Episode 125: Fleeces & Textured Lace Cardigan

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.

In today’s show, we talk about my works in progress that are trucking along quickly! Since our current Breed & Colour Studies is winding down, I share a couple of finished projects by our community. Katrina and I will be chatting on Wool n’ Spinning Radio in October about the next installment – stay tuned! I share my Sparks of Grey shawl, my textured lace cardigan that is based on a formula from Laura Chau’s blog from years ago, and some asymmetrical tea towels on the floor loom. Enjoy the show!

School of SweetGeorgia Affiliate Link here.

Breed & Colour Studies

Jporter (Jill – post no. 48) shares her toque with commercial yarn!

Kismet51 (Peggy – post no. 111) shares her finished spin – gorgeous yarns!

Works in Progress

Sparks of Grey by Melanie Berg – Ravelry project page here

• Handspun mill ends from SpinCycle Yarns in October 2014, had bought from Knit City that year
• Stashed commercial yarn for the white – started second ball of yarn and it’s the wrong colour! Stark white instead of cream so I need to get another ball of cream to be able to carry on

Textured Lace Cardigan/Top Down Raglan Recipe (Laura Chau) – Ravelry project page here

• Not happy with how this is working up
• Super inspired by the workmanship in Greta’s sweater (thewarmestrows – post no. 381)
• Want something I am absolutely pleased with & this is falling flat
• Should have alternated skeins from the beginning but wound one of the skeins in a rush one morning
• Looking for an alternative idea/pattern – will think about it next week

Shifty by Andrea Mowry

• Super inspired by Hanna (habiho – post no. 366 & finished post no. 373) of our Handspun Sweater Makers thread on Ravelry!
• Part of my capsule wardrobe that we will be discussing in The Wool Stream
• Started spinning the green, main colour for the sweater: Westcoast Colour, BFL & Silk
• Traditional 3-ply, 300 grams
• Spinning to a WPI of 12-13 for sport weight to match the one called for in the pattern

Housekeeping

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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!

Changes to the publishing schedule means a steady drip of content all month! Please watch your Patreon emails for content that you are subscribed to as the month unfolds. At the moment, patrons of Wool n’ Spinning Radio EARLY RELEASE is available, as well as the monthly teaching content for ALL patrons! This month, our 51 Yarns SAL this month is all about SINGLES! Please check out this post for the intro VLOG.

How I Spin this month is about finishing off our current Breed & Colour Studies. I’m knit my way through the yarns and share my FOs! Watch your Patreon notifications for the posts as they come available!

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

Spinning Growth

Reminder to share your yarns and projects that you want to ‘reflect’ upon – it is an opportunity as a community to learn from our ‘mistakes’!

Fleeces

Friend washed and divided 6 fleeces between 4 of us so that we would have a sampling of each fibre, without being overwhelmed with one or two fleeces.

1. Rideau Arcott (Canadian breed developed in the 70s & 80s – primarily meat production; medium) & Charollais (France, meat breed but fine- to medium, dense)
2. Clun Forest (English, meat production but appealing fibre, dense, medium & downy)
3. Cotswold (English, longwool, not much twist needed in the yarns – sometimes called ‘the poor man’s mohair)
4. Gotland (Swedish, developed from more primitive breeds at the turn of the 20^th century, variable micron count, generally variation of greys) & Romney (English, longwool, all-round, medium)
5. Dorset (probably Polled Dorset, derived from the US as opposed to our recent Breed & Colour Study that was on Dorset Horn, which is English. Polled and Horn are basically the same but one without horns. Fleeces are similar but Ekarius & Robson (2011) encourage keeping them separate to encourage clear conversation about wool and the Down breeds. Dorset Down is a separate sheep breed & was developed in the same area of England, namely in Dorset)
6. Friesian (German, dairy sheep, came to Canada in 1992 for sheep dairying, coarser, bounce & body)

Robson, D. & Ekarius, C. (2011). The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook. Storey Publishing: North Adams, MA.

Weaving

Assymetrical Tea Towels by Jane Stafford Online Guild v2.0

• Weaving these for the second time
• Super happy to work these up again – excited for the results
• Added in some 2/2 twill to play around
• Working on it when I have time/energy/space
• Loving the floor loom & feel of working on a larger loom – think I’m going to love weaving on this loom for a long time!

Thank you for joining me today! Until next time, Happy Spinning!

Warmly,

Rachel