All the Pretty Fleece - Romney

I have a love of Romney, especially the fleeces from the Romneys my dear friend Shirley DeMaris raises. To me she has the best ones out there, I think part of it is because I find her little blocky teddy bear faced sheeps the cutest ever.

Shirley and one of her rams at the Shaniko wool gathering.

This fleece was grown by Maxine.

This is a lovely wavy soft silky silver gray fleece.

This fleece was much greasier than the last one that I did. So after a couple of cold water washes to get the dirt off I did a hot water wash with a tiny bit of original blue Dawn dish soap. Then I did a hot water rinse with a good glug of white vinegar. The vinegar helps return the wool to its proper ph and leaves it softer than it would be without it. How can I tell when its clean is a common question, well the simple answer is you can feel it. A fleece will be tacky to the touch if it has a bunch of grease in it.

You can see the yellow of the grease in this picture of the wool before washing.

This fleece has a nice soft silky handle. I can't wait to spin it up.

*Update*

Oh man how this fleece begs to be yarn, it hopped right onto the bobbin and just spun like straw into gold. You don't have to be Rumpelstiltskin to make magical yarn with this wool. I got a bit more technical this round. First I weighed out the washed wool, .5 oz for each yarn.

Getting fancy now!

Then I combed one batch, I even weighed the waste wool. It wouldn't register as ounces so I had to switch to grams. I only lost 3 grams to waste. I struggle a bit with the conversions so I have a handy converter app on my phone. 0.5 oz is equal to 13 grams, so a loss of 3 grams isn't too bad.

Lovely nests of combed top.

Then I carded the other batch of washed wool, this gave me .5 oz of carded fluffy rolags.

Fluffy carded rolags begging to be spun.

Then came the hardest decision, what to spin this lovely fleece on.... well I decided to pull out the wheel I learned to spin on. My first wheel is a Country Craftsman, and this is what she lives for. This wheel loves to spin fast and really makes spinning long wools fun. I like to compare this wheel to a well trained hot blooded horse, you can't be lazy and half doze off while spinning on her. You must make constant adjustments as your bobbin fills.

I fondly call her my Lady.

Once spun you can once again see the difference in the way carded and combed fibers lay in the finished yarn. As before the carded fibers make a more open lofty yarn and the combed fibers make a smooth shinny yarn. This fleece could very easily be used either way, I like the way both yarns came out.

Carded on top, combed on bottom

Now why I weighed them to begin with. I noticed last time a difference in yardage I got out of roughly the same amount of fiber. This time I made sure that the starting weights where as close as I could possibly make them. I got 53 yards of yarn out of the .5 oz  when I carded the fiber and I got 61 yards out of slightly less than .5 oz when I combed the fiber. So if you want to get the most out of your Romney fleece don't worry about the waste you get when using combs.

All the Pretty Fleeces - East Friesian

Happy group of East Friesians and East Friesian crosses having breakfast.
So to kick this adventure off I'm going to start out with something totally out there, East Friesian. East Friesians originated in Germany and are mainly know for their milk production. Because of their breeding being focused on milking their wool can be all over the place when it comes to quality and style. This fleece is from a ram named Micky and style of his wool is very much like a long wool, Boarder Leicester like, just not quite as wavy and a bit coarser in my experience.

Over all its a very nice strong long wool that has a silky handle.

I didn't get a before washing shot of this fleece because I was so excited to see what it was like clean. Being a very low grease fleece I decided that I would just do a cold water wash with no soap to make sure that it didn't have all of the oils stripped from it, leaving it coarse and dry. It was very dirty, I did four or five water changes on it before it left the water not a murky mess.

Today I will be carding and combing this fleece, then spinning both. I will keep you posted on the results. Until then Happy Spinning.


*Update*

I got my samples all spun up. Its fun to see how much differently the carded and combed spun. I decided to get totally hands on and use my gear spindle to do these test spins.

I love this spindle!

I chose to card and spin the East Friesian first. It cards up very fluffy and spins very easily, yet not as evenly as I would like. I ended up with a few lumps and bumps. It makes a very fluffy yarn when spun from rolag.

