Wensleydale Singles

...as in "a single ply of wensleydale yarn", not "bachelors from a small area of Yorkshire".

The weather cooled off a bit after the heat wave so now it is comfortable and breezy, which is perfect weather to get a little spinning in.



(This is actually a Leicester Longwool sheep, but they have similar fleeces to Wensleydale.)

The fiber was 1 oz of Tussah Silk and 2 oz of Wensleydale, dyed with madder and called "Cardinal". It was a club shipment from A Verb For Keeping Warm.



I spun it as a continuous single. It's so hard for me to resist the urge to ply. Plied yarn is so neat and tidy and balanced and everything else just looks odd to me.



It was interesting- both fibers like to be spun worsted and the staple length is incredibly long, but they are so different from each other. The silk is smooth and slick; the sheep is hairy and slippery. It's not unpleasant to spin, but it has almost no memory or crimp to it. Long draw worked well.

Finished, after a nice warm bath to set the twist and a healthy glug of vinegar to stop the dye from bleeding:



488 yards of lace singles. Which I'm trying my best to leave as singles. I love how the reds marled to a pretty valentine pink.



The Wendsleydale has a nice hairy halo. I'm not sure what I have in mind for a project with this yet.

As soon as this was off the bobbin, I started a polar opposite spinning project:



Cashmere and Silk blend! It's lovely. I have 8oz of it, so it should spin up to a decent amount- I'm aiming for sport-weight. I'm finding it really easy to put too much twist in this- it's so fine and slippery, and it likes to fall apart on you. Hence the over-twist. I'm really happy when I'm spinning this, and plying it will take out some of the kinked-up overtwist. The one bad thing about this fiber is that I have to commit to it when I spin it- the cashmere is so light and flyaway, I end up with a nice head-to-toe coating of fuzz the not even the bravest of lint rollers might be able to tackle.

Spinning: Now with More Bovinae Ungulates!

I have conquered the buffalo.



It was probably the most patience-trying down fibers I've tried spinning. It was fluffy and soft and once the radiator got turned on for the winter it was a stat-icky mess. The staple length was only about a half inch, so i just grabbed handfuls of it, fluffed it up, and spun it short-draw. I mean, really short-draw.

It took me almost a month to spin up all 5oz into singles (granted, I don't spin ever day, or even a very long time when I do get a chance to spin). Laceweight, naturally. It was a very cranky fiber to work with- too much twist made it go snap, too little twist made it fall apart into infuriating little heaps of under-spun fluff.

I think because of the time I spent on this, I expected to be surprised with an overwhelming amount of yardage. Thousands and thousands of beautiful buffalo yarn! Fantasies of making multiple huge complicated lace shawls danced through my head. I'd make one for everyone I know!

Alas, no multiples for me. In the end, when I plied, I got 428 yards. A lace cowl, perhaps? (Ahem, or in this case, a cow-l.)





But I love the yarn just the same. It's drapey and soft (almost but not quite cashmere soft) and despite all the breaks I had, it's much more even than I expected. Once I washed it to set the twist, it got a nice fuzzy bloom to it.



When I did give it a wash, I was surprised at how dirty it was. Bison really like to roll in the dirt, much like alpacas. I had to change the water three times to get all the fine grit out. Dirty buffalo.

Next up in my spinning queue: baby camel and silk blend, which I'm going to card together with some Polworth. I'll keep you posted on how this little experiment goes.

Loop Spin-In

I've been slacking lately on getting up to Loop's monthly spin-in. Last Saturday was a brilliant and sunny autumn day that was perfect for getting out of the city.





I love the little riverwalk the Gaga complex has.





The trees back there were at peak color and just fabulously brilliant.



Naturally, there was spinning going on as well.



B is for Bison (or Buffalo, if you must). I'm spinning some.



