A blog about fiber arts and textiles
So, this project was born from a mistake. I warped my loom according to a weaving sett for a two-harness loom, but it didn’t go as planned. Rather than scrap the project (which I almost never do), I experimented and ended up with the scarf pictured below. Not my favorite scarf–but certainly not the worst project I’ve woven.
A few weekends ago, I bought some handspun wool/alpaca yarn from Thread in Florence, AL. The spinner wasn’t listed on the tag, but I’m assuming it was a local who spun the yarn. I had just enough yarn to weave a scarf from the handspun and I’m pleased with the results.
The last couple of weeks have been a bit wild, but now that I’m on the other side, I can post my latest finished projects + latest yarn additions to my stash. If you’d like more details on any of my projects, check out my portfolio on Ravelry. My username is ‘southernemma’.
Yesterday’s natural dyeing project: I decided to dye my ‘Raw Fleece to Finished Object’ Dorset Horn woven scarf using an avocado pit and onion skins (both red + yellow skins). The result is a peachy-pink color. All of the pictures were taken in natural light, but one looks darker because it was taken in a different part of the house.
August 10 weaving project: Cotton/Merino Scarf in Neutral Colors
August 6 weaving project: Noro Wool/Silk/Mohair blend in autumnal colors
August 6 knitting project:Juno Jumper for Chloe using Brown Sheep Lanaloft (100% wool)
I visited Thread in Florence, Alabama–a fabric/yarn shop–on August 13th and picked up some local handspun yarns (one of which contains dog hair in the blend), along with my favorite hand lotion bar from Love + Leche (cedarwood scent).
I also ordered some solar dyed Osage yarn from an emerging indie dyer/ hand spinner from Salt Lake City, Utah, Flamingmeatloaf Fibers. She has her own blend of Merino/CVM/Wensleydale yarns from Colorado sheep that she has milled locally. It arrived on Saturday (with a free mini-skein) and I’m anxious to get it on my loom.
I also picked up 6 more Gulf Coast Native raw fleeces on Friday from Alchemy Farms since I’ll be selling some of the GCN fiber I already have at the upcoming events I’m participating in.
Yesterday, I wanted to work up a quick weaving project using some of my handspun yarn from before the Tour de Fleece. Since I had plenty of yardage, I chose the Jacob humbug yarn that I spun in the spring. I bought the fiber from Hearthside Fibers along with several other wool breeds I hadn’t spun before. My yield for the Jacob wool was 228 yards of worsted/aran weight 2-ply from 118 grams of commercially prepared combed top.
I used a moderately spaced warp (4 ends, skip 2 ends) in order to get the flexibility and drape I wanted since this was a heavier weight yarn.
The finished scarf weighed around 90g and used about 174 yards of yarn.
Both of the scarves below were woven using Round Mountain Fibers Superwash Merino handdyed yarns, but the twist on the second yarn was much tighter and the resulting scarf was much rougher to the touch than the first one. I have a boatload of these yarns, but I’ll be knitting with them in the future.
After weaving the scarf from my North Ronaldsay handspun yarn (shown in my last post), I decided to weave the exact scarf design (a semi-open weave, spaced warp) using my handspun Gulf Coast Native yarn from one of the partial raw fleeces I bought from Gulf Breeze Alpaca Ranch.
This project took approx. 180 yards (67 grams) of handspun GCN yarn. It is very soft and has a lovely rustic texture. Since I have so many raw fleeces from this breed, my plan is to weave a variety of these scarfs, dyeing some and leaving some their natural color.
Yesterday, I decided to weave a simple semi-open weave scarf from my handspun North Ronaldsay yarn. As I mentioned in previous posts, North Ronaldsay sheep (northernmost island in the Orkneys above Scotland) eat mostly seaweed instead of grass for their diet. Since they are a rare, conservation breed, I ordered as much roving as I could find (from Hearthside Fibers). This scarf project only took 62g of the 2-ply sport weight yarn that I spun several weeks ago.
This yarn wove up quickly, as I wanted a semi-open weave design to mimic a fishing net in honor of the wool’s origins. It could be a little too scratchy for someone with wool sensitivity (North Ronaldsay is a double coated sheep), but it’s fine for me. I think I will use future handspun yarn from this breed to make hats, gloves, etc. All in all, it turned out nicely.
Last week was fleece week for me– I received a full Tunis raw fleece in the mail from Coalmont, TN, picked up 3 Gulf Coast Native fleeces from a farm in Hampton Cove, AL (about 45 minutes from me), and 9 more GCN & GCN cross raw fleeces from a farmstead in Arab, AL yesterday. I’m still waiting on 4 fleeces to arrive by mail from Texas and Louisiana. I am officially FINISHED with fleece buying this season (unless a great deal comes along). Now, it’s time to get busy processing what I’ve got. I’ve started three fleeces using the fermented suint method and as soon as I find more containers, more fleeces will be cleaned using this process to save me time and labor. The rest will be processed in small batches.
I managed to get some spinning in last week–using about 118g/200g of the Jacob top from Hearthside Fibers. I ended up with 228 yds of 2-ply worsted weight yarn.
I wove a scarf last week from some mill-spun yarn made with Gulf Coast Native wool from Oak Hill Farm in Covington, GA. It turned out okay, but I think my handspun GCN yarn will feel better than this mill-spun yarn does.
Two scarves have come off my loom in the last few weeks. The first is an organic cotton/lamb’s wool blend warp and cotton blend weft short scarf. The second is a cashmere/merino/silk/alpaca blend scarf in gold and blue stripes. I’m happier with the cashmere blend scarf, overall, but both scarves turned out alright.
Diary of a Yarnophile 