Fibre Update - Things I Have Done in my Limited Spare Time

I haven't had an awful lot of fibre fun lately.  It's difficult to be too excited about spinning or knitting or crochet when it's hot and sticky here.  We're not as hot and sticky as a lot of places, but since we don't have air conditioning, the heat really sticks when it comes.  The humidity has been high as well, so it's just energy-draining and not really conducive to wool-related pastimes.

That said, I have done a bit of knitting on cooler evenings or in the car with air-conditioning when Marc is driving.  I recently completed the "Sea of Shells" shawl, which reminds me of the ocean, and the waves progressively coming in to the shore.

I knitted this using local Fleece and Harmony yarn from Prince Edward Island.  They have a lovely flock of sheep and I really like their yarns.  I plan on visiting their operation again later this year.

This shawl needed to be blocked (wetted and then carefully pinned out) to really bring out the lace pattern between the shell shapes.  It then took a long time to dry after blocking because of the aforementioned humidity.  I tried to block it indoors and eventually gave up and took it out into the sunshine.

Now it's finished and carefully stored in the closet to await weather that calls for wool.

I also did a bit of spinning and plying.  I used some small scraps of fibre that I had to create these four mini-skeins.  I really love the lime green one.  All of them were chain-plied as 3-ply yarns.

I spun a Fleece Artist bump of kid sliver that was like butter - so smooth.  I enjoyed spinning it and I again chain-plied it.  At 50 grams, it only made a small skein, but I love the shimmer and lustre of mohair.

I also finally plied a bobbin of 50% merino, 50% tencel fibre that I'd spun over the winter.  It was from Creatively Dyed Yarns and I bought it years ago.  I have so much fibre languishing in my stash, but it makes me so happy to spin some up and enjoy the process.  I have no idea what it will become, but for now, I'm just enjoying the yarn.

The colours make me feel slightly cooler in this ongoing heat.

The Weekend Roundup: P

The prompts for The Weekend Roundup from Tom the Backroads Traveller are: Starts with P, Purple, and Favourite.

Starts with P:

Our rabbit, Pippin, starts with P.  His full name is Sir Pippin of Dazzlewood Hill, but we just call him Pippin and he doesn't mind.  

As you can see, it is moulting time of year for Pippin.  Notice how the fur on his side, at the bottom, is puffier and longer than on his back. Rabbits all moult, but they don't moult as heavily every time.  Sometimes they just shed some of their fur, and sometimes they have a full moult when all of their fur is replaced.  That is the kind of moult that Pippin is currently having.  Here's a picture from a couple of weeks ago.  You can really see the patchy nature of his coat as the long old fur is coming out and being replaced by new fur.

When domestic rabbits moult, it is important to keep an eye on them to ensure they don't have digestive problems.  They can quite easily ingest a lot of hair due to self cleaning (licking) and end up with hairballs.  Rabbits can't throw up like cats, so the hairball has to come out the other way.  I give our rabbits some papaya, which helps prevent hairballs.  I also spend time grooming Pippin to get as much of the loose fur out as I can, preventing him from ingesting it.  Here is the result of a recent grooming session.  That's a lot of fur!

Purple:

A few months ago, well....maybe a year ago...I don't really remember....I spun this bobbin of purple and pink merino fibre.  I loved the colours, but couldn't decide whether to ply it back on itself to make a 2 or even 3 ply yarn, or to ply it with something else.  

Recently, I acquired this new-to-me fibre from another spinner's destash of items she was selling, and realized it will be the perfect match.  It is East Friesland wool, which is a breed of dairy sheep from northern Germany.  They do not have a very long fleece length but it is still very easy to spin and I think that it will be a lovely match for this merino fibre.  So, I will be taking the time to spin this new fibre, and then I will ply the two bobbins together to make a 2-ply yarn.

Favourite:

A favourite picture from the past week - this one of Pippin and Epinette.  Very comfortable rabbits who feel safe in their environment will sometimes lay on their sides like this.  It is sort of "dead rabbit pose" but don't worry, she is very much alive!  She is still battling pneumonia though, and has another vet appointment this coming Thursday.  

 A bonus favourite for this week - I now have two young hens who are laying green eggs!  This is because they have Isbar genetics.  Isbar are a Swedish breed of chicken.  I love the gentle green and blue eggs that appear in my nest boxes now, along with the lovely browns and creams.  I took this picture on a lovely wooden platter made with bird's eye maple, which my Dad polished for me on their recent visit, which really brings out the grain.

