Acquisitions/Collection Curation
Two of my favourite dyers were at a local wool fayre. How would I resist…well I couldn’t. Especially as I’d finished spinning all my fibre from Coastal Colours and Helen at Ripples Crafts has a new yarn base to try. My plan was not to buy pink or purple…oops
- 50% Black alpaca with 50% dyed tussah silk (purple, yellow, blue)
- 40% merino, 20% brown alpaca, 20% camel and 20% mulberry silk (gorgeous wine and blue) This is a new blend for me so I’m excited.
- Helen’s new 80% non superwash merino and 20% linen yarn (The Gentle Fire of Ruby colour).
I also bought a cute new Harris tweed poop bag holder and had enough left to buy a mango sorbet before heading home with my £100 budget almost spent.
Felting
My 3 x 25cm lampshades were finished and delivered to the Alchemist Gallery on Friday, along with the wreath I showed weeks ago.
Next up will be some more fairies, baubles and perhaps some pictures.
Knitting
Jumpers/cardigans
Progress on my jumper is at a snails pace, I maybe need to cast on something new 😂
Spinning
I spun two more breeds this week and both were slightly greasy with lanolin still in them and I did not enjoy spinning them at all.
The Coopworth was a gift from a friend to try. It was a struggle to spin it on my Nano 2, my hands were getting greasy and sticky and it didn’t want to wind onto the bobbin.
The Jacob also felt greasy so I tried my Ashford Traveller to see if that helped. It was a carded batt I bought years ago, it had quite a lot of vegetable matter and nepps in it. Again it was sticky.
What I have learned from these two is I do not like spinning “in the grease” or even partially greasy as I suspect these had both been washed.
I washed, with hot water and fleece scourer, both skeins and the Jacob has puffed up nicely, although still a little greasy.
I have some more of the Coopworth fibre so I’m going to try spinning it again after I’ve given the fibre a wash, to see if that improved my opinion.
Weaving
Rigid heddle loom
One of my Guild friend’s was selling an 8 shaft table loom, so I went to have a look at it but decided against buying one for now.
She was also selling some 10″ rigid heddles so I bought a 7.5 and 10 dpi one, which means I can finally have a go at some of the three heddle projects I have in one of my weaving books. (I already had 2 of most sizes.)
Other News
Gosh well that’s already quite a lot of words. Apart from all the crafting, I’ve signed a new contract at the office so from June I’ll be working just Mondays and Wednesdays 9am-3pm. My plan is to try to save most of my money for some big garden renovation plans I have.
This is a Year of Projects post. Officially the Group is in its 13th year, but this is my 6th year participating. If you would like to find more about the Year of Projects Group on Ravelry, as you’d be very welcome to join us. (There are 53 Sundays this YOP year, it happens sometimes!).
HighlandHeffalump 
If that Coopworth is from me, I’m pretty sure I sent you processed fiber back from the mill. I haven’t tried spinning it yet. While at the Great Lakes Fiber Show yesterday (where I bought the Coopworth fleece about 20 year ago) there was a booth of nothing but Coopworth — rovings and yarns. And the yarn was really lovely. It made me hope I can spin something lovely with my fleece.
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It was the Coopworth you sent me and I believe it to have been washed but it still does have quite a bit of lanolin in. I’ve washed the fibre now and you could see the grease coming out. I need to wait for it to dry to re-try it.
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You could also see when I washed the yarn that I did spin. Many of the members only spin fibre in the grease, or lightly processed, as that’s their preference, but it’s not for me. 🙂
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Eww. I don’t think I’d like spinning with lanolin. I get fussy when I get oil on my hands while baking/cooking. But I have to admit your yarns are always so pretty. The lampshades are beautiful as always. What a wonderful trip remembrance for someone. Congrats on your part-time position. Hopefully you will find it more fun than last time with the more limited hours.
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Thanks, I think just 2 days will give me better balance. 🤞
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Your new acquisitions are pretty. There is only a little pink/purple there. (wink wink) Just hearing you talk about spinning with excess lanolin made me itchy. I am glad you were able to wash it and remove some of it. Good luck on the part time job. Sounds like the hours and days will be perfect. And the $$ will be nice to set aside for something special.
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Thanks Marsha, I’m hoping 2 days will be better
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I love your new fiber and can’t wait to see what you make with it.
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Thanks Sarah x
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The lamp shades are so pretty, lucky people who buy them :).
What beautiful fiber you bought, the black, purple, yellow and blue is striking, bet it is very soft too!
Not sure I would want to spin in the grease either, guess you would have to wipe down the orifice and bobbins after spinning, yes?
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So many pretty things! I love that black alpaca/tussah silk blend, especially. 😍😍😍
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Thanks, it was funny he let me have a look in his extra huge bag of other bits and I spotted it at the bottom and new I had to have it.
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While I love the variety of heritage breeds, I don’t love spinning in the grease either. It feels like the yarn never really is clean. I hope your new/old job gives you some garden spending money – sounds like you’ve got a big project in mind!
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Wow – you have gotten so much done! Love your new purchases and also your lampshades – you do lovely felting! Can’t wait to see how your new pinky purples turn out and your new weaving experiments!
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