Wool/silk skein

I finished plying the spun singles this morning.  The carded batt was extremely easy to spin into very fine singles, and the plying was a breeze.  It turned out to be about 175 yards of 2 ply (9 twists per inch), at laceweight/fine (27 wraps per inch) and weighs 1.2 oz.  I think the luster has certainly improved over straight Clun Forest.

Finished CF/silk blend skein

I should be able to produce enough yarn for a shawl from this wool - and will be doing some dye samples to make sure we can produce appropriate colours for the finished product.

While spinning the singles yesterday I found time (on a rainy day) to finish the peppers (roasted, sliced, frozen) and start three batches of limoncello (to be ready for Christmas gifts).

Wool Silk blending

Anne has a friend who is an accomplished stained glass window artist and who expressed an interest in creating some pieces for us.  The payment would be in some fiber product.  Anne suggested Clun Forest/silk blend (silk for luster) spun and made into a shawl as a starter, possibly dyed as well.

As luck would have it I had some silk, bought at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival some years back with the intention of trying this very thing.  Unfortunately though, I couldn't find it - although I have no doubt it is in the spinning room somewhere.  Luckily though (!) there was a couple of ounces of silk amongst all the fiber I was given by my sister-in-law.  So the test was back on.

Clun Forest and Silk ready for carding

I used flicked locks from the large supply we have, and broke off similar lengths of the silk, finding that the best method was lay out the silk and cover it with CF wool on the input tray to the carder.  It then took 6 times through the carder to blend it smoothly.  Each time I took it off the drum I split it about 7 or 8 times and flattened out these to re-card.  The mix ended up about 20% silk 80% wool (worked out by weighing before the mix).

Finished 1.2oz batt

There is a distinctive sheen to the batt, and needless to say I did a quick trial at spinning it.  As with any batt that has gone through the carder a few times, spinning was a breeze.  I spun a fine single and plied it back on itself as 2 and 3 ply.  While this gives a quick idea of how it will look, the real plying will have to be a bit tighter which will emphasise the silk/luster. 

2-ply top, 3-ply bottom.

The other job today was to pickle some of our peppers - 6 jars done, and some washing.  The latter is done as the sun came out after thunderstorms rolled through this morning.  Unfortunately it now seems to be clouding over so I may have to bring that lot back in.

I have some Rambouillet to flick sometime today and Anne has been flicking more raw wool so perhaps a wash again tomorrow.

Several 'Firsts'

The new/old singer had a workout this afternoon completing the prototype kitchen chair cushion.  I found three suitable pieces of cotton for the back portion of the cushions - all uniquely tie dyed by Anne when she was doing her Indigo dye class in Washington DC two years ago.

1. I had never sewn a zip into anything before, and this called for a zip in the back to make the assembly easy and make the 'stuffing' easy.  As it turned out, with the help of the original manual for the machine, this wasn't a problem.

2. The next effort was putting the stuffing into the cushion liner - I had foam, but also used (finally) some of the Clun Forest we had been saving as left over from making batts - washed and too good to throw away.  Appropriately we had a bag labelled 'stuffing' as we imagined we would make pillows/cushions out of it one day.  So once the foam had an appropriate coating of wool it was sewn into a cotton cover ready to put inside the cushion.

The rest of the machine sewing was mainly just ensuring that it was done in the right order (and around the right way), with the final assembly including some wool three strand plaited cords to tie the cushion to the chairs.

The prototype ready to sit on

The indigo dyed back, with zipper and ties.

3. As a first for the Singer sewing machine, it did pretty well.  I have to remember that it is very manual and adjustments have to be made with tension all the time for different material thicknesses, but I have now got the hang of starting it easily, and with more use will get some straighter seams!  I will now contine to practice on the two others, so that when I weave the actual kitchen cushion cover material, which is now looking like it will be shades of green, I can do it with ease (and a little bit more neatly).