It's a great challenge. I have 5oz of the stuff. It's dehaired, but not carded, so I'm just fluffing up handfulls of the fiber and spinning it like that. It's got .5 of an inch staple length and it's super slippery, but it's warm and soft- almost like cashmere. I'm spinning it as finely as I can and I will be 2-plying it eventually. Too much twist and it snaps like a dry twig, not enough and it falls apart. There's no in-between with this fiber, but it lets you know exactly when you've got it right by behaving.



See all the scraps on my skirt? That's what it does. I end up covered with a million pieces of half-twisted bison fiber every time I sit down to spin.

It was a relaxing day with good friends.

DC

I was in DC over the weekend. It was hot and humid and perfect for museum hopping and catching up with friends.







Disapproving man DISAPPROVES.




By the way, the National Gallery had a Hieronymus Bosch painting called "Death and the Miser".



Very few of his paintings are outside of Europe. It's always a thrill to see one up close.






These Mules were taking a break from towing a flat-bottom boat down the C&O canal.



The new breakfast of champions:



Sloe Gin fizzes and homemade donuts and whipped cream. What a wonderful way to start the day.

I got to see some of my knitwear recipients, although it was waaay to warm for any of that nonsense.





I did get quite a bit of knitting done on the 4 hour train ride each way. More exciting than that, I went to the Dupont Circle Farmer's Market on Sunday morning and stumbled upon this:



Solitude Farm had a booth there. They specialize in breed-specific yarn from locally raised sheep...Clun Forest, Shropshire, Tunis, Suffolk, Dorset, Karkul, Romney, Border Leicesters and Leicester Longwool yarn. I'm a sucker for breed-specific yarn and I love the fact that they are utilizing rare sheep breeds. Plus, the women who were running the booth were super sweet and knowledgeable about their product and willing to chat and share their enthusiasm. Super score...if you are in DC on a weekend, I would highly recommend checking them out.

Naturally, I couldn't resist taking home a souvenir from my trip:



It's 120 yards of DK weight yarn that's a blend of Clun Forest and Alpaca. Cluns are a hardy,medium-sized sheep from northern England. They are a down breed, meaning they have short, dense, elastic fleece.

I didn't get home until the wee hours of Monday morning, but the sleep deprivation was totally worth it.

QIVIUT!

I did it. I spun Qiviut.



I'm thinking this will not make a practical backyard pet.

The undercoat fiber of the arctic musk ox is short, downy, super soft and incredibly warm. Musk Ox are the only large mammals who spend the winter above the arctic circle, so I'm pretty confident in its ability to stay warm. Spinning it was a challenge- it had teeny tiny staple length and it was very slippery. It needed a lot of twist or it would fall apart, but too much and it would turn into wire and snap. It let you know exactly when it was done. I didn't have to draft at all- the fibers just slid from my hands and on to the bobbin somehow.

The fiber:


This was a birthday gift from a dear, dear friend. June seemed a bit sticky to try this, but it was a perfect mid-winter pick me up.

The single:


It took me no time to spin up two bobbins. Like I said, this stuff just flies out of your hand. It took me a while to get started, but once I got my tension correct it was just peachy. Can I just take this chance to sing songs of praise about the Majacraft Gem? As much as I love my Kromski Minstrel, the Gem works so much better than any other wheel I've spun on when it comes to fine downy fibers. It's super-sensitive to treadling and tension, which is exactly what you want when spinning a fiber like this.

The 2ply yarn:


This was taken before I set the twist in a warm bath and a good thwack. It's much more even and full now, but it's so dark and stormy today that I'm not getting good enough light to do this justice. I was pleasantly surprised while I was plying this, as I was unsure if I would end up with the singles coming apart. Thankfully, it only happened twice. I'll take that as a sign that my spinning is improving!

I ended up with 280 yards of laceweight 2-ply out of 2 oz. Qiviut blooms like a muthah once it's knitted up and worn a couple times. The bloom traps more air and makes the garment even warmer. There are a lot of traditional Inuit lace patterns specific to qiviut- most of them are delicate scarves, hats and cowls. While not a traditional lace pattern, I like this Smokering.