Direct warping on a rigid heddle loom

This summer I traded in my old Ashford 24" (60cm) rigid heddle loom for a 20" (50cm) knitter's loom. The knitter's loom is still a rigid heddle design but has the advantage of being foldable and therefore easier to store when not in use.

So far, I'm pretty happy with it. Rigid heddle looms are great for freeform or saori-style weaving, which is what I like doing, and are very easy to set up and use, particularly if using the direct warping method.

Now, I'm perfectly happy with the direct warping method - it's quick, it's straightforward and great for shorter warps, but I've had a few problems when working with longer warps.

In their 'Learn to Weave' booklet, Ashford suggest taking the warp around a strategically placed chair. Other options include clamping the warping peg to a distant surface, such as a shelf or another table top. However, longer warps mean extra weight and can cause a chair to shift and move; clamping the warping peg to a distant surface can cause the yarn to sag. I even had one fiasco when the warping peg came adrift from the shelf, just as I'd finished warping up, and the whole lot collapsed in an irretrievably tangled mess. I was not a happy bunny!

What I needed was a way of warping up longer lengths which was secure and didn't involve trailing yarn all over the house. So, I thought, why not use additional warping pegs across the width of the table top and use it rather like a warping frame? Unfortunately Ashford don't seem to make extra warping pegs available as weaving accessories - you get the one that comes with the loom as standard and that's it! However, they're not difficult to make and MDH kindly knocked up a few for me out of some dowel and strips of wood which can be secured to the table with regular C clamps. It works a treat - just add as many pegs as you need to get the length you require.

Simple and secure!

More rainbow yarn

Yet more experimentation with rainbow dyeing, using my own handspun yarns and a range of different colours. Some have worked out better than others. This skein on the left I particularly like as the colours seem to merge together quite well and I like the secondary colours that have been produced.

I chose three colours from the Ashford Dye range: Rust, Hot Pink and Navy Blue. I used just one quarter of a level teaspoon of each colour mixed to a paste with a little hot water and then added each to an empty 350ml jam jar, so the colours are on the lighter side. I added 4 tablespoons of white vinegar per jar and then topped up with warm water to fill the jar. Hopefully, by careful measuring, I can replicate the colours in future.

The actual dyeing was done by laying the yarn on some cling film on the kitchen worktop, donning the Marigolds and squirting the dye onto the yarn by means of a syringe and squishing it around.  Just remember to keep a separate syringe for each colour and to rinse the Marigolds between squishes otherwise the colours will muddy up. Any excess dye was mopped up with some kitchen towel before adding another layer of cling film, rolling it up into a sausage and steaming for about 30 minutes.

The colours merge to give a range of purples, pinks, blues and oranges as well as some more muted greyish/browns where the blue and orange have mingled. I love it!

Cat blanket

So, having spun and plyed about 150g of Lleyn fleece, I rainbow dyed the lot and turned it into a fabric on my new rigid heddle loom ( a 20" / 50cm Ashford Knitter's Loom). Not enough fabric to do too much with, so the cats are going to get another new blanket.

I had three skeins which were rainbow dyed using Ashford Dyes in navy blue, pink and yellow, chosen because I wanted to experiment obtaining secondary colours where the two primaries overlapped. I dyed the skeins in different batches. The first skein had the most saturated colours (on the left of the picture), the dyes being diluted for the second  and third skeins. I also 'painted' smaller bands of colour on the last skein, resulting in a more yellowy look overall.

I used a green 4-ply wool for the warp and a 5 dpi heddle, which resulted in a more weft-faced fabric. I had problems with pooling of colour with all three skeins which meant having to cut the weft every so often to break up the colour repeating in the same place all the time.

It was an interesting experiment and a first for me as it's the first time I've ever used any homespun to create something, even if it's only ever going to be a cat blanket!!

Andean Plying

Well, I think I got lucky with my £6 bag of Lleyn lamb's fleece. It really is a joy to work with.

Fortunately, the fleece was fairly clean to start with, but, after a wash, it combed up really smoothly. To me, the staple length seems the longest of any fleece that I've worked with so far, including the Bluefaced Leicester. I don't know whether this is a feature of this particular animal or the breed as a whole.

I spun the rovings on my Turkish drop spindle, then I tried out some Andean plying with the help of Shiela's very useful video, followed by some experimentation with rainbow dyeing.  I ended up with two very psychedelic skeins of wool. The first was very bright indeed. The one pictured here is the second skein, dyed after I had diluted the dyebath slightly. I started off using 1 whole teaspoon of dye to one 250ml jam jar of water and vinegar solution which is way too deep for what I wanted to achieve. Next time, I'll try just one quarter of a teaspoon, maybe even less. I'm using Ashford wool dyes and I notice on the page about microwave dyeing on their website that they suggest one eighth of a teaspoon of dye per jam jar with two tablespoons of vinegar.

I'm so enamoured with my Lleyn spinning experience, though, that the breed has just shot to the top of my shortlist for sheep to keep on the field.

Exmoor Fleece Fair

From FibreFest to Fleece Fair!

As part of the celebrations for Wool Week (September 5 - 11), Lesley Prior of Devon Fine Fibres held a fleece fair today on the outskirts of Dulverton in West Somerset.

This was a fleece market true and proper. There were a couple of stalls and spinning demonstrations, but centre stage were large plastic sacks of fleece from local producers and a steady stream of customers poking about.