Long time between efforts

I finished a skein of 3-ply Clun Forest, spun from combed top.  It has been the only spinning I have done since the 'Z'/'S' skeins and the last two visits to the guild meeting have contributed a bobbin of singles for each visit on top of the one I did at home.  So I finally plied it yesterday and wound it today.

The original 3-ply, and the small recend one

The original skein using Clun Forest combed top was the blue ribbon skein from the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival a couple of years ago.  The general idea is to complete enough wool so something worthwhile could be made out of the wool.  The one skein would never have been enough so I need to keep at this for at least a couple more.

Rambouillet processing

Two wins at the guild meeting this weekend - I sold two Clun Forest batts to members to try out spinning the breed.  I could have sold more perhaps but left fairly early to go and pick up the Rambouillet wool which we agreed with the owner I would clean and card and rather than payment I would keep half the processed wool.

Once home we weighed it and there was 7.4 lbs (including bag) of raw wool, which I suspect will drop by quite a bit by the time we have picked over it, washed and then carded.

We decided to hand pick the raw wool to avoid having to wash any wool that wasn't going to contribute to the finished product.  Anne and I had a quick go this morning and produced the first 2 oz of picked wool which I then ran through a wash.

Raw wool bottom, locks ready for washing top.

The owner isn't in a great rush for the wool, but we are keen to press on and get it done.  Our plan is to sell our portion of the wool - probably as batts, although I could spin some as well.  The yarn if spun fine is often used on next to the skin garments as it is soft and has a good elasticity.

We agree with the owner that the Coopworth wasn't really worth processing.

New (old) Sewing Machine

Yesterday Anne found a little sewing machine shop next to the store she went to to get some paint samples for the kitchen.  They apparantly had several older machines - the first needed a little more work so the owner said she could have the next model up for the same price.

We're now the proud owners of a Singer Stylist 457 sewing machine - almost as old as me!!

The machine, complete with manual and zipper foot.

My last sewing machine (in NZ) was a typical cheap mostly plastic model, that had some, but limited features.  This machine has two parts made of plastic with the rest all solid, well engineered, metal, and almost the same features, but not automatic.  And the smell...  They serviced and refurbished the machine, which I think meant liberally coat every metal part with copious amounts of Singer Sewing Machine Oil - the smell of which certainly brings back memories of growing up in a house where the sewing machine was a central feature.

The 457 was introduced in 1969. I'm not sure how long it lasted, but it was one of the early 'beige' models - quite a change from the standard Singer black that had been the norm for a hundred years or so.  It would have originally come in a console, and it was one of the first models with the motor inside the case. 

I'm now set to complete the cushions once we buy the material and zips in Knoxville this weekend.

My shelf in the weaving room is filling up - which means the work table will have space for the sewing machine - very timely.

The new shelves

Wash Day II

More washing and processing trials again today: increased water temperature (150 degrees), and more detergent (4x the amount of Power Scour). I also washed a load of the Ramboulet using .4oz of Dawn Blue dishwashing detergent.

The extra amounts of either the Power Scour or the Dawn certainly lifted more dirt out of the wool, and with the Dawn I ran two washes - the second with half the detergent.

Water after the first wash with Dawn

 The real difference was in the feel of the wool (both kinds), washing with extra detergent left a little less greasy feel and having a fresher smell. The down side is that all the VM and much of the original matting remains.  It was pleasant to see that neither wool type (Coopworth/course, Ramboulet/fine) felted in any way throughout the process.

The various batches of wool drying on our screen set up.

The next step will be to try some different carding/combing combinations to see how much VM that will remove.

Coopworth combed top

The Coopworth is a sitter for combing, with very long locks.  There is a fair amount of loss because of the matting, but three times through the combs meant there is negligible VM left.

And the distractions from this task today were: assemble second set of shelves (for the weaving room, moving most of the 'stuff' off my work table to allow me to actually do things on it), and put 5 gallons of beer into a keg and force carbonate it.