenny Dean which is all about natural dyes.
I’m very lucky indeed and can’t wait to start using all this new kit.
There were more lovely projects on show at Friday’s online Knit and Natter session, which is organised by the social prescribing teams at GP surgeries here in Northumberland. Our big news this week is we’ve had a write up in the UK national knitting press! This follows a request for more information about the group from Simply Knitting magazine.
Christmas knits continue with this cute little snowman….
…and a pair of Christmas angels.
This Fair Isle project is getting bigger. I absolutely love the duck egg/teal colour combination here.
If my memory serves me correctly, this next project is a baby jumper. The central panel with its lacy design is just gorgeous.
One of our recently joined members has taken knitting up again after a break and though it took her a while to get hold of needles and yarn during lockdown, she is now steaming ahead with charity knits including these two lovely baby hats.
The
The crocheted elephant that was still in pieces last week is now all done, complete with pink toenails! I think we’ve all fallen in love with him/her, especially having seen him come together over recent weeks.
One of the ladies from the Berwick group joined us on Zoom for the first time this week. She is a keen spinner too. I loved being able to talk to her and her husband (who is also a spinner and joined us briefly). Since I started spinning in September this is the first time I’ve actually had a conversation about my new obsession to a fellow enthusiast! They told me about some great sources of equipment and supplies. She is taking part in a Mystery Knit Along which has been organised by the Macmillan Cancer Support charity. In return for a donation to the charity, sections of a pattern were released gradually over 4 weeks. As the project is well underway now I don’t think it would be spoiling the mystery too much if I show a screenshot of her work on this.
Click on the link above if you’d like access to this lovely pattern by donating to a very worthwhile cause.
I think this was one of the best supported sessions we’ve had since the Zoom group got underway. It’s such a friendly group and I always look forward to Friday lunchtimes and seeing what everyone’s been up to.
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!
A while ago I was given a huge bag of raw alpaca fleece. So far I’d only processed a very small amount of it, which I spun and knitted to make baby socks and hat as a gift. Today I did the first stage of processing the rest. This is known as skirting. The fleece (known as a blanket when it comes to alpacas) is spread out on a mesh table and agitated to remove dust. Any stained fibre and pieces of vegetable matter (hay, pieces of grass, seeds etc) are removed as well as very short second cuts, (where the shearer has gone over a second time), which are too short to spin. The fibres are then sorted into the various grades, from the finest longest fibres on the animal’s back through to the shorter pieces on the neck and sides – well that’s what the professionals do. I can’t say I did such a thorough job!
I think the alpacas like to have a good roll about because the fibre is very dusty – everywhere in the conservatory where I do all my crafting was covered just from processing a tiny amount. Lesson learnt, I needed to sort through the rest outside! K has made me this little skirting table. It’s basically a wooden frame with chicken wire stretched over it – he’s added tape and some pipe insulation to stop the edges of the wire catching. This just rests on a couple of garden chairs.
It’s not quite big enough to spread a whole blanket out but it’s perfect for my purposes.
I’d been waiting for a sunny dry day without much wind. Alpaca is light as a feather and if I’d tried doing this in the gales we’ve had recently most of it would have ended up in the next county! As I tipped the fibre out on to the skirting table there were clouds of dust. I kept agitating the blanket to release as much of the dust as possible.
I picked out the larger pieces of vegetation – there wasn’t a great deal of it and some of the tinier fragments will come out of the fleece during the later stages of processing. You can see a couple of small pieces of leaf towards the bottom of the next photo.
I separated out the best long fibres, which are around 5 inches long, from the rest This is mostly around 2-3 inches long so still perfectly good to spin. Now most of the dust is out I can sort this more fully indoors and not need to rely on the weather. You can see the layer of dust left where I ran my finger across the green tape.
I’ve now got all the fibre in labelled plastic bags.
Buddy took great interest in what I was doing.
As you can see there was quite a lot of spillage, mostly the very short second cuts. He did offer to sweep the patio though!
I’ve been promised more fibre from Aero and Wispa, our friends’ alpacas (how lucky am I?). I think I’ll definitely wait until the Spring for my next skirting session. By then the birds visiting our garden during the nesting season could really make use of the bits of fibre that I drop!