See how fluffy the rolags are compared to the unprepped locks.

You can see the lumpy bits to this yarn.

Then I moved on to combing a sample amount. There was more waste than I expected, but I was able to get very clean little nests of combed top from this method of prep. When spinning this it was just as easy to spin as the carded fiber, except it wanted to spin finer and much more evenly. Which in turn made a very smooth shiny yarn.

Such pretty little nests of combed top.

Smooth and shiny.

Oh man I learned a lot with this first fleece. I find that carding is much faster and easier, yet I prefer the results of the combing. If I was to spin the rest of the fleece I would comb it all because I find the resulting yarn softer, shinier and smoother, which would all give the final project better stitch definition. Or at least I think it would, maybe that should be something I play with, but  it will have to wait until later.

Carded yarn on top, combed yarn on bottom.

This lovely fleece and the picture of the flock of sheep are from my wonderful shepherd friend Correy McAtee of Custom Colored Critters 

My awesome spindle was made by Scott Snyder of Snyder Spindles

 

All the Pretty Fleeces - Introduction

This year I have decided to take on the big daunting task of spending lots of money on dirty wool. LOL! Okay the buying of the wool is really the easiest part, the big scary hard part is that I am planning on taking a hand full of each fleece hand washing it, prepping it by hand and spinning it, all the while sharing with you all of the hows and whys. My goal is to share with you the wide world of wool outside of a industry filled with merino.

I have been spinning now for almost 4 years, but I got my start in wool well before that. I started raising sheep in high school for a 4H project and I kinda never stopped. Well that was until life got in the way 5 years ago and I had to sell off my flock. To fill my need of sheep came angora rabbits and a spinning wheel. All the while making some pretty amazing friends that will be helping me on this project too.

Shortly after getting my wheel I started a large project of spinning a full fleece from one of my girls, Maude. She was a kind old North Country Cheviot, which will always live with me now.                    

Check out my totally awesome husband modeling the Maude vest for me. lol

Along the way I have dove into many other really fun fleece projects with all kinds of different breeds and colors of wool. Which has brought me back here, so lets take a look at all there is out there in this wide world of wool.

Onward and Upward!

With 2015 put away all nice and neat, its time to move forward. This year will be full of hope and adventure!

So far I have started a new knitting project. Over the long Christmas weekend I did a bit of binge watching of the fabulous Dr Who and I decided that I to needed an amazingly long totally cool scarf. So I ran right out to the internet and found myself a pattern for the scarf. Then I went to my local yarn shop and bought a ton of yarn!

I have also been brain storming a new project that allows me to buy a ton of new wool and to share all of these fleeces with all of you. I would really love to spin a couple new different breed a month. So we shall see were this wild endeavor leads.

A Knotty Ball of Fun

My dogs LOVE squeaky toys and let's face it: the good ones are not cheap. I thought to myself why not hook up a few? They are quick, use up scrap yarn and easy on the pocket book. Oh and my dogs think they are the best ever!

Materials- two balls of worsted weight yarn of your choice.
H/5mm hook
Polyester stuffing
Squeaker-(I found some at a pet store and eBay)

Note- I use two strands of yarn held together as one throughout the pattern, take care to hook both strands while pulling up loops. This pattern is worked in the round, do not turn at the end of your row.

Start with a magic circle

1. sc 9 stitches into magic circle, slip st into first sc to make a round, pull magic circle closed.

 
2. Chain one, 2sc in every sc space around, slip st into first sc to finish the row.

3. Chain one, 2sc in first sc space, 1 sc in next spaces, repeat around, slip st into first sc to finish the row.
4. Chain one, 2sc in first sc space, 1 sc in next 2 spaces, repeat around, slip st into first sc to finish the row.
5. Chain one, 2sc in first sc space, 1 sc in next 3 spaces, repeat around, slip st into first sc to finish the row.

6-10. Chain one, 1sc in every space around, slip st into first sc to finish the row. 

