Weaving a Handspun (mostly) Blanket

This adventure started with a couple thousand yards of gray Romney-Mohair 2-ply, dyed blue.  Read here about the dyeing adventure.  I could have made a sweater but couldn't summon the Knitting Muse.  I decided to weave a blanket instead, and give it to my son for Christmas.  He's a doctoral student at the U of Iowa and is grateful for any and all free stuff.  I knew that no matter how it turned out he'd like it.

My big loom is only 35" wide so I calculated for twice the finished length at a fairly loose sett of 8 ends per inch.  I figured on a lot of shrinkage during finishing and wanted the blanket to retain a drapey, soft feel.  I dyed white sport weight Bartlettyarn in three warp groups using the kettle method and two colors - scarlet red and royal blue.

After the loom was dressed it only took a few sessions to do the actual weaving.  When I cut the piece from the loom it was 15 feet long and 34" wide.  I zig-zagged the raw ends (which had a wool header)  and washed the whole thing in the washing machine, delicate cycle, with Woolite.  Then I dried it on the FLUFF cycle in the dryer.  It was nicely fulled when I took it out. 

I cut the blanket in two and once again zigzagged the edges with black silk thread,  and then  seamed the two pieces side-by-side by hand with weft yarn in an overcast stitch.  The last thing I had to decide was how to finish the ends.

I thought about making a binding of some kind but the blanket fabric is quite thick and I didn't want a "hard" edge.  After a couple of trial runs I decided on a blanket stitch hem along the turned-over edge.

Here is the finished blanket on my studio floor.

And here it is, on my son.  (I sewed the gnome hat by special request.  He's an English Lit scholar and said that if Scrooge has a nightcap, he wanted one too.)

I'm glad I took the risk on a BIG PROJECT!  The finished size of the blanket is 62" wide and 74" long. It is fuzzy and has a nice drape, and is WARM!  Best of all, it was Made By Hand, With Love.

How To Buy Hand-Dyed Wool

My first attempts at fiber dyeing were less than stellar.  I had two big problems.  First, I didn't know much about the chemistry of dye/wool/heat/acid.  Second, I wasn't an experienced enough spinner to know a disaster when I saw one.

The piece of roving on the left is some Sweet Grass Targhee combed top that I ruined in an attempt to make painted roving.  HOWEVER, I didn't know it was ruined and spun from it anyway.  My arms literally ached from pre-drafting and spinning was a nightmare.  I chalked it up to being a beginner trying to spin wool that was finer than Romney.  The problem was neither.  The problem was FELTING.

The fiber on the right is also hand-dyed but now I know what I'm doing.  It is as easy to draft as undyed top.  It is soft, fluffy, and has no felting at all.  This is the only kind I sell to other people. 

I have attended a regional fiber festival for the last three years and  have seen yards and yards of FELTED FIBER BRAIDS for sale.  The braids are gorgeous.  The colors are stunning.  But an experienced spinner walks right by.  It is only the poor beginners who get sucked into buying felted roving.

When you are examining a braid of hand-dyed roving/top, CHECK THE ENDS.  They should be fluffy and the fibers should fan out if you give it a shake.  If there are no ends exposed, ask to undo one and take a look at it.  Feel it.  Pull a few fibers.  They should slide right out.

All braided top gets a bit compacted in storage - that isn't a problem.  The ends will tell all.  If the ends are good chances are the rest is good and all it will need to be ready for spinning is a tug or two and a good, hard shake.

If you are buying online be sure that the vendor offers a full refund, no questions asked.  If they dyer is not a very experienced spinner, she may think the roving is perfect but you may think otherwise.  Ask her how long she has been spinning and dyeing and be especially wary of extra fine fibers like merino, which is super hard to dye without felting at least a bit.

Finally, a properly dyed braid of roving should be fat and fluffy and soft.  It should not look or feel like felt!  If it does, walk away!  Or prepare yourself for a serious workout at the spinning wheel.

More Overdyed Gray Wool...

