Sheepshape Spinning

Nearly a year without an update

2011-03-09T18:20:00.005Z

Nearly a year I've been 'away', and still there are people visiting this page. I'm sorry! And thank you for your loyalty. I'm going to try to be better at posting, and the spring weather will hopefully help with that.

The move to the new house went well and I have access to both a craft room and a wood shop now, which is great fun. Probably I have been having so much fun with them that I've been neglecting the blog! My Etsy shop is still active but I've let many of the handspun and dyed fiber items expire as they have been there a while - I am considering using them to make knitted items or spinning the fiber instead.

I am starting to use the woodshop to make fiber-related items. A few months ago I made some maple plying templates which you can use with a spinning wheel to aid in plying:

You can also use it as a fiber diz:

I've been using it to ply for months and it's been a great help in preventing singles snarls and improving tension consistency.

On the horizon is the 2011 Black Sheep Gathering festival here in Eugene, Oregon. I'm looking forward to taking some workshops, and hopefully NOT going nuts buying fiber. But of course I am very likely to bring a few new fleeces home...

Construction Zone

2010-04-19T15:44:00.003+01:00

We have moved! Yesterday I did a bit of painting in my new craft room and started putting together the flat-pack desk. Today I have a lot more assembly left to finish and then I can start to put things away. The first thing I will be doing, once I find my scale and my fiber is unpacked, is making some batts on my new drum carder!

Slow and Steady Progress

2010-04-01T07:41:00.003+01:00

In about two weeks we move from the temporary apartment to the new house. What does that mean for you?

* New yarns! I will have the time and space to being spinning again. Exciting!

* New dyed fibers - once I get some suitable containers!

* New batts! Yes, I will be able to properly branch out into offering batts! I'm getting myself a Duncan carder which should be a lot of fun. Batts will be listed on my Etsy shop!

I'm back!

2010-02-14T13:40:00.002Z

At long last, I have my wheel and shop stock again! Sheepshape Spinning is back up and running, and I hope to be making new yarn very soon. Click on the Etsy shop pictures on the right to go there, or click here. I've also decided to make more Pocket Sheep as soon as possible as they are very popular. Now I just need to find the right size needles...and which box is that yarn in...

Still waiting...!

2010-01-26T19:42:00.002Z

Well, the shipping is taking longer than we'd expected - it's just landed at customs today. Maybe we'll have it by next week...? I miss my spinning wheel!

Sheepshape Spinning will be returning just as soon as we get our belongings back. Right now the shop is in Vacation Mode, so you can sign up to be notified when it's back!

In April we are moving to our new house, and I will be able to re-establish my dyeing activities and begin producing new fiber braids and batts. I am also planning on expanding to wooden spinning supplies later this year, as the new house will have a wood shop! Please feel free to suggest items that you'd like to see!

Still in a state of limbo...

2009-12-26T02:51:00.001Z

Just writing to let you all know that I'm still around, but all of my craft gear is still on a boat somewhere in the Atlantic. The expected retrieval date is January 18th.

Thank you, loyal readers!

2009-10-24T19:52:00.005+01:00

Hi everybody,

I'm so sorry that it's been over a month without an update, and I want to thank everyone who has continued to visit this blog. Our international move is progressing on schedule, but a side effect of the move is severely curtailed crafting time. My spinning wheel has been packed away since August and I won't have it back till at least January; my sewing machine and dyeing equipment have been sold (since it's electrical it won't work in America) and the only thing I've got left - when I have a few minutes spare - is knitting. And blocking!

So here are some projects that you may not have seen. If you are on Ravelry you can see more details about any of them from my Project Page.

First up is my first-ever shawl, which I decided to make when I spun some lovely and soft grey Gotland fibre last year. It's taken forever to do - I kept adding more yarn to it! I finished it off back in May but never blocked it until this weekend. Here's the best picture I could manage without standing on a chair for height - all the chairs are packed already...

It's funny, I've never been a shawl person, but I've enjoyed wearing this today very much. It was cozy, if slightly chilly as I was using body heat to get rid of the last of the blocking moisture!

My next most recent project is the Elizabeth Zimmerman Adult Surprise Jacket. I found this an excellent pattern for using up medium lengths of handspun - I had lots of 100-200 yard skeins but nothing big enough for a whole jacket on its own. Here's a photo from when it was nearly done being knit:

Since then I have lengthened the sleeves and finished off the edges. I blocked it and the sleeves were too long, but they seem to have resettled to a reasonable length. More worrying, though, is that the collar is huge. It's far too big to wear comfortably. I need to sort it out but I have decided to wait until after I have moved and consult the experts at my (new) local knitting group for advice.