11. Chain one, 1 sc in next 3 spaces, sc2tog, repeat around, slip st into first sc to finish the row.
12. Chain one, 1sc in next 2 spaces, sc2tog, repeat around, slip st into first sc to finish the row.
* stuff ball half way, add squeaker and top off with stuffing.

13. Chain one, 1sc in next sp, sc2tog, repeat around, slip st into first sc to finish the row.
*add more stuffing, the firmer the ball the better.
14. Chain one, sc2tog around, slip st into first sc, sk next space, slip st, repeat once more and finish off, stitch tails in.

15. Play Ball! 

How Knot to Crochet a Rug

Crocheted rugs are beautiful. We love a good crocheted rug. What we don't love about them, is the price of materials. How are you supposed to come up with a reasonably priced creation when you have to double your material to make them? Regular yarn isn't durable enough for something that you will walk on and need to occasionally clean. You would have to double and or triple up strands in order to make it.

I saw this pattern in passing that I have just been pining over. (Yes, that is a picture of a magazine. That is how I store information I want later!) It's been a long time since the last rug episode, long enough to forget the pain and the torture of making the stinky sisal rug. Not long enough to remember why buying the proper materials is important and something to save for. Seriously,  a good rug will cost about $60 in materials alone. After scouring the internet for some kind of cheaper material, I decided to go do some local shopping. We went to Big Lots, cause they usually have cheap rope. But it was still the same price as I saw online. Then I decided to go to Harbor Freight Tools. They have all sorts of weird stuff, surely they would have a spool of suitable material.

Ohhhhhh boy did they ever! All I saw was $15.99 for 600 ft and I was sold. It was shiny, it was bright, it was bold... how perfect! Mmmmmhmmmm... my husband even asked, "Honey, are you SURE you have to have it now?" I, in my crocheted rug crazed state of mind, responded, "Well, I've been bored and I really want to make this rug." There were some other great lines out of his smart alec mouth about being bored and finding stuff to do, but whatever. This is about the rug, not how witty my husband is.

I got out of the store and texted D a picture of my giant spool of rope:

When I got home, I eagerly started working on my masterpiece. Though not overly pliable, this definitely crocheted up better than the sisal. It was a bit sticky on the giant plastic hook if I didn't give myself enough room to get through my stitches. The rug took shape rather quickly, in my opinion. It just wasn't as solid of crochet as I was expecting, because it didn't have a lot of give. It was more loopy. It was still turning out rather cute and shaping up nicely. I left off at row seven with a very nasty blister and a pair of gloves that were being eaten alive by the material. This was probably not one of my better ideas. Being the plastic, there wasn't really a way to soak it into submission. It was just going to be rather springy and uncooperative. (Although, still more cooperative than the horrible sisal.)

It required a great amount of effort to get it to lay flat. I was beginning to wonder what I was going to do with this thing. As I walked on it to spread it out, I realized that I had made the perfect barn doily. Seriously, I can see it imprinted in the dirt by the door to wipe boots off on. It's just right and there are many levels of texture. It's really cute for an outdoor rug, but there are some definite raised spots where it just couldn't help itself... it was like trying to keep unruly hair in a ponytail.

I called it quits after row eight. It was large enough in diameter to pass as a decent rug to go in front of a door. My knuckle was still angry over the rough treatment and it was just obvious to me that any larger and it would be obnoxious. I had to come up with a way to stretch it completely out and kind of block it. I figured that getting it wet and letting it sit out in the sun should make it stay a bit better. I asked my husband for a way to block it. I was thinking of a sheet of plywood, some nails or screws and propping it up against a wall outside. He was thinking accessible objects. This is what happens when you ask a man for assistance in blocking:

He did very generously loan me the use of his BBQ. I have yet to know if it will be adequately stretched out. But I do know that I intend to have it available in our booths this next season. It's bright and cheerful. I can't wait to see what it looks like without the chairs, planter and BBQ. Durable: check. Cute: check. Totally impractical for the original pattern of the rug: most definitely. We really have poor luck in choosing inexpensive, accessible rug materials. No wonder those things cost so much! By the time that we get around to use the proper materials, we may have enough ways NOT to make a rug to write a book. For now, you get a blog and someone gets a very cute, durable barn doily with which to wipe their boots!

