Category: Blog

The loom was nekkid, so I thought I’d just try something-

Was super quick to warp- just 16 ends, and now I’m playing around with weaving bands out of misc handspun odds and ends-

The first one I wove like regular plainweave fabric, and while it’s a little wonky on the edges, I really like the overall look and feel.

With this next one, I’m forcing the warp threads closer, to hopefully get a more warp-faced result. It’s really dense, and a challenge to try and keep the edges even, but hopefully that will come with time and practice.

The grey yarn is a bit thicker than the black, so the effect is quite different. And I’m having a lot of fun playing around with it. The Man made me a cool new tool to use for my bandweaving experiment- a combo shuttle/beater thingee.

It hadn’t occurred to me before, but now that I see a picture of it with a bit of weft wrapped at it’s waist, if looks a bit like a sword. Nice 🙂

Thor (who we’re now calling Cookie Monster) update- still here and starting to feel like part of the family, though she is still residing outside (overnighting in the hoophouse). I strongly suspect that the Cookie Monster has buns in the oven. Guess we’ll know for sure before long…..

Alrighty. That’s all I’ve got for now. Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas.

Fleece on Earth, Good Wool to Men

This week’s accomplishments- woolly twill and holiday cookies.

NomNomNom.

Was considering getting a tree, but I think maybe I’ve gotten enough fir bough exposure from our recent windstorms.

So I might just dress up Mighty Red

She’s pretty darn festive just on her own, but maybe she’d be up for a snowflake garland, or some sprigs of holly(?)

Now that Thanksgiving is behind us, it’s time to get busy with cookies!

I’m trying to be super-organized this year, to ensure I stay on track and leave time for all the various stages of the multi-step varieties.

In preparation, I developed a spreadsheet of the ingredients required for each cookie type.

This will hopefully remove any need for emergency grocery trips. A separate tab holds the schedule for how I’m going to get everything done this week (leaving time for spinning guild meeting on Saturday 🙂 )

So far I’m on pace.

Nekkid gingerbreads are standing by for frosting later this week (they always benefit from a bit of aging)

and springerle are resting/drying, awaiting baking Tuesday morning.

On the docket for tomorrow are Pfeffernusse (am- dough already chilling) and Cinnamon Mandelbrot (pm).

You might be asking yourself, who is Thor?, and what to they have to do with this?

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This is Thor (name from The Man- I’m thinking that it’s a girl kitty, but we don’t know, so are going with Thor for now )

and the only connection to this is that he showed up here last monday evening, and has been hanging out ever since.

We’ve had Thor checked for a microchip (nope), posted “found cat” notices on craiglist, nextdoor, and with our local humane society, checked with neighbors. Noone seems to know where this very friendly kitty came from.

So he’s sleeping in the hoophouse for now.

If you happen to know anything about Thor or if he has a family missing him, please let me know!

Hope y’all had a nice Thanksgiving.

We had a great meal here- The Man made his famous spatchcocked turkey, and we also enjoyed the first of our garden pumpkins, made into pie. Lots to be thankful for. 🙂

And the long weekend provided me some time to start prepping for my Expo classes in January.

Will be covering a lot of the same territory this year (fiber prep, spinning) but with different steps broken out into individual classes for more scheduling flexibility. The one new bit is Knitting with Handspun Yarn, so I need to work out the best approach to that topic.

Washing or scouring of wool is something that I’ve taught many times at the expo, and while the basics are pretty straightforward, there as so many variables (cleaning agents, temp, types of fleece, hardness of water ) and options that it can be a bit overwhelming.

While I’ve usually had good success with Dawn dish detergent and moderately hot water, I find that sometimes there are fleeces that just don’t get as clean as you’d like with the baseline procedure.

And occasionally you don’t realize how much lanolin is left in the wool until further down the project pipeline. Take my (Chone) Forest sweater vest-

After finishing the project, I realized that the yarn had a bit of waxy feel to it, and it affected the way the fabric draped. I have since re-washed the garment in hotter water to try and reclaim some fluff factor, but I think I slightly felted it in the process.

So I’m re-visiting the topic of wool washing with the hope of identifying potential grease-busting bath additives that help dislodge stubborn, waxy lanolin.

I had some yarn left from this project, and thought that might be a good place to start.

That’s waxy yarn caked in the rear, and today’s two contestants- Simple Green on the left, and ammonia on the right.

They are still drying, but both seem to have worked to some degree, and neither appears to have caused any significant damage to color or texture, so I think we’re off to a good start.

Blind texture judging, weighing, and swatching to follow-

I’ve also heard of wool washing recipes that use rubbing alcohol as a solvent. Anyone have experience with that? I’m in an experimenting kind of mood, and have some non-quite-clean-enough romeldale to play with.