Zwartbles - First Experience with Raw Fleece

After saying I didn't want to have anything to do with raw fleece I changed my mind - woman's prerogative - and bought 950 grms of Zwartbles of ebay and set about washing it. I chose Zwartbles as I thought if I am going to put a lot of effort into preparing a fleece I want something different to the usual tops I buy and I have never seen Zwartbles tops. In fact I had never heard of the sheep until I looked the breed up on the net and found that they are a Dutch breed which have fell out of favour in Holland but their numbers are increasing in the UK.

Anyhow, I am really pleased with how the fleece is turning out although it is hard work. I have been washing (scouring) a smallish amount at a time and am about three quarters of the way through now. I have thrown very little away but I have spent quite a lot of time taking out bits of straw etc. and there is also a lot of sand in the fleece which happily has come out in the washing. The fleece is a really lovely colour and is very crimpy. I just hope it cards well and spins up nicely.

First photo - before

Last photo - after

Spinning, Blending

My first efforts using a drum carder. I started by blending dark and light purple merino tops and then added silk - not sure of the proportions as my scales are in need of a battery - not just the ordinary ones that everyone has available but the little round ones that I have never thought of buying in (sigh). However, I digress, the photograph really doesn't do the batt justice it is so soft and fluffy. I have tried spinning it and it spins up beautifully - really pleased.

Dyeing with Nettles

Picked fresh young nettle tops when out with the dogs the other day. Boiled the nettles for an hour, allowed to cool for another hour, strained and added alum mordanted handspun Shetland and simmered for an hour. The wool took the dye very well and I am really pleased with the colour - natural dyes are so fresh and clear looking. I'm thinking dandelions next : )

Amounts: 100 grms of wool and a Tesco plastic bag about three-quarters full of nettles. I didn't chop the nettles just popped then into boiling water as picked.

Ashford Jumbo Sliding Hook Flyer

I have bought a Jumbo Flyer with the Sliding hooks and I am pleased to say that with the good advice from 'The Alpaca Spinner' I can use it on both my Ashford Traveller and the Traditional.
At the moment it is on the Traditional but I have a new jumbo bearing for the Traveller and a reducer bush which means I can us the Traveller with either the regular or jumbo flyer and for any thickness of yarn as I also have an orifice reducer. The same versatility also applies to the Traditional. I think this is really 'cool'.

I should add that I like the Sliding Hook Flyer but I am not sure that it is that much better than the regular hooks. I chose to buy it because it makes the Traditional more flexible - the flyers that came with it only had two ratios whereas the new flyer has four ranging from 4.1 to 12.5:1.

Weaving - Scarf

Well I have finished my first weaving project on the Leena Loom. I am really pleased with it although there is some unevenness in places. I found weaving on a four shaft loom is faster and more comfortable (this does not apply to warping) than weaving on a rigid heddle but I am sure I will still get lots of use out of the rigid heddle.

My daughter in law bought me the wool I used for the weft for Mothers' Day and I think it has made a really interesting scarf. I used 4 ply bamboo for the warp.

I know the photograph is a bit odd with a scarf draped over a chair but the scarf is very long and I wanted to show it off : )

Ramie - Spinning and Dyeing Nettle

The photograph opposite is Ramie which spun up very well apart from flying all over me and the room I was spinning it in. Also on the downside it is rather stringy. I just hope it knits up to look reasonable as I want to knit a scarf for my daughter as she is allergic to wool.

I did a search for Ramie on the Internet and found it belongs to the nettle family and grows in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world and interestingly is grown for both fibre and fodder.

I dyed the Ramie with Procion MX dyes which is different than dyeing wool in two respects firstly the yarn was soaked before dyeing with soda ash and salt added to the water and secondly after adding the dye in the same way as I would do for wool I just covered it with kitchen foil and left it until the next day before rinsing. I think perhaps the rinsing could be a third difference as it took ages to rinse whereas I have found that when dyeing wool there is no or hardly any bleeding. As you can see the colours are really vibrant.

Spinning and Dyeing

I thought it was time I caught up with showing some of my spinning and dyeing exploits..... On a previous blog I put up a photo of some dyeing I had done which I wasn't very pleased with - but it has spun up OK nowhere near as garish as I thought it would be although it is somewhat brighter than it looks in the photograph.

I have started to knit some fingerless gloves- yes I know - wrong time of year, but I am sure they will come in very useful come autumn. The wool is BFL which I dyed with Landscape Dyes and then spun on the Traditional. I am finding the single treadle hard to get used to though and it turned out a bit thick and thin but nonetheless it is knitting up quite well.