Tuesday 26 March 2013

Combings

I have spent a lovely morning combing out some previously dyed fleece in order to spin some yarn for rug hooking. What else is there to do when there is still 6 inches of snow outside! The fleece in question is some Welsh Mule of which I managed to buy  3 fleeces from a local farmer last summer after one of his ewes decided to jump the fence and join my gang of sheep for breakfast. The Welsh Mule is a cross between a Bluefaced Leicester ram and a Welsh Mountain ewe and has a large fleece with a long, lustrous staple. It dyes wonderfully too! Here it is loaded onto the combs.

And here is the resultant puff.




After producing a couple of boxes of dyed puff I turned to one of my own fleeces from Hubert. His mum - who I also have - is a Shetland Icelandic cross but Huberts fleece is more like his Dads who was a black Wensleydale I believe. His fleece is a lovely silvery grey and very shiny with a staple length of about 6 inches. It's perfect for combing and I'm hoping to make enough 2 ply yarn to weave a special blanket from it by the end of the year.





On the Louet Spring loom I've got a sample warp of a lovely overshot pattern it has taken me nearly 20 years to get around to weaving. It's a miniature version of Cat Track and Snail Trail taken from the Recipe Book by Mary Meigs Atwater. When I've woven this warp I have to make one more sample scarf for my friend Helen who runs My Fine Weaving Yarns. I've done a few scarves as samples for her to take to Wonderwool Wales next month. But there is lots of finge twisting to do first!


Finally here is a photo of handsome Hubert taken last July on one of those rare summer days.

6 comments:

  1. Glad to see you have actually started at long last to blog!
    I like the pinky yellowy stuff on the loom.

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  2. Replies
    1. Yes he is very handsome and he loves to have a cuddle too!

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  3. Am not a knitter, weaver, or spinner, but do enjoy reading about people who are, and am a fan of your sister's blog.

    Best wishes, and do keep including your four-footed friends, as it's most interesting to me (a total ignorant) to see how things look as they are changed by each process.

    Happy Easter!

    D'ellis

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    Replies
    1. I hope you find what I am doing interesting and maybe you may try a fibre craft in the future!

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