I’ve been skirting, washing, carding and spinning some of the gorgeous alpaca fibre that was given to me recently. When I took up spinning (I got an Electric Eel Wheel Nano e-spinner for my birthday) I thought it would be wonderful to be able to make something beginning with the raw fleece and taking it right through to the finished garment. With enough yarn spun and a dear friend’s new baby granddaughter to knit for. This was the perfect opportunity.
I started with the socks (Perfect Baby Socks by Hey Sister Yarn Co) The pattern gives a choice of designs, cable or rib: I chose the rib one. Knitted on DPNs I have to say these were fiddly to do and with all the complexities of turned heels and Kitchener stitch toe grafts, they probably took almost as long as adult socks to make, so I probably wouldn’t use this pattern again, but they do look so amazingly cute and feel so soft.
The hat was much simpler to make – the Maine Baby Hat, also from Ravelry. This is such a useful pattern. It gives the cast on stitch numbers for three sizes and several different yarn weights. My handspun alpaca is probably on average somewhere between DK and 4ply so I was able to find the right one. Then it was pretty straightforward to knit up on circular needles with a K1P1 ribbed band and the rest in stocking stitch, only moving on to DPNs for the last of the decreases.
I’ve also learnt a new cast on – the sock pattern recommended the German Twisted cast on to give a nice stretchy edge. I watched a couple of YouTube videos and soon got the hang of it. It really is very stretchy so I’ll be using this on all socks (or anything else that needs a stretchy edge) from now on.
My spinning still lacks consistency in that the thickness of the yarn is rather variable and this certainly shows up in the stocking stitch, Even after a very light press!
The socks and hat feel so soft and warm though – so the baby will be very snug and cosy in them. Daughter was delivering them today. Baby’s mum is a close friend of hers. I hope she likes them!
We have a saying here in the North East: “Shy bairns get nowt”, which basically means that sometimes you have to be a bit cheeky and ask for something. When I realised that some dear friends of my brother and his wife have alpacas, I asked if they could perhaps bring me some alpaca fleece next time they visited. Since spinning became my new obsession I’ve been itching to get my hands on some alpaca fibre. It’s so gloriously soft and warm and I love knitting with it so really wanted to have a go at spinning some.
I also thought it would be really interesting to get hold of raw fleece from a known source, prepare it, spin it and knit into a garment, embracing the entire process.
When my brother dropped this large plastic sack full last week I was absolutely over the moon. He said he’d bring some, but I hasn’t imagined it would be so much
When I started to tip the contents out the fibres immediately fluffed up – there must be at least 2 complete blankets or fleeces compressed into that bag – over 6kg of fibre!. He also sent me some photos of the animals that provided the fleece: a pair of alpacas called Wispa and Aero. Aren’t they adorable?
I’ve been reading up how to process the fibre and I’ve partially skirted the first fleece. This involves separating out the soiled fibres and the shorter and coarser parts from the edges and removing second cuts (the shorter tufts where the shearer has gone over the animal a second time). Some of this is perfectly usable – but what is left is the best quality long fine fleece from the back of the animal.
The fleece holds a lot of dust, some of which falls out during the skirting process. The next stage is to wash the fibre. To do this I put the fibre into mesh bags (the sort you use for laundering underwear) . I added some wool wash liquid to hand-hot water and gently immersed the bags. The wet fleece must be handled very carefully or it felts together, so I just left it to soak for 20 minutes, then drained the water and lightly pressed on the bags to remove some of the water. I then added clean water of the same temperature (sudden temperature changes damage the fibres) to rinse the soap away. In some respects alpaca fibre is easier to wash than sheep’s wool ,which is rich in lanolin and takes repeated washing to remove). The water was now clear so I drained it, pressing gently on the bags remove water, then placing the bags between towels and pressing gently again. I then allowed the fleece to dry. It has cleaned up to a beautiful pure white, which offers so many possibilities for experimenting with dyes…..that’s a whole new craft in itself.
