A Guest Speak on Episode 27 of a Self-Sufficiency & Homesteading Group

Last week, I had the pleasure of being a guest speaker for Episode 27 of the talks run by Tanya Malan of the Self Sufficient Homesteading & Gardening Facebook group, also hosted by Warrick Selzer of Beeware.

Leon De Beer of the National Grower's Association of South Africa was also guest speaking, with some excellent info on sheep farming and what happens to the fleece on a larger scale.

Whilst the video is based on farmers, small-holders and homesteaders in South Africa, the same can apply in any country in the world.

So, a huge thanks to Tanya Malan and Warrick Selzer for having me along.

It was really interesting and insightful. Plus, I got to (hopefully) spread some of the joy of creating with natural fibers on to others.

Tour de Fleece 2013

This was the year I took the plunge and joined in with the Tour de Fleece, and I'm so glad I did because I loved every minute of it.

Through the hottest British summer since 2006, I still managed to spin every day that the Tour de France cycled ... even if I had to wait until the evening so it was cool enough to do so.

Here's my final tally ... all 845g of it!!

I managed these 11 skeins of completed yarn, all 2-ply, but in a variety of fibers and in a variety of weights.

I especially love this skein of BFL sock weight yarn in a 'Watermelon Tourmaline' colour scheme I had custom dyed by Danielle of A Stash Addict.

I also tried spinning alpaca for the first time, albeit in a blend of merino and silk, but it was my first alpaca experience nonetheless. I'm really pleased with the results of this uber-soft DK weight yarn.

I also tried spinning a singles yarn for the first time. I'm seriously over the moon about this one as it ended up better than I expected. After asking some TdF team mates for advice, I slightly fulled the yarn by alternating it in a hot versus cold bath, and then hung it to dry with a weight on the end. I will definitely be trying this out again soon, as it provides you with so much more yardage than a 2-ply.

I was disappointed about not being able to finish the rainbow merino fiber on my drop spindle, but it really was too hot to spin yarn during the day. Despite that, I did have all the good intentions, and took my spindle out on numerous day excursions ... only to give up actually spinning after the first 10 minutes, drenched in sweat and in fear of felting my fiber between my hands! Here's a photo of me feeling optimistic on route to the beach, spindle in hand.

I was also half way through some lace weight luxury 50% baby camel and 50% tussah silk yarn when the TdF ended.

Badly timed I know, but the end of the event just crept up on me so quickly.

Not yet sick of spinning, I carried on my daily spinning to get it finished.

As I didn't want to be a Rookie-No-Mates, Team AYLM was founded on Instagram and Ravelry. Thanks so much to all who joined in. I've had some lovely messages from team mates who wrote to say that they also thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

As a thank you to my team mates, I pledged a prize drawn at random of a custom made drop spindle.

And I'm so pleased to announce that the lovely Jenni (IG username @baamekniits) was the winning member.

So it's over for 2013, and now I've done my first I can say that I will be there with bells on next year and probably every year after that.

It's such a wonderful opportunity to be inspired by others, develop your own skills, grow as a fiber artist, make new like-minded friends and enhance that wonderfully OOAK handspun yarn stash.

See you all there next year :)

A Mystery Spin ... My First Spinning Commission

An Instagram friend (@amberweinberg) recently contacted me to say she had a mysterious lot of fiber that she didn't know what to do with, and didn't want to spin it for herself.  She went on to ask whether I could spin it for her but this was a tricky request as it was an unknown weight of fiber of an unknown origin. Needless to say, I was intrigued and excited all at the same time. I had never been asked to do any spinning for someone else before, and I didn't know how to answer any of her questions such as how long it might take or how many balls of wool it would make.

After a few to-ing and fro-ing of emails, we decided I would give it a go without many of the decisions being made, as I would have to weigh and feel the fiber first to see what I had to work with. Amber requested that I attempt to make a sock weight yarn with the fiber, and I agreed to give it my best effort.

