Category: Yarn and Fiber

Sample spinning

PiaPÃ¥ dansk

Remember the fiber I bought at the sheep market? I’ve been wondering how I wanted to spin the variegated top on the right, so I decided to get all scientific about it and at least try out all the usual varieties (knowing full well that perhaps in the end I’d have 50g of samples….)

merino

So a split lenghtwise 2-ply, a chainply, a fatter single and a 2×2 cable for starters. As well as knitted swatches!! Then afterwards, depending on the results, I might look into new to me spinning methods…

Well, I got as far a 2×2 cable, real thin, as I thought it might emulate a thicker, longer yarn using the whole top. And realized that all the plying would just make me an orange yarn. (of course I could try 3×3 chain ply, but no, not this time)

flat cable

Then I thought I was real clever, and brave too, deciding to waste all my yarn on something really different (to me). Never mind all that sampling!

I split it in half, then one half split into a thick rope and a thin. The idea was to try and match the lenghts/colours when plying the two. Well, it works in theory. Except I haven’t spun for ages and I’m prone to underspinning – even when I think I’ve added extra twist. The fiber is superwash. Can you see where this is going? Yes, everything pretty much drifted apart when I tried to ply. Some bits are looking really good, but it’s definitely not the same type of yarn at both ends! I will however try this again some other time as I think it could be a really cool feature in a woven item of some sort.

The other half I spun fairly thin, and then I wanted to make a coiled yarn. Well, duh. After 20 cm or so plying, I learned that to make coils, your single should probably be somewhat thicker than your core unless you want serious corkscrews as well! I think I’ve got a pretty good handle on how to make the coils though, I just have to figure out what to do with a thin, variegated, orange single now….

superwash merino

Testspinding

Jeg har gået længe og funderet på, hvad jeg skulle spinde af mit orange fiber fra fåredagen. Spekulerede i mange nye eksperimenter som jeg ikke har prøvet før, lavede en lillebitte test med kabeltvinding, som bare gjorde det hele ensfarvet orange og kedeligt.

SÃ¥ jeg endte med at finde pÃ¥ noget for mig rigtig vildt og uvant. Og selvfølgelig mislykkes med begge dele, men til gengæld har jeg lært lidt af hvert. Det er lidt ærgerligt, at jeg ikke fik noget direkte brugbart ud af de fine fibre, men sÃ¥dan er der sÃ¥ meget….

Den ene halvdel splittede jeg op på langs i en tyk og en tynd tot, som jeg så forsøgte at spinde lige lange, så det, når det var tvundet, ville være en tyk og en tynd som fulgte samme farveforløb.

Det virkede også rimeligt i teorien, bortset fra jeg ikke har spundet meget længe og har en tendens til at underspinde. Fibrene er desuden superwash og meget glatte og kan ikke filtes hvis det kniber med sammenholdet! Og ja, det hele skred jo fra hinanden gang på gang da jeg begyndte at sno det den anden vej, ikke?

Godt sÃ¥, næste lektion bestod i at lave “coils”, kan vi kalde det fjedergarn pÃ¥ dansk? Jeg spandt en tynd single, for sÃ¥ tænkte jeg at det færdige garn ikke blev sÃ¥ massivt. Efter 20 cm tvinding fandt jeg sÃ¥ ud af, at det ikke er en smart ide at kernen er samme tykkelse som garnet, men skal være meget tyndere, ellers kommer der sÃ¥ meget sno pÃ¥ at det ikke bare ligner en fjeder pÃ¥ den ene led, men at selve garnet ogsÃ¥ er en grisehale. SÃ¥ nu har jeg en lang tynd single i orange nuancer jeg skal have fundet pÃ¥ et eller andet sjovt til!

Yarn testing

PiaPÃ¥ dansk

You may have seen this before and wonder what kind of skimpy scarf that’s supposed to be? Plant dyed yarn samples 1-110 crocheted into a long strip and washed in the machine with laundry detergent testing for colour changes.

garn4 Well, it’s all cut up now and properly catalogued with my other yarn samples. Finally. And I’m going to need another binder…

yarnbinder2 yarnbinder1

In the future I’ll probably do some of my samples on cloth to save time and make the pages flatter, but this is it for now. There are places waiting for the samples that are being tested in indirect daylight for a period of time, probably until spring. I hope it’ll all help me remember how much I’ve done of which, when etc. The ones in the window got about 1 month in mid summer facing south.

yarnsamples2 yarnsamples1

The idea is to not use the fugitive dyes at all or at least not for permanent fixtures like a tapestry or clothing that gets more than occasional wear. It’s fun to try everything once, but in the long run it’s just stressful if you feel you “have to”. In fact I still feel I’m pretty much over my infatuation with the whole thing!