I was so inspired by how the blue yarn turned out that I dug all my blah gray handspun out of the closet and dyed it.  You can see the results in my new blog photo!  Whew!  Now I actually feel like using this yarn.

I'm thinking of a weaving project!

Overdyeing: Blah Wool Gets a Face Lift

Yesterday I skeined off 2000 yds of gray Romney/Mohair two ply yarn and thought, "Blech.  This gray does nothing for me."  The roving was scrumptious - top quality from Peeper Hollow Farm - but the yarn did nothing for me.  I had spent weeks making this yarn and I wasn't about to give up on it.  Dye to the rescue!

I decided on blue so I did color samples from my four favorite colors of blue dye.  Color sampling is easy in the microwave oven.  Here's how I did it.

I took four little bits of gray roving and put them in water plus a drop of dish detergent to soak while I got everything else ready.  Then I found four quart canning jars and put labels on each one - sky blue, brilliant blue, royal blue, navy.  I added one teaspoon of liquid dye, one teaspoon of vinegar, and a cup of water to each jar.  Now I had 4 little dyebaths ready to go.

Each bit of fiber went into its own jar of dye.  I then put all four jars in the microwave oven and brought the dye to a boil - about 4 minutes.  I then set the microwave to half power, and six minutes, and let it cook.  By the time the dinger went off, each dyebath was exhausted and the fiber was dyed.

I fished out the blobs of dyed fiber with a fork (too hot for fingers) and pressed them between thick layers of paper towels to get most of the water out.  This is what I ended up with.  From left to right the colors are, royal blue, sky blue, navy, and brilliant blue.

My favorite was somewhere between the sky blue and royal blue, so I got all my big skeins wetted down and prepared the dyebath.  I had two pounds of fiber.  I put in enough sky blue dye for one pound (that's all I had) and added enough Royal blue for four ounces.  I filled the canner and added the ten skeins of yarn.  My hope was to get a medium denim blue, also known as "Scandinavian Blue".  And this is what I got!  You can see the original gray fiber and yarn sample in contrast to overdyed yarn.

The luster of the Romney and Mohair is very evident in the finished yarn.  It has a depth that dyed white wool could never have, as the darker fibers are still darker in the final yarn. I don't think "blech" when I look at my new yarn - Now I love it.  All the work was worth it.  And the dyepot saved the day, again.

Tender Fleece - What Are My Options?

I recently purchased several raw fleeces at top dollar from a reliable wool grower I know. Before purchasing I tested each fleece for soundness - I took small staple samples from at least three places on the fleece and snapped them hard. All seemed strong and sound.

After washing one of the gray fleeces I was surprised to find pale creamy-colored neps (wool balls) throughout the fleece. I tested several more locks and discovered that the fleece was tender. Those neps were the tips of the wool, broken off during a very gentle washing. BAD NEWS!

The photos above are the Before and After shots of a staple of wool with tips, and with tips pulled off.

I called the farmer and she instantly refunded the cost of the fleece.

First of all, how did I miss it when I first tested the wool? Here are a few possibilities. The wool was very greasy. That high amount of lanolin could have given a bit of strength to the staples. I may have tested too large a hunk of fiber at a time. And finally, I REALLY wanted that fleece. So, I probably didn't snap as hard as I should have.

Second, what makes a fleece tender? My farmer friend said MANY things! That particular fleece came from a sheep that had had an infection in her udder while she was trying to nurse twin lambs. Then there was a weird April blizzard - sheep were eating snow while nursing lambs, yet another stress to the system.

Anything that stresses a sheep can cause a weak spot in her fleece during the time of trouble. A sheep can get a tender spot in her fleece if she gets sick, nurses triplets or quads, has a very difficult birth, etc. For a few days, the fleece doesn't grow well and it consequently weak at that place in the staple. This is a good reason NOT to reserve fleeces from farmers ahead of time - a fleece that was perfect one year may have faults the next, even with the very best care and feed available. It is also a very good reason to buy ONLY from a farmer who will give you a money-back guarantee of quality.