Friday's Hunt v 3.01

It's a new year, and a new season of Friday's Hunt, hosted by Eden Hills.  This week, to start off the new year, our prompts are:  Starts with A, Week's Favourite, and Beginning.

Starts with A
I went for a walk in the woods and found some of nature's artwork on display.  What does this look like to you?  Perhaps an antelope?  Or is it just abstract?  To be honest, I think it looks a bit like a unicorn, but we have a long way to go before the letter U!

Week's Favourite(s)
My rabbit, Pippin, is often a favourite photographic subject of mine.  This week, he's the star of my favourite pictures.  Sometimes he runs around the home office while I'm working and this week, he felt it was necessary to check whether we're sorting the office garbage properly, since he is a strong advocate of proper recycling practice.  He hopped into the garbage basket to do an audit (bonus for "starts with A"!), and I managed to take a few quick shots of him during the inspection.

Hmmm...what do we have here?

This is a private audit.  Move along now.  Nothing to see here!

 Very well, you have passed today's inspection.

Beginning
Every skein of yarn I spin has a beginning, and an end.  I showed you, in last week's Friday's Hunt, some blue-faced Leicester that I was in the process of spinning. I finished the spinning, and the yarn is now plied and skeined.  Here you can see the yarn, on the tool called a "niddy-noddy" (my talented father made me this beautiful tool!) which helps the spinner wind the yarn from the spinning wheel bobbin into a skein.  It also helps me measure how much yardage is in the skein.   

So, is this the beginning of the skein, or the end?  


Either way, I'm at the beginning of a new year that I hope will be full of the joy of spinning!

Spinning Retreat Project Pantheon

I have been trying to catch up on blog topics and this is one that I missed, so I am covering it today!  I went to the Maritime Spinners' Retreat in October and enjoyed a wonderful weekend of spinning and friendship with spinners from Canada and the US.  One of the options when signing up for the retreat was buying 4 oz of a specially dyed retreat fibre that we would all work with to create a project.  We were required to spin the fibre (using whatever method we liked) and could combine it with up to 4 oz of another fibre (whether in the spinning process or the project-making process).  Everybody was supposed to make a final project with their spun fibre.  60 lots of fibre were sent out and 39 projects were submitted, including mine.

It was absolutely amazing to see the breadth of project ideas and spinning styles across the 39 participants.  I think the fibre enthusiasts who read my blog will enjoy viewing some of the different projects that were presented.  I don't have a picture of the fibre we all started with, but the felted scarf below was made form the fibre and was one of the prizes, along with the book.  From looking at the scarf, you can see the colours of the original fibre we all had to work with.  The locks on the fringe of the scarf were not part of the original fibre, nor the white spots on the scarf.

This picture shows some of the range of projects.  My woven coil-spun scarf is in the lower right of the picture.  The hat is a colourwork project that added white yarn as part of the additional fibre.

This is a cleverly constructed hat that made a wonderful use of the colours in the fibre and great use of i-cord as well.

The basket-work pillow cover is beautiful, as is the woven scarf next to it.

There were many weaving projects - more than might be expected.  This beautiful scarf was one of the winning projects.

Most of us did a little "write-up" about our project to accompany it.

 I absolutely adored this scarf - it was one of my favourite projects.

Two more beautiful woven scarves showing the amazing diversity of projects despite the same starting material.

This project is the one I voted for.  We all had to vote for our favourite.  I love houndstooth weaving, and this project really stood out to me in the way it showcased the fibre colours in a simple, but very effective way.

There were some whimsical projects.

This purse was another winner!  Such creative thinking!

There were some beautiful shawls.  This one won a prize, and deservedly so!

A beautiful woven shawl next to a lovely knitted stole.

A knitted shawl with a beaded edge.

More beautiful shawl knitting!

This shawl was from someone new to spinning!  Wow!

There were hats and mittens as well!

The entries were rounded out by an assortment of scarves and cowls.

This one has an interesting shape.

One of the few crocheted entries.

This cowl was made by someone who carefully separated the colours and made a cowl with a graduated colour scheme.

This gorgeous cowl was made by a friend of mine who took the bold step of combining her fibre with a rainbow fibre to create a luxurious woolen-spun yarn.

This entry combines the fibre with sparkle, and then into a project with a sparkly purple fibre.  Wow!

Beautifully coordinated sets featuring lovely buttons!

It was really wonderful to look at each project, the spinning styles, the project ideas, the fibres that were used in combination with our provided fibre, and the tremendous show of diversity and skill from all the participants.