Knot Worth It, or Is It?

So as I wrote this Tori was out yard sale-ing and found a really great deal on a bunch of yarn. I just might have yarn envy!! I can't wait to see what she found, and boy I hope there are no knots in this find...

I told a certain *ahem* someone that since her hubby is working all weekend, she should come into Bend and stay at her mom's just down the road! Then she could have gone with me! I found a listing on Craigslist for an estate sale out in Sisters. I couldn't give up hope that there would be some awesome yarn left by the time I got out there. Boy howdy! A bit of yarn was an understatement! There was tons. Erring on the side of caution, I filled up a bag with yarn, unsure of how much this lady was going to ask for my find. It was a large shopping bag jam packed full! 

 Don't let the packaging fool you! Once I got home and dumped out that lovely bag, there was yarn everywhere!!!! I had to reorganize my desk space, because apparently I already had a significant yarn collection. 

 There is a lot of amazing stuff in this pile! I was so thrilled when the lady accepted my offer of $20. We could not get home from Sisters fast enough after that! I kept pulling stuff out to take pictures and text Danielle.

Knots you ask? As Tori was just starting to pick up steam and really start to enjoy crocheting, I let her in on my secret place to find cheap yarn. She went and reported back that she found some great stuff and this giant knot of nice soft yarn.

 Someone mentioned that since it's only a three dollar thing of yarn, I should throw it out. I wanted to, really, I did. But there's a miserly cheapskate in me that just couldn't stand to throw away this pile of yarn I bought for a buck. When you start getting to the end of the month and have exhausted your yarn budget, it's comforting to know that pile is there. While spending hours the other day trying to reclaim this amazing pile of knots, I decided that it just cannot be worth it to try to spend my time un-knotting it. The unfortunate part is, I really liked the color and it IS shiny yarn. I was working with some other colors that were shiny and felt it was important to use it. I've been sectioning it off and balling what I can get out of it. I guess with my yarn purchase today, I can actually afford to throw that knotted piece away!(Well, I was actually considering cutting it up and leaving it in a convenient place for the birdies to pick it up to make nests out of.)

Well shortly after the whole purchase of the knot came the adventure of Agave yarn (aka sisle twine). I had this great idea that it would make a killer rug! Soo I spent an afternoon starting this "rug" at Tori's house, hours went by and all I had was this nice little round thing and very sore hands. When it was time for me to head on home I left it sitting in the middle of the floor in mild disgust.

Well you would think that the whole rug adventure would end with me dumping this project on my friend, Oh no it gets even better!

I looked at that twine every day, thinking that it couldn't/shouldn't be that difficult. It IS that difficult. And then some. It's like arm wrestling without the pleasure of winning. I was sore from hooking that god awful stuff! I started a different rug thinking it would be easier. It wasn't. Then I decided to soak the twine.... surely it would be softer and easier to use. I even used Crisco on my hook. Really. 

The twine soaked in the water for the entire time that I worked on that rug. It smelled like a farm. Seriously, it was disgusting. Someone... told me that it was just a little rug and if I gave up, I'd be letting it win. I was determined to see this project end. I worked and worked on it. The middle of my palm was bruised from shoving the hook in and out of the twine. When I finally got to the end, I had just enough time to block it before a bazaar. When I brought it in to the bazaar, I practically threw it at Danielle. I was so sick and tired of seeing and smelling that disaster! 

She was pretty sure that she needed to take it home. I warned her about the smelliness of this great rug, but she didn't seem to think there was a problem. Not until it had baked in her husband's work truck for days.  

Oh and how it stunk!! He was convinced that one of the many farm animals that we have crawled into his truck and died! It didn't take long before he found this dandy of a rug and threw it out into the yard. Yes is I did promptly retrieve the rug from the yard and moved it into his office.... LOL.\

That rug has not been seen since.... but the smelly rug saga has continued....