So, what are the options? If this fleece is carded as-is, the tips will break off and form balls all through the wool. The resulting batt or roving will be very, very lumpy. Nasty. The two options are, tear off all the tips by hand. This can be done. If the rest of the fleece is sound it might be worth the time. The tips can also be snipped off with scissors, but one would have to be very careful to cut below the tenderness. Combing might get out most of the tender bits but most is not good enough for most of us spinners!

I don't have time to snip or pull off bad tips or comb an entire fleece. I took my refund gratefully, and sadly said goodbye to that fleece.

Maybe next year!

Rolag Rainbow

My friend Dee of Peeper Hollow Farm sent me samples from several of her CVM Romeldale sheep. I've been turning the samples into rolags for a couple of days and here are the results.

The dark gray and the black came from the same sheep, a ram named Hosea, and I had another sample I mixed in from a black ewe named Gem. The brown came from a ram named Hodgkins. The white is from Callie, and the light gray is from Heidi. Heidi's fleece will be competing at the Iowa State Fair.

So far I LOVE THIS WOOL. It is downy soft. In fact, the brown rolags feel weightless in my hand. It is also very, very fine, but doesn't have the extreme crimp of Cormo, so it was easier to card into nice, smooth rolags, free from noils.

I'll be spindling up some yarn samples over the next couple of days.

Any time I get a chance to play with a new kind of wool I feel like a kid in the candy store. When the wool comes in rainbow colors...better yet!

CVM - The Sheep With a Sci-Fi Name

California Variegated Mutant. It sounds like a good topic for an episode of X-Files. In reality it is a rare breed of sheep that originated right here in America. Here's the story.

Around the turn of the 20th century a California rancher named A.T. Spencer started cross-breeding Romneys and Rambouillets. He wanted to develop a breed of sheep that had long, fine wool for the wool market, and a hefty, fast-growing, hardy body for the meat market. He wanted ewes that only gave birth to twins and didn't have difficulty giving birth, and rams that were vigorous, enthusiastic breeders. From this crossing, and subsequent selective breeding, the Romeldale Sheep was developed.

Fast forward fifty years. In the 1960's, rancher Glen Eldman found a single multi-colored ewe lamb in his purebred Romeldale flock. Instead of culling her, he kept her. Two years later a multi-colored ram was born. Eldman got ideas.

Over the next fifteen years Eldman bred the mutant sheep and found that the color patterns stayed consistent. He selected for the spinnability of the fleece, twinning, and lambing ease. He eventually registered the breed under its new name: The California Variegated Mutant Romeldale.

In 1982 the flock was dispersed. Some ranchers bought CVMs and kept the bloodlines pure, others used the CVMs to breed with other sheep to improve the stock. In 1990 the breed was put on the "critical" list, with fewer than 200 purebreed registrations per year and a total of only 2000 purebred animals in existence.

CVM fleeces are highly sought-after by spinners. The wool is soft (64 ct is not unusual) and comes in a rainbow of sheep colors - red, brown, black, spotted. CVM Sheep typically have a "badger face" as shown in the photo above.

Last year I had a farmer send me samples of CVM fleeces she had just skirted. By the time I got the samples, washed them, and decided that I definitely wanted the black one, the brown one...they were sold. If you can get a CVM fleece, don't hesitate!

Got Gray Wool? Overdye!

I finished two pounds of Romney singles and...didn't love them. I thought I'd like the natural color but the swatch made me feel blah. Solution? Dyepot!

I cut ten 12-inch pieces of the gray yarn. I placed each one in the bottom of a glass jelly jar, added 1/4 cup water, a drip of vinegar, a squirt of dye, and microwaved the batch for ten minutes. Then I dried them and waited to see which one I'd like the best. Goldenrod won.

Now I'm happily knitting away on this gold sweater. The gray yarn gives the color a depth I couldn't have gotten any other way. Now I love it! None of my hard work was wasted, and somebody is going to get a really great-looking sweater.

Success is sweet!