I’ve been using pet brushes to comb the fibres (have asked for proper carding combs for Christmas) and have gradually picked through it to remove all the fragments of vegetable matter. The prepared alpaca is the softest fluffiest stuff ever. It’s like a cloud!
Next job – to spin it! I spun a couple of singles and plyed them together to make this 2 ply yarn – 99 yards/49g
There was some left which I plyed with some blue merino to make this little skein (41 yards /15g.
It has been lovely to spin with and I’ve only used part of the fibre I processed there’s still a load more to skirt, wash and card). The project possibilities are endless!
I’m so lucky to have such generous people in my life…..and some of them have alpacas!
Since I got my e-spinner – the Electric Eel Wheel Nano, I’ve become somewhat addicted! I managed to complete all this in my first week of spinning. In Part 2 I’d completed my first tiny skein of navy and white striped yarn. Next I decided to concentrate on improving my technique so I spun a couple of reels of the cornflower blue merino and plyed it together.
This is such a rich shade of blue! As you can see from the close up my strand thickness and ply is pretty uneven, but I think it was starting to improve by the time I finished these.
Next I tried colour blending. I’ve watched YouTube tutorials on this but I don’t have a blending mat or a carder so I improvised – I pulled out a long strip each of three colours of fibre (pale blue, deep denim blue and teal) and as I spun, I tried to make sure I was varying the colours I drew out. I also spun a reel of the plain pale blue yarn, then I plyed them together.
I found it quite difficult to keep the multicoloured strand even and vary the colours at the same time. The uneven-ness translated through to the the plying, but I rather like the randomness of it.
Finally I spun a bobbin each of pale blue, cornflower and navy. My strands were starting to get more consistent by now. I put them together in a 3-ply. My improvised Lazy Kate (cardboard box with knitting needles stuck through to hold the spools) needed an extra needle poking through to accommodate the third spool.
I was really pleased with how this turned out because I felt that both the spinning and plying looked more uniform. Result!
I’ve definitely caught the spinning bug. I find it very soothing and have really enjoyed learning the basics. I’ve eased back a bit over the last few days so I don’t totally deplete my fibre supply. I’ll have to buy more far too soon if I don’t spin it out!
Yesterday I said I was excited about getting some fibre to spin and my online order from Fibre Hut arrived today: all these gorgeous blue shades of combed merino: 100g each of Denim, Cornflower and Dreamy (a light baby blue) and a collection called Ocean – 25g in each of ten blue and aqua shades.
I chose one of the minis in navy and spun this bobbin. I think it’s much more consistent than yesterday’s attempt.
I got really into spinning this – the minutes just melted away. Spinning is just so relaxing!
When I’d finished spinning this fibre I decided to try plying it with the white I spun yesterday. For this I needed to improvise a Lazy Kate (something to hold the bobbins) – I used a couple of old knitting needles pushed through the box the Electric Eel Wheel Nano came in.
Plying the two yarns together involves the wheel turning in the opposite direction from spinning – you just flick the switch on the the machine.
This is the result. Stripy yarn!
My first mini skein of hand spun yarn……and a great sense of achievement!
I’ve been playing with one of my birthday presents. Having expressed an interest in learning to spin yarn a while ago, I was given this for my birthday. It’s an Electric Eel Nano: a portable spinning wheel. Less expensive than the traditional type and tiny: only about 14cm long.
It comes with a 2 power cables (UK and US plugs), a USB power cable and spare bobbins. There is no instruction manual, but a card with a link to online video tutorials and a yarn guide.
There’s an orifice hook that I have no excuse to lose, as it stays attached to the machine with a couple of tiny magnets. There is a speed control and a switch for on/off, clockwise/anticlockwise rotation.
I’ve ordered some fleece online, but I did have some roving that I use for needle felting, so I couldn’t resist having a go. I followed the instruction videos which were very clear and found the Nano quite easy to use.
This is the result. – not the most even of yarns but I’m quite pleased with my first attempt at spinning.
The next thing I need to do is try plying it.
Hopefully my online order will arrive this week and I can do some more. I can see myself getting quite addicted!
Stitches by the Sea 