Within a few days I received a lovely fluffy delivery in the post. Here's the reveal photo ... seconds after opening the parcel:

It was a lovely naturally coloured ball of fiber which weighed 262 grams. I could tell it was sheep in origin from the smell, and it looked pure and not blended with another type of fiber. The staple length was longish (about  4-5") and the crimp quite relaxed. It felt and looked almost like fine hair in comparison to say merino fiber where you can't distinguish the individual fibers due to the fluffiness. This was an unknown entity to me, as I had never spun fiber like it before.

Even after a little online research, I couldn't isolate the breed of sheep this fiber was from. So I decided I would just have to wing-it!

Putting down other WIPs in eagerness to begin this new project I decided to do a test spin that evening to see how it would behave.

After posting this early progress pic on Instagram, someone suggested that the fiber might have some Angora in it. Although it looks this way, it just wasn't nearly soft enough to contain any.

Backing some of the spun fiber up to see how it would ply, I took this photo for Amber to see:

It looked like it would produce a lovely fluffy looking yarn of fairly even consistency.

Here I am, mid-draft!

Quite a few evenings later, I finally had two full and contented bobbins all ready for plying:

And here is the first of four skeins pre-bath and set.

So the yield from this interesting mystery spin was:

• 2 large skeins


• 2 small skeins


• approx. total yardage: 371 (or 339 meters)


• sock to DK weight 2-ply

I was very happy with the result, as it washed up beautifully to become even whiter and even more lofty.

What's more, Amber was delighted with her new yarn. Here's a photo of the yarn back with its rightful owner (courtesy of Amber's IG feed):

I would be grateful to hear from any spinners who recognise this fiber and can tell me the sheep breed it might come from.

All in all, a very enjoyable and satisfying spin :)

A Great Day Out: Unravel 2013

I was very fortunate yesterday as I spent a lovely day in Farnham Maltings at the Unravel 2013 Fiber Arts Festival.

What a sight for lovers of colour and texture! The organisers had done a marvelous job of decorating the whole of the building ... inside and out. The whole place was yarn bombed in one way or another. It was difficult to take it all in, and I didn't want to miss a thing.

There were even a pair of sheep in a pen near the entrance!

Anyway, I was excited in the lead up to the festival as I'd planned to meet an Instagram friend, Amber Weinberg, and go around the show with her, as well meeting up with Danielle Alinia who had a stall at the event for her A Stash Addict business.

Amber and I happened to arrive in Farnham at the same time, so after brief introductions in the freezing snowy car park, we bundled into Farnham Maltings and begun to work our way around the show. That's Amber on the left and me on the right:

The lovely Unravel 2013 mascot greeted us in the foyer.

If you've ever been to Farnham Maltings you'll know how higgeldy-piggeldy the layout is. Needless to say, Amber & I struggled to find our bearings, but we simply followed our noses around the building.

Loving the sheep theme I just had to take a photo of this lovely fellow:

Being an enthusiast of spinning, I was excited to see many people sat around with drop spindles on the go, and there was a room where you could even try spinning on a variety of wheels.

And more evidence of yarny-arty-installations everywhere!

And I loved the pretty yarn creations hanging from every available wall and ceiling space!

Doing my very best to try not to spend a ridiculous amount of money, I carefully made my way around the festival, vowing only to part with my cash if I properly fell in love with something and couldn't part with it!

My first purchase was this 100g braid of Merino fiber in colourway 'Pale Jungle' from a company called Skeins. I simply had to buy this as it features my favourite colours ... beautiful earthy greens, browns and rusts:

After a LOT of walking, and losing our bearings in the maze of rooms, we finally found Danielle of A Stash Addict's stall, and I can hands down say that there was more colour on hers than on any other. It was simply stunning.

