Finally, MORE WOOL!
Boy, doesn't it get old.....another apology for not blogging regularly?! Yeah, yeah, we have heard it all before!Well, I am here now...
I have been busy with my Cotswold Fleece! I have been dying it, picking vegetable matter (vm) out of it, washing it. Every weekend!
I have been spinning a bit, too. I first spun this:
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| After many months of indecision...I have decided to name my yarn label: M'Lou Roo....I even made labels! |
There are:
2 skeins of Black Cotswold.....my Rachel, a skein of Leah, a huge skein of I-Don't-Know-What (probably Romney). I spun Rachel from roving that I had processed at Arizona Fiber Mill, in Prescott. http://www.arizonafibermill.com / Leah's skein was spun by just combing the locks and spinning on my Baynes spinning wheel. The large skein, I found in my stash....I am pretty sure I spun it when I was living in Seattle. The smaller skeins on the right are some pretty fine yarn that is from some raw Merino Fleece I brought back from New Zealand......over 15 years ago!
I took Rachel's and Leah's (both Cotswold sheep) first fleeces up to the mill to get processed. Rita and her crew did a great job! I had them only pick and clean Leah, who is white. And Rachel was made into roving. While that was being processed (it takes a few weeks because they are so busy), Aimee Leon (my fan-tab-u-lous shearer lady!) sheared the Girls again! I have been cleaning that on my own, and trying to be very careful to leave as much curl in as possible. I have heard it makes great doll hair and Santa Beards. I have started trying to spin Core spun and Tail spun art yarns with the fabulous curly locks! But I digress.....The photo above is yarn I spun for Aimee. She is working on a huge wool art installation involving wool yarn from all over the world! Here is the link to the web page of that project. http://www.herdbeast.com/
So far, here are my biggest influences in trying to relearn how to spin fine yarn and art yarns:
Judith MacKenzie
Margaret Stove (I actually met her in New Zealand!)
Natalie Redding from Namaste Farms
Ashley Martineau
Here are my first attempts at "Art Yarn":
So many blues! This yarn was not exactly core spun. It was core-less spun. It is one ply and I actually just plucked and shoved and pinched the fiber as it twisted into my wheel. For art yarns,I have a Louet S10 wheel.......my first wheel.
Purples and pinks.....boy, I guess I need some photography lessons! This was my tail spinning attempt. I did not follow "the rules", and again, I spun without a core. The locks are mostly curly on one end but frizzy on the cut end. I just sort of kept adding locks together and letting them twist into a yarn. This skein is about 25 yds! (I think that is pretty good for tail spinning!)