I promised myself I would buy some fleece, but it had to be something I didn't already have in my stash or had spun before, so that meant no Bluefaced Leicester, Jacob, Shetland, Bowmont or Ryeland. As it turned out, there was a lot of Bluefaced Leicester, Jacob, Shetland and Bowmont...

Actually, there were a lot more fleeces to choose from and this is where I realised I hadn't a clue. Several people were taking fleeces out of the sacks, spreading them out on the ground and giving them a good poke and a prod. Should I do that? Would I know a bad fleece from a good one? The short answer to that is, probably not. In the end I just wandered around putting my hands in the sacks, pulling out bits and asking myself, "Could I spin this?" Anyway, as the price of these huge sacks started at about £5 and even the most expensive wasn't more than £20, I didn't think it would be too much of a problem if I made a duff choice. Anyway, it's all part of the learning experience!

In the end my choice was between Lleyn lamb, Exmoor Horn, Exmerino (a cross between Exmoor Horn and Est-a-laine) or Zwartbles. I thought about trying some Exmoor Horn but in the end decided on a sack of  Lleyn lamb's fleece. A hefty 2.4 Kg for just £6!

Well done to Lesley for organising this. It would be nice if the Exmoor Fleece Fair became a regular event. Next year I might even have a better idea of what I'm looking for!

No photos, I'm afraid - forgot to take the camera, but Lesley has a couple over on her blog.

In a spin

All this...

I've dedicated a fair bit of time this summer to improving my very rudimentary spinning skills. I was fortunate in being given plenty of raw material on which to practice  - a mountain of raw Jacob fleece, dags an' all.

One sunny morning back at the end of June I spread the mass of smelly fleece out on the patio and sorted it into three piles, gently pulling out the dags and worst of the vegetable matter as I went. I ended up with three large garden refuse sacks of fleece - one for black wool, one for white and one for the mixed / grey fleece. Then, working on small batches at a time, I scoured the fleece and prepared the fibres for spinning.

...from this!

Something I've come to appreciate is that the key to a good yarn lies in the fibre preparation before spinning - no surprise there. For this reason, I've abandoned carders for combs. Picking through the fleece and carding just wasn't enough! There really were too many short fibres, neps (or should that be noils) and hard-to-remove bits and pieces for my inexperienced skills to cope with. This may have something to do with the fact that the sheep were not sheared with home spinning in mind and consequently less care may have been taken with the shearing. Carding produces more waste, but a smoother end product.

I've got three spindles: a top whorl, a Turkish (bottom whorl) and a Rakestraw. I've been practising with all three, but the one I feel most comfortable with at the moment is the Turkish spindle, so I'm sticking with that for the time being. There's been a bit of a learning curve and my first efforts were pretty dire. I've still got a long way to go, but I'm getting to the point now where I like what I've done and could see myself actually using the yarn.

The yarns are all singles as I intend to weave rather than knit - and, anyway, being self-taught, I haven't quite got to the bit in the book about plying yet.

I dyed the yarns myself using Ashford acid dyes and I'm really quite chuffed with the results. There is something so very satisfying about turning a mound of smelly fleece into a silky, smooth yarn with just a little effort and a minimum of equipment.

I must give the carders another go, though - perhaps when I get another fleece from a different breed to work on. These articles on fibre preparation seem quite useful.

FibreFest 2011

If you want to see knitted sharks, lobsters, octopuses, rock pools, lighthouses, sandcastles (yes, really, - knitted sandcastles) and a nearly life-size mermaid, then you need to get down to Bicton Agricultural College, near Budleigh Salterton, this weekend. They're all part of an exhibition - a knitted seascape - in aid of the RNLI and just one of the many things to see at FibreFest's 'celebration of natural fibre'.

We went along this morning and couldn't have timed it worse. Firstly, holiday traffic meant the motorway was pretty clogged but this paled into insignificance compared with the weather. It rained. In fact it was a deluge, starting pretty much just as we got there! Fortunately, the exhibits were undercover but going between tents still meant that we got drenched. Such a shame as Bicton is a grand 19th century country house set in beautiful grounds and it would have been so much more pleasant to stroll around in the sunshine.

As with the Mid Devon Show, I gravitated towards the animals. I'm still making up my mind what sheep breed to go for, so I take every opportunity to check them out.  Gotland sheep are on my shortlist (not strictly a British breed, but I do love the wool) so I made for Whitehall Farm. Evidently they can come in black and silvery white as well as various shades of grey. They have animals for sale and usually sell out of stock pretty quickly. The best time to buy is about now as there is more choice; leave it any later and the choice becomes more restricted. Something to bear in mind, when I get round to buying.

We then worked our way around the various tents - a fibre fiend's idea of heaven. I have to say I resisted all temptation to buy any more fleece / yarn as my current stash at home already exceeds life expectancy. Instead I bought buttons - lots of buttons - a shawl pin and a thingy for counting wraps per inch.

Back in the trade marquees, everybody seems to be doing space-dyed yarns, but I think my favourite stalls were those doing naturally-coloured, undyed yarn such as West Yeo Farm and  Woolcake. Woolcake's simple, chunky but contemporary designs particularly appealled to me.

The bad weather finally drove us away. We got back home an hour or so later and, what do you know, the sun was shining and it turned into a beautiful afternoon. Ah well!