If you haven’t voted in my poll from yesterday, please take the time to do so now!?

Garntestdanish

Jeg har endelig fået lavet mit lille garnkatalog over plantefarvet garn. Der er allerede 2 fulde ringbind, så jeg får brug for et tredje til fremtidige eksperimenter.

Der er strimler af det originale garn, strimler som har siddet en sommermåned i et sydvindue og så har jeg pt. strimler som skal sidde mindst et halvt år inde i rummet og derefter tilføjes mappen.

Desuden blev der hæklet en strimmel med de første 100 nr. og vasket med alm. vaskepulver for at checke farveforandringer – der var et par overraskelser, nogen skiftede farve, nogen falmer, nogen er ens. Det kan jo være rart at vide alt efter hvad man bruger garnet til.

Har du lyst til at deltage i min brugerundersøgelse fra i går?

Another harvest

PiaChit Chat

Mid November, and yes, there are still a few things out there to forage.

I trimmed some wild rose bushes that were reaching over the riding ring fence, so while I was at it I picked the fruits off. I got this idea from Rima (you have to scroll down a bit) that I wanted to try – didn’t pick all that many as it was a bit awkward cutting with my left hand, but enough to give it a go I hope. Scratchy work too without gloves, but I can’t feel what I’m doing if I wear them, the downside being that you feel rather too much when you don’t 😉 I also put some of them in a stew that evening because I’d forgotten to buy mushrooms, but frankly I got impatient with scooping the seeds out, so I’m unsure if they actually added to the taste. Will try with bigger ones next year if this turns out like it’s supposed to – I’m wondering if it won’t all just mold. I’ve done it with fruit, sugar and rum, but never just sugar.

after cutting - but not quite done jar of sugar and rosehips

I also picked a tiny batch of woad to get more colour onto the fleece I dyed a couple of weeks ago, it still works fine, if not as strong as in summer. Some of the locks were so pale they were almost grey, but now at least they’re more like faded jeans.

Got the reddest of the apples off the lawn, made G peel them and yes, managed to get my winter supply of apple sauce done (I like it on oatmeal instead of sugar – and I have a great recipe for marzipan/apple sauce buns too). Only had two vanilla pods, but it turned out fine. I put the jars in the oven afterwards, the canning procedure means it can last for years just in a cool cupboard. I don’t use pretty photogenic jars, I just recycle whatever we buy. My kitchen is far from pretty either, more like shabby 70’s homemade. But you can cook in it and I have a new drumcarder!

canned apple sauce woad dyed fleece

The kale is of course fine in the cold, I use it both in salads and warm, sometimes I make pesto. Hopefully the caterpillars are done nibbling their portion? New recipes are welcome if you have any favourites.

Dug up the last potatoes, well, G did, and while there are not a lot I think it was a fine harvest from 9 plants, and a good size too. 3-4 kg at least.

endnov06

I’ve been pressing leaves to use in collages, they got squished a bit more than I planned, paper thin and brittle, but at least they are bone dry. I hope they regain some colour if I cover them in acrylic medium, much like varnishing rocks does.

And now I think I can safely say that we’re moving into winter soon… There’s blue on the temperature curve for next week!

vejret2

Sen høstdanish

Her lige inden efterÃ¥ret slutter, er der stadig et par ting at hente i naturen. Hyben – som jeg vil prøve at rÃ¥sylte til saft ved at lade dem stÃ¥ i et glas nogen mÃ¥neder. Jeg tænker mug, men læste om det et sted; og da jeg alligevel skulle befri min ridebane for vildtvoksende rosengrene sÃ¥ blev det sÃ¥dan.

Jeg fandt også en lillebitte smule vaid til min råuld, ikke helt så god mere, men virkede dog godt nok til at give mere end gråt.

Æblemos af nedfaldæbler, manden fik lov at skrælle. Jeg kommer godt med ægte vanilje i, det smager super på havregrød. Eller i familiens marcipanboller, som jeg ikke kan spise fordi de ikke bliver gode med glutenfri mel.

Gravet kartofler op har han ogsÃ¥, næsten en hel murerspand af bare 9 nedlagte kartofler, og pænt store ogsÃ¥, det er da ok udbytte. GrønkÃ¥len trives jo i kulden – nogen opskrifter I har lyst til at dele? Bruger det bÃ¥de i salater, som pesto eller varmt.