The other project that I have finished recently is one that was featured here not too long ago. It's my Sheep-to-Shoulder top made from wool that I brought back from Ireland and processed by myself every step of the way. I sewed it together, which was quite a learning experience and required a couple of restarts, and I am very pleased with the result. I might reblock it at some point to make it a little longer in the body but it works as it is; I'm just used to wearing longer tops.

I love it. It's very warm and smells delightfully sheepy. My husband is getting used to 'sheepy', fortunately.

Now for a bit of news about my Etsy shops, Elizabeth's UK Craft Shop and Sheepshape Spinning. The first one has been put into vacation mode for now. I will need a new name for it once I'm not in the UK anymore! I'm happy to take suggestions, and if your suggestion is the one that I choose I will give you a $10 gift certificate to anything in either shop. The second shop is still open for now, but all of the yarn and fibre will be suspended in late November, no later than the 29th of November, because it's got to go on the boat to America! I will try to keep most of the stuffed animals available for December in case you want to do any last-minute gift shopping, but I will probably need to shut everything for a few days in mid-December while I'm flying to the states and getting settled in our new place. All part of the adventure!

Moving update

2009-09-17T17:11:00.005+01:00

Hello everyone!

Be advised that Sheepshape Spinning will be shutting down a few days before Christmas, in order to facilitate my move to America! I expect to be able to reopen at the start of February. While my shop is down it'll be in vacation mode and you can sign up to have Etsy notify you of when it is open again.

When it reopens my new location will be Eugene, Oregon! That will mean cheaper shipping for you US-based buyers. As a nod to my wonderful UK customers I will be offering subsidised UK shipping on my items - we Brits must stick together, after all.

Be sure to get your holiday shopping done before it's too late! Closer to the time I will be able to give an exact date of closing - it'll be one day before the shipping company arrives to put everything on the boat... It will be a while before I can start making new items again so if something you like gets sold before you get to it, I won't be able to make another like it for a long time...

Congratulations Maureen M!

2009-09-07T12:14:00.000+01:00

The Phat Fiber giveaway has finished - congratulations, Maureen M! Please get in touch with me so I can activate your gift certificate - I can’t contact you through the blog because your Blogspot profile is private.

Progress on the (seemingly) never-ending jumper

2009-09-05T21:49:00.003+01:00

The never-ending jumper is nearing completion!

For those who haven't been following the saga, I brought some fleece back from Ireland in summer 2008. I lugged it home, dyed it, carded it, spun it, chose a pattern, knitted it, and discovered it didn't fit! So now I am attempting my first blocking session. It's pinned out on a beach towel in the living room:

I am hopeful that it will fit better after the blocking. First, though, I have to learn a better way of seam sewing - my first attempt was rather...rubbish.

Giveaway at Phat Fiber!

2009-09-04T14:41:00.002+01:00

Sheepshape Spinning is taking part in a giveaway! One lucky commenter will receive a project bag and a $10 Sheepshape Gift certificate. To enter go to the Phat Fiber blog today and leave a comment!

(For a chance to double your winnings, check out my Etsy Shop Announcement!)

New Ravelry Group!

2009-09-01T15:20:00.002+01:00

Are you a member of Ravelry? If not I highly recommend it.

If you are, you might want to check out my new Sheepshape Spinning Group there! It'll be a great place to talk about your projects and yarns, ask questions, make custom order requests and also find special coupon codes. In fact, there's a $10 off code there now!

Less spinning, but more knitting

2009-08-17T14:23:00.002+01:00

As our packing progresses, I find that I have less and less spinning stash yet more and more knitting stash. I have packed my favourite fibres and been spinning up my I'll-get-round-to-that-someday fibres. They are turning into very nice yarn, but maybe not quite as nice as the stuff I put on my Etsy shop. But they're great for personal stash.

So I've been looking at a slowly growing pile of personal stash and wondering what to do with it.

I've got the 2009 knitting-pattern-a-day calendar, which I love, and it's on my desk here at work. I think I'll take it home and run through some of the patterns from this year...I'm sure there are some in there that will occupy me and my stash during the next few months while we wait for the house to sell!

I've nearly finished my Chain Cable Aran Scarf - it would have been finished ages ago but I keep adding yarn to it! I've decided to use some matching glow in the dark yarn to finish it off, so it will have the softness of Corriedale throughout and then one end will be a fun glow-in-the-dark-Corriedale end!

