Roving Rug II

Further prep for the roving rug.  We will need some nice bulky yarn to weave an inch or so at either end of the two rugs we will be making.  I've used Clun Forest (of course), and fairly quickly made up a 3-ply to do the job.  It's certainly pleasant/fast to be spinning thick singles and then plying 3 of them, probably into the 'bulky to super bulky' range.

The finished skein

It's certainly quite different to my current (and fairly normal) 1.8oz 160 yard skein.  This one is 2.2oz and 30 yards!  I have a little left on the bobbins, so will probably get another 10 yards - which will allow 4 yards used at each end of the two rugs.

Roving Rug

As preparation for making a rug from Clun Forest roving - I've converted some batts into roving.  The trick will be to keep it relatively consistent so that the roving (used as weft) will be fairly even.  I think a couple of shots of roving and then a couple of the standard 2-ply yarn to tie it all together should do.  I'll also have to make some nice bulky yarn for weaving the start and finish.  I already have the warp linen as I bought plenty prior to weaving the rag rug.

Here's a couple of rolls of roving (3 batts each).  As I/we get more consistent at making the roving I'll measure how long each batt becomes in the process.  With that we can then calculate how much roving we will need for an X by X rug.  We have no shortage of either batts or flick carded locks ready for the drum carder, and this will be a great way of converting the large number of bags of wool we have in the cupboard into something we can use.

Two rolls of CF roving

Spinning Alpaca

I'm taking a break from spinning Clun Forest for a while, and decided that I may as well spin the Alpaca roving I bought in Taupo over a year ago.  I have two lots; one from an alpaca named 'Chocolate' and one from 'Cairo'. Both lots are about 320g of wool.

I've been spinning a fairly lightweight 2-ply yarn which works out to about 50g per skein and about 170 yards in length, so it will make approx 12 skeins and about 2000 yards.  That should be at least two scarves (maybe 3 when I do the full maths).  I'm thinking of one as herringbone, and the other as a bird's eye (same tie up and threading - just different treadling on the loom).

3 skeins completed so far - and I'll be working at these for a while but as the next project on the loom is a roving rug, and then some linen place mats I have time.

Chocolate (center), and Cairo skeins

Blue Ribbon

Spent a very pleasant day yesterday at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival in West Friendship, MD.  http://www.sheepandwool.org/ We had planned to spend the whole day at the show because we had to pick up the two entries that had been mailed off before we went to St Louis last week, after 4:30.

We took a slow walk through the sheep to shawl competition area - meeting up with one of my third Thursday spinning members before we headed for the competition room.  Right there on the front table was my scarf - a blue ribbon award and also best scarf in show.  A great start, but then on to the skein table and another pleasant surprise that my skein was also a first place blue ribbon with 96 out of 100 points.  Both items had some very favourable comments, I guess I am the only one that actually sees all the little mistakes and blemishes.

Both entries.

The 1st prizes were worth $15 each and the special award also came with a little silver scarf clasp - hand made by an artist Leslie Wind www.lesliewind.com who may have had a stall at the show, but we didn't notice as we were too busy looking out for wool/fiber bargains at the many many stalls

We came away with some Lincoln top, some samples of bleached silk (to blend with CF), bamboo, and some cotton - the latter two just to try out spinning the different fibers, and finally a little Jacob wool (the black and white variety) - this one just very black.  So with the prize money and the money for my first scarf (which I sold today), we're slightly ahead!

I won't give up my day job just yet though!!

Competition Entry

The two entries for the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival competition were posted off yesterday.  Here's a picture of them all labelled up and ready to go.  The three CF scarves were finally finished (sewing off the ends) and fulled and the skein of 3-ply was fulled and stretched a little to straighten it out.

The festival is on the weekend of the 5th and 6th of May and we get back from St Louis on the 5th so will pop along on the 6th to see what they thought of the entries (and perhaps buy a few things!)

CF#1 scarf and skein.

Near disaster

So there I was happily plying three Clun Forest singles into yarn when one of the leather bearings on the bobbin popped out.  It happens occasionally - I've re-glued most of them.  While fixing that, the lovely 3-ply yarn came in contact with the fairly well worn leather bearing at the font of the bobbin and, of course, it was covered in Vaseline (lubricant) and a ton of worn leather powder.  Instant black mark on the pristine white, and half way through filling the bobbin to boot.

But stepping back a little while.  I had been spinning top into consistent singles with the intention of making a 3-ply yarn to enter into the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival.  I had half filled nearly 4 bobbins (one I was not really happy with, so did another), with the eventual goal of making the required 2oz skein.

I had another small problem in that my bobbins are all the same size and typically a full 3-ply bobbin has come in at about 1.4 to 1.6 oz so I was not even sure that I could create enough  yarn to make the minimum for the entry.  Hence I had already been considering how I could join yarn to ensure I had enough.  Along came the black stain - I then had no choice.

So the procedure was to break the yarn at the stain, leaving that yarn on bobbin #1, and then ply another new bobbin with the remaining singles.  Wind that bobbin (#2) on to the niddy noddy, which meant I would be joining the original break 'ends' and keeping the flow of the locks in the correct direction.  The join itself was from advice for knitters  to 'felt' the wool.  I split the yarn at each end into singles, and measured them so that they were all close enough to the same length, then using some water and a little rubbing semi felted the singles together.  Once done I then twisted the bobbin around in the directing of plying until it all came back together as yarn - then wound the rest of the bobbin onto the niddy noddy - creating a skein of around 2.5oz

The finished skein

Not quite the smooth process I had imagined, but now ready to join the scarf as my two entries in the show. this one as a hand spun from raw fleece (Anne was responsible for the washing and the selection of the 'best' locks, so that I could comb to make top, then spin true worsted)

Rug1 finished

It didn't take too long after all - and in fact I didn't finish it myself.  Anne, after a quick run through, wove the last foot or so in no time at all.

Yes - it even has sequins 

 As noted in the first photo, the hand twisted cloth certainly has it all - sequins, sheer, bright (very bright in some cases), and patterned.  Mostly though they have a couple of well contrasted colours.  Their knots were sometimes tidy - when the 'rope' was thin - sometimes bulky, when two larger strands were twisted.  Perhaps as part of the manufacturing process both ends of the roll had 10 plus feet of fairly tidy and consistent rope - which balance out the whole rug, which at times had wildly varying thicknesses.

Anne finishing up the rug

Beating the last shots

Ready for finishing

The rug is now ready for finishing - we have to tie off the ends (next time I will sew it while on the loom which will make it a lot neater), and then sew in the weft joins (at the selvedge), and finally run some binding right around the edge,

All up it was only 35 inches long - which happily was also the width off the loom (36 inches at the reed), so we have a square rug.