Og så har jeg presset blade til collager, de blev lidt fladere end jeg ønskede, papirtynde og skrøbelige, men i det mindste knastørre så de ikke rådner. Jeg håber farverne liver lidt op igen når de får en gang malemedium på toppen.

interesting new growth in the horse paddock

Late dye harvest

PiaPÃ¥ dansk

Eager to try drum carding my Dorset fleeces (with a bit of Suffolk mixed in, they had not been separated) I decided last weekend to make a final raid on the dye garden to make it more fun than just white (I do still have a bag of white from last year of what I think is Suffolk). I know I said I was done, but I got two more fleeces, didn’t I. Same sheep – this time I only kept the best bit, perhaps a third of what I was given rather than 2 thirds. I haven’t weighed it though.

lateharvest3

And it turned out both the weld and the woad were still fine to use, green and fresh. I had dried some bundles of tansy hanging them from the stable ceiling – and left them there, so they are now covered in “dust” – mold spores. I decided to boil one bundle anyway and put some fleece in. Giving out colour just fine, but I’m chucking the other three bundles.

The last batch went in with some onion skins that were sitting on the kitchen counter anyway and a few cochineal sprinkles on one side, which oddly enough didn’t do much besides turn the water red.

lateharvest1

I used rather a lot of fleece in the woad vat, so apart from the green that didn’t turn out too interesting. But I can always dye the yarn again, or, if we don’t have any frost, go look for more plants in a few weeks.

Earlier this year I handcarded the part of the fleeces that I had acid dyed, and it took me FOREVER. My test bat on the drum carder last week took no time at all, no effort, no tired hands – so I’m very optimistic I can get spinnable fiber relatively easy. I’ll first card each shade on its own to straighten it out a bit, then I may blend.

lateharvest2

Sen farvehøstdanish

Jeg har jo længe gerne ville karte alle mine gratishamme, som jeg har plantefarvet gennem de sidste par år i bundter, både fordi de fylder ret meget og fordi det er en stor opgave når de er så fyldt med fnidder og knuder. Og så sagde jeg ja til to hamme mere i år, dog blev de sorteret med ret kræsen hånd.

Det sidste uld ville jeg ogsÃ¥ lige have farvet, sÃ¥ det er lidt sjovere at arbejde med, sÃ¥ en tur i haven og hente bÃ¥de vaid og vau, som stÃ¥r fine, friske og grønne endnu. Jeg havde hængt bundter af rejnfan under staldloftet til tørring – og derefter ladet dem hænge sÃ¥ de nu i det fugtige vejr er blevet helt dækket af et fint lag støv, eller rettere mugsporer. Jeg proppede det ende bundt i en gryde, og det farver fint, men de andre ryger ud. Og en bunke uld røg i en gryde med gÃ¥rsdagens løgskaller.

Jeg fik proppet lige lidt rigeligt i gryden med vaid, sÃ¥ bortset fra de grønne nuancer blev det lidt kedeligt – men enten kan jeg jo overfarve garnet eller ogsÃ¥ venter jeg med at karte den bunke og ser om det evt. holder frostfrit en mÃ¥neds tid endnu og mÃ¥ske jeg kan finde flere planter? Ellers har jeg faktisk en spandfuld blÃ¥ farve stÃ¥ende fra sidst.

Tidligere på året håndkartede jeg jo den del af hammene som jeg havde pulverfarvet, og det tog en evighed. Men det testbat jeg kartede på maskine sidste uge gik som en leg, så håber på jeg kan få de her kødfår i hæderlig stand rimelig nemt og hurtigt. Jeg tror jeg først karter hver nuance for sig og så kan jeg blande i anden omgang.

Drumcarder – I haz one

PiaPÃ¥ dansk

I’ve been so amazingly lucky recently that family members have chosen to share some abundance with me. Not only did my mum replace my 10 y.o. camera with a shiny new modern gizmo, I also have a new fiber tool. While being an owner in itself doesn’t ring my bells very loudly, I’m whooping at the thought of all the stuff I can DO with these toys. Never mind that I’ve hardly had any new clothes in a decade, I’m warm, clean and not too offensive.

The large drum is easily removed and replaced, so you have the option of coarse or fine cloths. I’m mordanting the last of my Dorset fleeces to be dyed and then everything gets run through the machine. Among other things.

I’ll be in the wool room if you need me. (aka living room aka paint stoodio)

drum carder

Kartemaskine

Lykkens Pamjulefis, det er mig! At blive tildelt overflod bare for glæden ved at give og modtage, ikke for ejerskabets skyld som sådan, men alt det man kan udrette med det rigtige værktøj og godt humør. Og nu mangler jeg hverken det ene eller det andet! Den store tromle kan nemt skiftes, hvis man vil have en grov- eller fintandet.

SÃ¥ hvis ikke I kan se mig, sÃ¥ ved I nok hvad jeg laver… Der er sat en gryde bejdse over med det sidste Dorset rÃ¥uld og sÃ¥ skal hele balladen ellers igennem maskineriet. Og naturligvis foreviges med det fine kamera, jeg har fÃ¥et af min mor, da det gamle var ved at stille træskoene.