Episode 122 Live: The End of Summer

Thank you for being here today, especially those who were able to make it to the Live Stream. I appreciate your time spent here in this place and me. I hope you feel most welcome because you are welcome here.

Because this has been such a challenging summer, all of the plans that I had for the Fall have been put on the back burner but I am really looking forward to slowly opening myself to being able to begin planning once again and creating some new ways to interact as a community throughout the months and weeks. There is a lot of thought and attention that goes into the planning and execution of the podcast so I want to approach the changes in a way that feels consistent with my needs, as well as my service to the community. While none of it will roll out in September as I had hoped, it is slowly happening in the background so please stay tuned. Thank you so much for not only your patience, but your excitement too.

In the show this month, we discuss a couple of projects that community members who participated in Breed & Colour Studies this time round have finished. One is a sewn dress, which is amazing! Thank you for continuing to share in the thread on Ravelry! Next, we chat about a couple of works in progress and some finished items. I have some housekeeping to update you on and then we finish with a new segment to the show, Weaving. I have some tea towels to share, as well as a new piece of equipment that came home on the weekend with us! Enjoy the show!

Housekeeping

Be sure to sign up for the Wool n’ Spinning Newsletter at welfordpurls.com

Unbraided – EBOOKS available here & book orders can be made here.

Maker Mornings to Celebrate our Three (!!) Year Anniversary

• For more, please head to this post on Patreon for dates & times
• All patrons are invited to join us this summer as we explore some of my making together in a Live Stream
• Currently, we are working towards meeting this goal on Patreon to make these a regular part of our months – think of this as a taster!

51 Yarns SAL this month is all about Grazing the Hillside in the form of spinning in the grease and preparing our own fibre for spinning. The monthly vlog can be found here and the Thoughtful Spinner can be found here.

How I Spin this month is exploring the Dorset kit that Katrina prepared for those who wanted to prep their own fibre. It is all about hand-pulled roving, which might be my absolute most favourite thing to spin! The vlog can be found here and the in-depth PDF can be found here.

Support the Show for small business owners – information on the blog and/or email me directly for more.

Breed & Colour Studies

Debbie (Portland, OR, post no. 88) –

The Dorset Horn was my first breed and color study. I ordered both the prepared rolags with the blended colorways and the kit with the individual colors. I gave myself the following challenges:

1. To spin the prepared rolags, as is, using supported long-draw, which I had not previously attempted (Great teaching video, Rachel!) 
2. To hand card the individual colors into rolags, so I could spin them long-draw as well. 
3. To figure out how to combine yarn from the individual colors and the blended light and dark rolags in some way that was interesting.

Long-draw was challenging but fun. I practiced on some other fiber, and then spun two bobbins of singles with the two sets of lighter and darker mixed rolags as singles. I spun the single colors in a gradient from light to dark without mixing them. I then plied the lighter blended yarn with the lighter colors in the gradient, and the darker blended yarn with the darker colors in the gradient into two-ply yarn. I thought I was doing well with the spinning, but was very startled by how much the yarn bloomed after soaking. All of a sudden, I found that I had made bulky yarn, rather than the expected DK. So, I made a scarf knitting with 8 mm needles. I learned a lot. I would like to hear more about how one can get thinner yarn using long-draw (just more practice and fewer fibers drafted at a time?)
Thanks.

Barbara (Golden Valley, MI, post no. 96) –

Started this project with the idea of making a piece of clothing. I have made scarves, pillows, and pouches from handspun and handwoven, but not clothing. I really wanted to take on yardage. When the breed and color study with CraftyJaks was released, it inspired me further.

I defined four steps in the process. First, spin the yarn. It was 200 grams with black and white rologs, mixed with the brown Dorset Horn. I didn’t separate the colors, rather, took them randomly and spun in a two-ply. It gave me about 360 yards. I knew I would work.

I made a muslin to get a good fit, and know the dimensions of the pieces. With the width known, I could now plan the weaving.

I found a pattern by Meghan Nielson that allowed for multiple fabrics, called Karri. I decided to use commercial black yarn as the warp, and use a weft-faced twill. One pick of black with three of handspun. I had a little less than planned, but enough for the pieces. I finished a sample of the weaving, 2-minute wash in hot water and rinse in similar temp. Fluffed up the Dorset, but no felting. Finished the full cloth the same way.

Went to a fabric warehouse, SR Harris, and found black woven wool that is of similar weight, and a contrasting lining. Waiting for the yardage to dry, then time to cut! Planning on edge finishing on all the edges of the handwoven fabric. Yikes!

7-21-2019
I was nervous about cutting the fabric, but finally did it. Ended up with a half yard left over, whew! Cut out the black contrast wool and lining. I think I’ll need to serge the cut edges to keep them from pulling apart.

8/4/2019
Used fusible interfacing in any area that may have stress. Used bias tape for shoulders and waist. Turned out great! It is warm, so will be best in winter. Whew, what a project. I think I’ll try it again.

Works in Progress

Organic Polwarth by Smith & Ewe

• Lendrum DT, ratio 17:1
• Fine singles, 3-ply
• Ravelry handspun page

Sparks of Grey by Melanie Berg – Ravelry project page here

• Started as a project that I could work on at the bedside while we were in hospital with my dad but because he was on isolation, I wasn’t able to work on it and it all happened too fast anyhow
• Had wound this yarn for a project I had intended to bring on our Yukon trip but never brought because it wasn’t quite the right fit
• Handspun mill ends from SpinCycle Yarns in October 2014, had bought from Knit City that year
• Stashed commercial yarn for the white

Finished Objects

Locally Sourced Clun Forest – project started in 2015 with my friend Diana

• Handcarded batts were in storage for eons and ended up being the hand-prepped focus of August’s content for our 51 Yarns SAL – linked below
• Spun yarn short backward with no smoothing of the fibres
• Sent this off to Katrina to dye in Goldfinch

Weaving

New Loom – Leclerc Nilus II Jack Loom

• Ordered a couple of parts for it so that I can warp back to front as it is set up at the moment for sectional warping and I want to also be able to use my handspun on it, which I would prefer not to sectionally warp at this time
• Also, ordered a warping mill!

Asymmetrical Colour at the Loom towels – Jane Stafford Online Guild

• Season 2, Episode 2: More Division of Space, sample 1: asymmetrical tea towels
• 2/8 cotton in 6 colours (added another weft colour to explore what might happen to the warp colours)
• 9-yard warp resulted in 7 towels – each slightly different in length but overall quite homogenous
• blog posts: Part I and II 

Gist Yarn Pinstripe Tea Towels

• Three colours of 2/8 cotton – cottolin for the pink
• Held 3 colours at a time for warping and then randomly threaded
• Only had a 10-dent reed but wanted to compare the fabric of the asymmetrical towels so sleyed at 17.5EPI as opposed to 20EPI as I had for the previous project
• Woven balanced weave

Thank you so much for joining me today! We’ve had a very long show and I hope you enjoyed it. I look forward to seeing some of you on Saturday morning at our last Maker Morning of the summer. Until then, Happy Spinning!