Babydoll Southdown Wool

I really like babydoll Southdown wool for one big reason, it can be machine washed and dried without shrinking or felting. I have a pair of socks I made out of some babydoll Southdown that I dyed with Japanese indigo last summer. I've thrown them in with regular wash loads several times and dried them as well and they still fit and are still comfy and warm.

I purchased a raw babydoll Southdown fleece at the recent Great Lakes Fiber Show. It was a really nice mix of light shades of gray. Here's s portion of it getting ready for a wash:

 

 

You can see the shades of gray and the sun-bleached tips. I really liked the grays for themselves, but I thought that they would add a really nice depth to any color I might dye it, too:

 

 

 

I took about an ounce of the washed fiber and carded it up into a batt. Carding is the way to go with babydoll fiber because it has such a short fiber length - it wouldn't really work well on the combs.

 

I then divided the batt up into four sections and dyed each section a different color:

 

 

Then I mixed the colors on the drum carder:

 

Here's the mixed batt, I only ran it through the drum carder once. The colors would blend more fully with each successive run through the carder, but I wanted them more distinct:

 

 

And here's a ball of the carded roving ready to spin:

 

 

I went ahead and spun the whole one-ounce batt into a singles, then pulled off a bit and let it ply back on itself into a short length of two-ply and knitted up a quick swatch:

 

I think it'll make some nice, colorful socks. I'm planning on carding and dyeing and spinning another three ounces in the same colors for a nice, 2-ply skein of sock yarn for wool socks that don't have to be hand washed and lain out to dry!

Brown merino and gold silk

I recently spun up a skein of brown merino from one of my raw fleeces. The skein was laying in the 'transition area' where I put skeins after they've dried from their 'setting the twist' soak and are now awaiting labeling for sale. Then, last night, I was playing around with some gold-dyed silk hankies I got at one of the recent fiber shows, and spun one up into about five yards of a triple-ply approximately equivalent to embroidery thread.

 

I happened to set the thread on top of the skein of brown merino. The two looked so beautiful together that I had to knit up a quick swatch to satisfy my curiosity. I used a bit of the two-ply merino that I had left-over and knitted it together with the golden silk using size 00 needles. Here's a super close-up of the swatch:

 

The small stockinette bit above the band of garter stitch near the top is where I switched to size 1 needles.

Sometimes I really grow to love the skeins that I make and it's hard for me to put them up for sale. It's times like these that I wish I were a better knitter and could create something really beautiful with the yarns I make. How I'd love to do justice to this brown merino and gold silk combination.

Border Leicester Wool

Today I combed a small amount of some of my Border Leicester fleece that I got at the Maryland Sheep and  Wool Festival. Border Leicester is a breed in the luster longwool category of wools. The staple length is long and it has a nice luster. The staple length of my fleece is at least 6".

Here is washed lock from the fleece:

And here is some of the washed fleece:

 

 

I spun a small amount up into some laceweight yarn and knitted a small swatch of lace. I suspected that a Border Leicester lace yarn would have very good stitch definition, and it does:

 

 

 My little ball of two-ply yarn was about 15 yards long. I've only used a little bit of it on this swatch, which is about 2.5 inches long right now. I might be able to get a cuff-length piece of lace edging if I continue until the yarn runs out.

 

 I'm not sure if you can see the bit of luster in the yarn in this picture, the lighting came out funky, but I think you can see it on the lace in the background (click on the pic to see it larger):

 

 So I think I will definitely use a portion of my Border Leicester fleece to make laceweight yarn. I'll have to think about if and how to dye it.

The Great Lakes Fiber Show

I went to the Great Lakes Fiber Show today in Wooster, Ohio. I saw some animals, including alpacas:

 

and sheep:

 

and I bought too many fleeces:

 

No, those aren't ALL mine, but combined with what I picked up at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, it feels like I have that much stashed away in my garage.

 

I also picked up some mohair and some angora. I don't know why I bought mohair, it's so expensive, and I don't really like it that much. But I did get a really good deal on it. Angora is expensive, too, but if you blend it with other things, you can get the benefit without feeling too much bite in the wallet.

 

I have a lot of work ahead of me to get all of that wool washed and combed/carded/dyed/spun. Good thing I like it so much.

 

Enjoying the weekend at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival

I'm having a blast at the sheep and wool festival this weekend. The only drawback is that I bought so much stuff today that I hurt my shoulder lugging it around, and there's still one more day!

Here are a few examples of the many, many sheep at the festival. It's the 40th annual S&W festival so they wanted to have at least 40 different breeds - and they have over 40! Lots to look at, and all of that wonderful wool...

I can't remember the breeds of each of these sheep, except the one with the multiple horns, that one's a Jacob.

Munching down on a mid-morning snack:

 

Probably can't wait to be shorn:

Inquisitive!:

One of the longwool breeds:

One of the Jacob sheep - I bought the most gorgeous Jacob fleece (not from this particular sheep), people were stopping me to admire it as I was lugging it around the festival grounds:

Needs a haircut, lol!:

 

 

And tomorrow is another day! Hope my shoulder feels better, I didn't even get around to all of the vendors today.

 

Getting ready for the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival!

Getting ready to travel to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival this weekend. I'll be taking an all-day class on Friday on The Wonderful World of Wool Types, and then I'll be shopping for fleece and fiber and gawking at all of the marvelous things all Saturday and Sunday!

Travels...

We're travelling to my niece's wedding and have made a few stops along the way.

Here is a cypress tree growing in The Great Dismal Swamp, yes, that is the actual name. The Great Dismal Swamp sprawls from Virginia, over the border, and into North Carolina:

 

Here is a live oak on Roanoke Island in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Roanoke Island is the where the first English colonists landed in 1897. They are now known as the Lost Colony because they disappeared completely and were never heard from again. This particular live oak grows on the northern end of the island, which is the end of the island where the colony was located, and it is old enough that it is believed to have been alive when the colonists were on the island: 

 

 

Virginia Dare is famous for being the first English colonist born on these shores. She disappeared along with here mother, father, and all of the other colonists, but here is a rendition in marble of what she may have looked like as a young woman. She wears the jewelry of a princess among the Native Americans of the area at the time, holds a fishing net around her, and has a heron by her side. This statue resides in the Elizabethan Gardens, an expanse of gardens on Roanoke Island which were very beautiful, even with only a few things in bloom at present:

 

 

This is the Bodie lighthouse on Bodie Island in the Outer Banks:

 



And here is a shot of one of the beautiful shores along the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, a protected and natural stretch of island and shoreline:

Sunset from one of the islands:

We will be taking a ferry to the mainland tomorrow, a two hour ride, and then on to the wedding!