Here we all are having a photo together (haha, look at my over the moon face):

I was so happy to see my Drop Spindle Spinning Kits for sale on Danielle's stall, I just had to take a photo to commemorate it. Here's the rainbow kit:

After chatting to the friendly couple for a lovely long time, I finally made my mind up which of her skeins of yarn I would purchase. I decided on one that I've coveted for quite some time ... The Earthy Rainbow DK Tweed. This colourway is just heavenly and coupled with the tweed effect, it looks amazing. I'll have to choose a special pattern for this one:

Here are a few of the other delights on Danielle's stall that caught my eye. First of all, here's a small sample of her braids of fiber ... a spinner or felters dream:

And then I was lured over to the display opposite Danielle's by the sumptuous fiber in batts and braids hanging from every inch the stall. It was Katie Weston of Hilltop Cloud and I was very impressed with her unique and luxurious blends. After chatting to the very knowledgeable Katie I was really inspired by her work, as she had cleverly made beautiful hand-knitted garments from her handspun yarn, using a variety of her very own blends. It was from this that she got the sale of this next beauty:

This is 50% Baby Camel and 50% Silk blend fiber in a beautiful range of purples. No kidding when I say this is the most luxuriously soft and sumptuous fiber I've ever had the pleasure to hold in my hands. But not only that, because I've seen how the finished result comes out, I know it spins up beautifully to produce a very fine yarn that looks phenomenal and feels fabulous close to the skin.

After a whole lot of chatting with store holders and squishing the vast majority of goodies on offer, Amber & I decided to go back to the beginning and make sure we had seen everything properly. I also wanted to buy a few things I'd seen at the beginning of our day.

In the first big hall we'd encountered I'd been impressed by a company called John Arbon Textiles. Amber had been too, as she'd bought a gorgeous pair of Alpaca Fair Isle socks from them. I was drawn to big floor-standing bins that contained  discounted fiber that you could buy by however many grams you liked. They were displayed so you could feel each of the fibers and the quality was very good. I ended up choosing 200g of Organic Merino in natural undyed white:

And also, I bought a bargain 200g bag of Alpaca, Merino & Silk mixed 'Broken Tops' that I thought would be interesting to have a play with:

On our last legs, after several trips around the show, Amber & I were overdue for some food and drink.

We plonked our bottoms down in true weary fashion and tucked in to some well deserved food, chatting all the while.

At 3:30pm, with many stall holders beginning to pack away, and all our energy (and money) , we decided to call it a day.

Going into the snowy outdoors was a shock after being so warm and cosy surrounded by lots of yarn, fiber and a whole lot of people. Amber & I said our goodbyes and then she departed for the train station.

Goodbye Unravel. I hope to visit you again next year ... and who knows ... maybe I'll be an exhibitor?? Fingers crossed.

Happy Birthday to Me! ... A New Spinning Wheel

What better way to celebrate being a year wiser(!) with a very special birthday gift.

Introducing my new Ashford 'Joy' spinning wheel (bought second hand but lightly used from one careful lady owner on Ravelry) ...

I'm looking forward to getting to know her ways and learning to make beautiful yarn together ;)

So far so good ... The Ashford Joy really lives up to its name.

My Handspun Yarn Stash

Pre-pregnancy, I adored obtaining sheeps wool fresh from shearing and getting it home, skirting and sorting through it for the choice sections, washing it in the bath tub, drying it on the washing line, carding and then spinning it up on my Ashford Traditional wheel to see what I could create.

So here's the (dwindled) remainder of my pre-pregnancy handspun stash ...

First up is one of my favourite sheeps wools ... Gotland fleece. It has a lovely long staple length so is easy to draft, there is a natural lustre to the fiber. It creates a luscious soft yarn in a beautiful variegated grey. This fleece was bought from an inspirational local fiber artist who farms the Gotland sheep herself.

Next is the yarn from fleeces of unknown origin (a gift from farmer friends of mine) ... One a lovely milk chocolate brown colour, and another a natural sheep colour(!)

As I spun these two skeins I had my sights on creating a family, so I went on to make a cuddly toy for my future son or daughter ...

Introducing, Sleepy Sheep ... Awww.

I stopped preparing wool straight from the sheeps back when I became pregnant in June 2010 as there are a number of dangerous bacteria present that can cause harm to the baby. I went on to spin shop bought batts that had been scoured. That's when I discovered all the beautiful colours of dyed wool. Oooh, the endless possibilities ...

*******

I am pleased to be taking part in Danielle @ A Stash Addict's new meme today ... Fiber Appreciation Thursday. I'm so looking forward to taking part in this and ogling at all the beautiful stash-iola you have out there.