A spider amongst the dye pots!

2009-08-13T14:13:00.002+01:00

I got a start this morning when I went to set the next batch of Shetland dyeing. In the plastic bucket that I keep my dye jars in there was a big spider! *shudder* I hate spiders, and the resident spider catcher was away on a trip, so I forced myself to deal with it...I'd rather deal with it now than come back in the afternoon and find it had run off to some unknown destination.

I managed to take a picture before removing the dye pots and putting the spider out the window, but even looking at the picture gives the the creeps! if you want to see it, Google for UK "House Spider" and you'll find a picture. If you REALLY want to see my pic let me know and I'll send it to you without looking...

And fear not - all my dyed rovings are 100% Spider Free!

A Marathon of Dyeing

2009-08-09T18:06:00.000+01:00

Whew, this has been a busy weekend for dyeing. It'll continue through the week, day job permitting, as on Saturday my dyeing equipment goes bye-bye in preparation for the move. No sense in taking it with me when the electrical systems will be different there!

This weekend I have dyed about 400g of Norwegian top, 200g of Jacob fleece and one skein of sock yarn. Most of that is now on my Etsy shop. Here's a peek of some of the Norwegian!

This is the yellow and teal batch of Norwegian wool top. This wool seemed to take the dye very lightly so I ended up with more pastels than I expected. It's a nice change though, as I don't do pastels that often. I still have a short length of this left to dye, so I'll likely be doing it tonight.

I also dyed some commercially spun Merino, chunky weight. Most of it is yellow with one end of black. I don't know what I'll make with it yet, but it will be bumblebee themed!

Pop over to the Fibreholics Blog for a peek of the samples I have sent in for September!

Blueberry muffins anyone?

2009-08-03T14:01:00.002+01:00

This was a fun photo to take!

Packing + Dyeing = Chaos

2009-07-29T12:09:00.004+01:00

I'm still dyeing like mad, trying to get through my remaining roving and undyed sock yarn before the end of August. The house is full of boxes and the table I usually use for taking pictures is unavailable. So I have a photo of two new rovings, but the background leaves something to be desired - sorry about that!

Both rovings are Bluefaced Leicester (BFL) dyed with acid dyes. The blue one has already been broken up into samples for the Fibreholics Box but I haven't yet decided whether to put the green one on my shop or use it for samples too.

This past weekend I've also said goodbye to my sewing machine and my Barnett drum carder, who have gone to new homes here in the London area. I'll miss you!

The packing continues

2009-07-24T17:34:00.007+01:00

The timeline for our move is shaping up a little bit. I now know two things about how the move will affect my crafting in the near future:

1) My tools will not be going on a boat in August, as previously planned.

2) They will instead be going into a storage facility here in London in August, and the boat will be coming in November/December. Probably.

This means that while I will not be able to make new things after August, which I had always expected, I will be able to keep my shops open with their existing stock! I had thought I'd have to close them. So that's good news for me AND good news for you.

With that in mine, August might be a little bit light on updates as I scramble frantically to dye and spin as much as possible before the end of the month, when my spinning wheel goes into storage and my dyeing equipment is sold!

I'm still holding the Sheepshape Spinning sale for the time being, though since that is less urgent now it could end at any time. It'd be a good idea to grab anything that is catching your eye! My other shop is taking a different approach - everything at Elizabeth's UK Craft Shop has free worldwide shipping! I'm going to have to rebrand that one after I move....

Tutorial: How to buy a Phat Fiber Box

2009-07-20T17:11:00.006+01:00

As you may know, Sheepshape Spinning is a regular contributor to the Phat Fiber Sampler Box. Every month there is a mad scramble online to be the lucky buyer of a limited number of boxes that are all listed simultaneously. There's not much time to think and new buyers are often overwhelmed. So Jessie and I have worked together to create this Pictorial Tutorial which shows what it's like to buy a box. Study the pictures before your first try and you will be better prepared for the mad rush!

First, preparation. Before the day that the boxes go on sale, make sure that you have done the following.

1) You have created an Etsy user account.

2) You have saved a shipping address within your Etsy user account.

3) You have created a Paypal account.

4) You have saved the SAME shipping address within your Paypal account.

5) You have created some method of getting money into your Paypal account.

Number five could be by adding a credit card to your account, by adding a bank account and transferring money into Paypal (takes a few days!) or by selling other things online and leaving the funds in Paypal. As of July 2009 you will need $33 for a Phat Fiber box if it will be shipped to the US, $36 if it's shipping to Canada, and $43 if it's shipping anywhere else in the world.

