Author: denisemor

Unspun fun continues this week. Same material, different application!

I have a locker hook (or two) that I acquired a couple years ago at the Jonasson Farm fall fleece sale (back in the pre-Covid days when people actually got together for things like that). Linda Jonasson was making really gorgeous rugs from their roving, and I thought that I might want to give it a try sometime.

So here we are in “sometime”. (Guess the idea had to percolate for a while)

I really love the springy, cushy texture of the loops, and the idea of being able to draft patterns and create unique designs on the fly. So I set about finding myself some backing material,

In a very short time I was able to find someone nearby who had a stash of burlap bags they were willing to trade for wool-

So now I’m all set on that front! Hope to make a start this week. Perhaps with something small first, like a chair pad or something.

And in hoophouse news-we had some really good weather this long weekend, and were able to get a fair bit of building done- hiprails, baseboards, purlins and peak braces are now in place.

I’m so excited- It’s really coming together. Next up, endwall framing-

Here’s a thing I’ve been playing around with recently- knitting with unspun wool.

On the first attempt, I just stripped down batts as I went, which resulted in having to a lot of joins- not a big deal, but kind of slows the knitting progress. In an effort to make the actual hatmaking more efficient, I decided to use a diz to pull out a fairly consistent thickness of roving from each batt

It took a little while to get a feel for it, but then it worked out pretty well!

The roving is very satisfying to knit with, making huge, squishy stitches on size 13 needles.

For these hats I cast on 35 and 36 stitches. Talk about a quick knit!

Here they are a little closer so you can see more of the texture.

Fun to make, and amazingly warm.

I used a Figure 8 type cast on, like you might use for toe-up socks, but with two different circular needles. Then knit the hat upward from one set of the stitches, while leaving the bottom half of the stitches hanging out on the second circular needle.

Once the hat is knit, come back to those live stiches around the edge and either knit a couple rows if you think that you need a little more depth, or just cast off the stitches for the brim, and poof! you have a hat.

Here’s to the sheeps that make all this woolwork possible. I thought this was a cute shot of them all hanging around the shed hoping for some alfalfa treats this afternoon.

Have a great (if distant) Thanksgiving everyone 🙂

yeah, I was originally going to blog today.

It’s not that there is nothing going on. This week we’ve had a few blog-worthy fiascos arise (storm-wracked chicken condo, rotting dead rat under chest freezer in the shop) and also some fibery triumphs (16 pounds of carded wool! an unspun superchunky hat! )

But there are no pictures. And it is late. So you’ll have to take my word for it.

At least until next week.

Take care folks. 😉

Quite possibly the longest week ever.

And while I’m relieved by the result, it’s left me rather exhausted, so I’ll keep this short.

Woolwork for the week includes Felix Spring 2020 rolags

And also a bit of a test spin from a drum carded batt. It’s not terribly even, but I love it anyway. So soft and pristinely white. The rolags should yield a more even result. I find that Felix’s fleece, being a lot finer than my other wools, requires a bit more careful prep.

Also picked and carded the last of Daphne’s Spring 2020 fleece (her first shearing) , about 14 oz. You can’t see it very well in the photo, but the outer coat of her wool has a really interesting mahogany color. I don’t think that that characteristic has carried into her adult fleece.

Also dug deeper into my bins and turned up a little over a pound of lovely Chone wool. Is always kind of bittersweet working with the wool of a dear departed sheepy friend.

Very special stash.

Ok, take care and have a good week, folks-