Mittens

This is the first project involving knitting up something I've spun. These mittens are my own design, the grey is the oatmeal blue faced leicester, and the blue is a Louisa Harding angora.

The Yarn Museum

I found a website that shows pictures of yarn that's been handspun. They're inviting people (beginners included - luckily for me) to send in pictures that fall under the category "Natural". I thought a bit about what I could do and decided to avoid the obvious murky/fluffy yarn and do something that reflected the contrasting colours in a new plant I'd bought. This is two ply, black welsh mountain with silk hankies. Two natural colours that provide a sharp contrast and made me feel dizzy whilst plying them.

Various yarns

Here are a few yarns. The two white ones are from the fleece my mum gave me. They were spun "in the grease" which made drafting a bit difficult so I 'm washing the fleece before I spin any more. The grey is the herdwick spun from the rolags (earlier picture) and the brown and white is black welsh mountain plyed with silk hankies.

Nice and clean

Here is the washed fleece, nearly dry and ready to be carded

If pigs are dirty...

They say pigs are dirty - look at the muck coming out of this fleece! I tried to spin some "in the grease" but soon got annoyed by the sticky grease getting all over everything. I was also a bit concerned that I might be spreading it around the house on my hands. So it was into the bathtub for a cold overnight soak. Look at the colour of the water! When I drained the bath the next day there was a layer of silt on the bottom of the bath. Still, hopefully I won't have as many problems drafting it as I did with the first greasy lot. Even after carding sections of dirt made drafting an even yarn difficult.

Herdwick rolags

This is a really interesting fleece called Herdwick. It's very rough, with thick black and white fibres amongst the softer grey. Pictures of the spun wool to follow.

More onion skins ..

This is rather a cheeky picture - the light makes it look a far more lustrous colour than it actually is

And here's the wool before I took it off the bobbin.

I couldn't decide which of these pictures I liked the most - so here they all are!

oatmeal bluefaced leicester

I love the understated colour of this fleece

Colour . . .

I fancy knitting a plain brown hat and using these skeins to embroider a design with the green couched on as stalks and leaves and the pink as little flowers. Watch this space.

Inkle braids

Here are some inkle braids I made with the wool I dyed. The only new colour in these is the gold, which comes from turmeric. I really want to experiment more with my inkle loom to try some more elaborate patterns but at the moment I'm looking for a really fine linen to use. Some of the patterns I have use over 50 strands, and I can't see that happening with wool.

The orange of the onion skins can be seen better in these pictures of a hat I knitted. The yellow (which is really a lovely lemon shade) is fustic, whilst the dark brown is the natural colour of a dark shetland sheep. I didn't spin this wool, just dyed it, although the shetland is handspun - I bought it on e-bay !

Natural colours

Here are some other attempts at natural dying. The colours were produced by logwood for the darkest (although it's really a very dark purple), elderberries for the dark pink and raspberry for the light pink. The browns are walnut husks and oak bark. The very bright orange just peeking out was produced by onion skins. All these have an alum and cream of tartar mordant.

If at first ...

Here are my next attempts, undyed as yet. These are starting to look a bit more usable. Again, two ply merino. It's amazing how little wool you need - these skeins are only 2oz each!

First attempts at spinning

Here are my first uneven attempts at spinning on the wheel. The wool was pure merino tops, and I've made it two ply. The dyes are weld for the bright yellow, weld with iron in the dyebath for the dirty yellow (not a great colour) and the close up is of dried ivy leaves with iron in the dyebath.

My first spinning wheel

This is my first spinning wheel, a Kromski Prelude. Unfortunately I have already started talking to it, stroking it and obsessing over it whilst I should be thinking about work. Perhaps the feelings will fade with time.