Attic Yarn Number Two and Bog Yarn

I have spun all the orange-green-brown tops. I got three nice skeins. One of them is a bit thicker than the others: consistency, consistency, the very very difficult thing in handspinning... after all these years of spinning I still have to work on that. But I don't think it will show much in the modular pattern I have in mind.

Before I started spinning I had an idea I would use the Attic Yarns Number One and Two together with the lovely Bog Green, but I've changed my mind. They would not look good together, so I'll think of something else for the Attic Yarns.

So the next yarn from EasyKnits' attic treasure will be the Bog Green. It's slightly matted, but opens easily, so I will spin a thin 3-ply for a sweater or cardigan.

                           Top before and after predrafted

You can see how good the fibers are. Bad, matted fibers would not open like this. It's a joy to spin :) I keep thinking of it as meditation.

Värmlandsfår. My Fiber Studies 11

I take part in the SpinDoctor Rare Breed Wool Challenge on Ravelry. My blog posts are tagged SpinDoctor. The challenge ends June 30th 2011. You find SpinDoctor's podcasts in my Link List to the right.


The Sheep

There are quite a few sheep that belong to the North European short tailed group of sheep. The Swedish Värmlandsfår is one of them. The sheep all came from the region of Värmland. It was a local farmer, Bengt Sonesson, who started gathering sheep of the same type as those in his flock in the 1950s. Today there are Värmlandsfår in smallholders in many places in Sweden, but it is still an endangered breed. There are only about 2000 left.

In the awesome blog Fale Artut you can see both the sheep and wonderful batts, yarns and garments made from this wool. The blog is in Swedish, but there are great photos. My wool samples are from those lucky sheep, thanks to Ingrid in Sweden.

The Wool

The wool is grey/black, brown or white, or piebald. The wool is fine to harsh. It's an interesting wool for handspinners. Depending on what type the fleece is there is a wide range of textiles you can make from it, starting with mittens, socks, sweaters and ending with upholstery.

My Experience

I got two wool samples from Ingrid. The wool was very clean with no vegetable matter. I scoured it before carding.

Sample one, black

Preparation: hand carding

Spinning wheel: Louet Victoria
Spinning ratio: 1:13
WPI in singles: about 28 on my WPI tool
Plying ratio: 1:13

The wool was very silky and felt soft, but when I handcarded and spun it I found that the silkyness hid steel under it. Not that it was harsh, but it's a very strong fiber. It would be a good sock yarn. I spun it woolen into a 2-ply yarn. It sheds small black bits of wool, but that would stop when using it.

Sample two, light brown

Preparation: drumcarding

Spinning wheel: Louet Victoria
Spinning ratio: 1:6
WPI in singles: about 22 on my WPI tool.
Plying ratio: 1:8.5

This wool felt coarser than the black.

I spun a woolen draw, not quite a long draw but about half the length of my arm. I found that the best way was to slightly stretch out the batt and roll it lengthwise and start spinning from one end. The machine carded batt has a direction, so it's good to try the other end if the first one feels awkward. I spun a 2-ply I thought would be good in a hat.

Sample three, light brown


The same prep and ratio as the second yarn. I spun a singles a bit thicker. This yarn could be used in weaving for cloth or a thin blanket. As a 2-ply it would make a thicker blanket.

Sample four, light brown


I plied a few meters of what was left on the bobbin into an overtwisted 2-ply. I folded the yarn in two and let it twist into a 4-strand cable yarn. This would make a strong, thick weaving yarn for a rug.

                        Scoured locks, sample two, three and four

So, what do I think? A fiber with lots of possibilities, an interesting fiber, a fiber that needs to be worked with from fleece in my opinion. Every time I work with fibers like these I think I should have a loom...


Read more

Internet

Värmlandsfår
Allmogefår
Fale Artut

Blue Hour, Light in the Window

This house is abandoned since a few decades. The lights in the windows are reflections from the sun setting in the west. When we first moved to our house we thought someone was staying in the empty house every now and then. But it is empty and slowly falling apart.

Now is the time of the year when the light can be deep blue in the evenings.

My first Spinalong yarn is finished but not washed. I call it Attic Yarn Number Two. EasyKnit tops, gift from Sarah.

The Sun and The Spinalong

The sun is showing almost every day now. In my part of the world that makes people happy. Last night a fox has walked across the field behind the bigger stone and then up on our back yard. The foxes are busy now, you can see their trails everywhere.

 With the sun behind it the Sarpaneva "Festivo" glass candle stick really shows it's icy character

In the Ravelry group Spinning in Sweden a fun spinalong started yesterday. I will spin my second Attic Yarn and maybe something else also. Top dyed by Jon Dunn! I have two of these and the yarn will go perfectly with the first Attic Yarn.

Hog Island. My Fiber Studies 10

I take part in the SpinDoctor Rare Breed Wool Challenge on Ravelry. My blog posts are tagged SpinDoctor. The challenge ends June 30th 2011. You find SpinDocotr's podcasts in my Link List to the right.

The Sheep

This is a nice looking sheep, but I have no pictures to show. Look at the links below if you want to know what they look like. They used to live on Hog Island outside the coast of Virginia in the 17th century. When the island was destroyed by a hurricane many of the sheep were left to survive on their own and became feral. The status of the breed today is critical. There are only a few hundred left, mostly in heritage landscapes in the USA, but they are also kept by smallholders.

The Wool

The sheep are usually white, but about 10 % are black. Many lambs are born spotted, but the spots fade when they grow older. They shed their wool slowly over the year. Today they are mostly sheared. The wool is of medium weight.

My Experience

Spinning

Spinning wheel: Louet Victoria
Ratio: 1:13 (a faster ratio would have been better)
Draw: semi-woolen
WPI in singles: have no idea, but very fine

My wool sample was carded almost to neps, but I have a belief that this wool is difficult to handle in commercial mills. It would be nice to work with from fleece. As things were, I had to try to spin what I had. The wool would be very easy to spin into really super fine yarn was it not for all the neps. It has great crimp and could be spun into a very bouncy yarn. My struggles with this wool sample produced one of the worst yarns I've spun since I learned how to spin, but you can't succeed every time, can you?

I spun a 2-ply sample:

It's a thin, uneven yarn. If I'd spin more of this, and if I had a loom, I'd spin super thin yarn for a skirt. I would put in a few red or blue stripes and sew one of those skirts used by elder women in the 19th century.

Read More

Internet
Hog Island Sheep Association
American Livestock Breeds Conservancy
Wikipedia

Literature
Deborah Robson & Carol Ekarius, The Fleece & Fiber Resourcebook. Storey Publishing, to be released May 2011