Wool Fair Savvy For First-Time Fair-Goers

Every Mother's Day weekend my hubby drives me 200 miles to the Minnesota Shepherd's Harvest Festival. It's a lot of fun, even for my non-spinning spouse, who hangs out in the livestock barns and chats with farmers. There are sheep dog demos, shearing demos, fiber arts classes, and lots of junk food. Every wool product imaginable is on sale - rovings, yarn, batts, and bags and bags and BAGS of fleece. The above photo is typical of a small booth. And yes, it makes my mouth water.

Here are a few Do's and Don'ts for a visit to the Fiber Fair in your area.

DO
Take cash.
Take a shopping list - do your homework ahead of time and write down the fleeces you're specifically looking for.
Make a quick circuit of the fleece sales and find your Must Have fleeces first. You can browse later.
Ask questions. Most sheep growers love to talk about their sheep. Find out if the sheep have worn coats (more exensive). Check to make sure you are buying a fleece from this year's clip - last year's clip may be harder to wash and should be discounted. Ram's fleece/ewe's fleece/lamb's fleece? If it's not labeled, ask.
Handle the goods. Pull out a staple and check its length, strength, color, and amount of dirt. Check the tips for matting or brittleness or discoloration. Dig gently through the wool and look for really dirty stuff - caked manure, big chunks of alfalfa or straw.
Sniff. Put your face near the bag of fleece and take a good whiff. It should not smell like manure.
Bargain. Fleeces are usually labeled with prices but if you buy two or more from the same person make an offer. This is especially worthwhile toward the end of the fair - farmers don't want to haul the fleeces back home.
Remember the grease. You will lose up to 40 percent of the weight of the fleece after scouring, depending on the breed. Calculate that into the per pound cost.
Carry wet wipes if you don't like the feel of wool grease on your hands. I just rub it in, but that's not for everyone.
Buy The Big Stuff if you have planned ahead. This might be a great day to pick up your second spinning wheel or first loom. If you're in the market and have an idea of what you want, you might get a good "fiber fair" deal. Be sure to check prices ahead of time - the deal may or may not really be a deal. Be sure the equipment dealer is a genuine business and can support your warranty. Get contact info. Ask if the fair deal extends for a few days afterwards - give yourself time to be sure.
Get on the Mailing List for next year.

DON'T
Shop without a plan. Seriously. This is a big temptation. Unless you limit yourself to the cash you brought, you could end up with a basement full of dirty wool and no money in the bank.
Buy Impulsively. If you purchase a fleece you should have spent a good amount of time examining it and talking to the farmer.
Hurry. If you buy a raw fleece and process it all the way to a knitted garment you are going to spend a LOT of time with that baby. Be sure you love it, that it is good quality, within your budget, and is a fleece you are capable of processing. For instance, if a fleece needs combing and all you have are hand cards, Just Say No. (Or step over to the wool supplies table and buy combs.)
Park Far Away. If you have to pay for close-up parking, do it. Otherwise you'll be hiking back and forth to your car with big bags of wool.

I love the fiber fair. It is a highlight of my year. Get to one if you can, go with a friend or fun-loving Significant Other.

Happy Spinning!

Baa Baa Black Sheep

This is a Black Welsh Mountain Sheep from Desert Weyr Farm. Pretty soon she is going to have a couple (or three) little Black Sheep following her around and nagging to be fed. I have never seen a black sheep in the flesh (or I should say In The Fleece) but I have spun with BWMS wool and it was a real treat.

In Merrie Olde England any sheep that wasn't white was called "black" and its wool was less desirable. White wool can be dyed any color. Not so for naturally colored wool. However, as handspinning has grown in popularity, so has the market for naturally-colored fleece.

The Black Welsh Mountain Sheep have been specifically bred for their rich, dark wool. It is of medium crimp and coarseness, some being softer than others, but none of it is next-to-skin soft. The staple is medium length - 3-4 inches maximum. It spins into a nice, hard-wearing yarn, suitable for outer garments. It doesn't felt much and is easy to draft. The BWMS is a little sheep and the fleeces aren't large. It is a rare breed in the USA and there are only a handful of growers.

If you can find a nice BWMS fleece, consider yourself lucky!