Also please note - your computer speed and your internet connection speed are factors in your success. If your internet browsing is particularly slow then it might be a good idea to find a friend or relative with a faster machine or connection and ask/beg/bribe them into the use of their computer!

OK. You've done steps one through five. Next, you need to know when Box Day will be - in other words, when the box will be on sale. Really it ought to be Box Minute though because they sell FAST! You find out when box day will be by signing up to the notification list on the Phat Fiber website. The notification goes out a few days before the box will "drop" - before the box will go on sale. If you haven't gotten one yet and it's getting to be the middle of the month, you can go to the Ravelry Phat Fiber group to see if others have received theirs yet. And don't forget to check your Spam folder!

When it's Box Day there will be two "drops" - usually one in the morning and one in the evening about 12 hours apart, but it can vary. You want to make sure that you are logged into Etsy before the appointed time so you're not wasting valuable seconds logging in! You also want to make sure there are no other items loitering in your cart - this has foiled several potential Phat Fiber customers in the past.

Before the drop, Jessie at Phat Fiber will remove any other items that are for sale in her shop. It will be empty. Across the globe, hundreds of people are frantically refreshing their screens to see if the boxes have been listed. I suggest you join them! At the moment that the boxes go live, the Phat Fiber shop will look like this:

You will probably have seen people talking about scrolling down to the bottom of the page. This picture shows why that is necessary. There's a lot of information up top, and Jessie does not use the "sections" for the boxes, so if you're only looking at the top half of the page it will look like nothing is there! So you need to refresh, and scroll down, and keep doing that until you see the boxes. There are three types, as shown in the photo. JUST FLUFF is spinning fiber without finished yarn. JUST STITCHES is finished yarn without spinning fiber. There's also a "Regular mixed" box with both types. All of the boxes will have the extra things like stitch markers and patterns etc.

So...choose your box! (And quickly, because hundreds of other people are doing the same thing this very second...) For this tutorial I have chosen the Regular Mixed box. Here's what you see once you click on that choice:

Don't waste time reading the description. With less than two hundred boxes available each month and a LOT more than two hundred customers, you want to make sure you're ahead of the crowd. Just click "Add to Cart". Your cart will show:

Don't lose time here - just click Checkout! The next screen will ask for address information. If you have pre-stored an address in your account then you can choose it here, as the next two photos show.

Once you've selected your shipping address, click Final Review. You're nearly there!

This is the big screen. The Commit To Buy screen. We know that some people have reported having boxes "swiped" from their shopping carts before completing the purchasing procedure. We can't exactly run tests to see when and why this happens but we think it is because there are so few boxes, and so many people trying to buy. We THINK that if you take too long before pressing the Commit To Buy button that someone else can get to it before you. But we also THINK that once you have pressed it and get to the screen after it successfully, your box can't be stolen from you.

But we're not 100% certain about that. It may be, as some have reported, that you have to complete the payment procedure before the box is truly yours. Unfortunately no one is guaranteed a box until that point where Paypal reports successful payment. So I recommend going through the entire procedure as quickly as you can. Part of the fun is the "rush" that you get from going so quickly!

Also, it's a good idea to check the Purchases part of your Etsy account when you're done in order to confirm whether or not there is a box there, even if you think it got swiped. A few months ago there were a few boxes that had been successfully purchased but their buyers didn't know! So they languished unpaid-for until Phat Fiber had a chance to contact them about it. Don't let that happen to you!

So - once you've pressed Commit To Buy you see this:

This one's really easy - just click Pay Now! You then get directed to Paypal.

And log in on the right hand side:

One more screen requires attention - the Paypal Payment screen. Check that the details are correct and click "Pay Now"!

And, if all has gone according to plan, you should now see the Confirmation Screen of Happiness:

And that's it! You should now be the owner of a Phat Fiber box! Double check your Purchases screen in Etsy and then go join in the celebrations at the Ravelry group! Congratulations - I hope you get one of my samples!

Fancy a drum carder?

2009-07-17T13:36:00.003+01:00

As part of my destash I've just listed my drum carder on ebay. 99p starting, no reserve!

Here's the link - and as a special bonus, anyone who places a bid (not even a winning bid, just a bid!) will get free shipping on any one order from my Etsy shop.

I'm back! With lots of news.

2009-07-13T12:25:00.003+01:00

Hi everyone, I'm back from America! I had a great time. I managed to control myself at Black Sheep Gathering and not go overboard, but it was very hard. So many lovely braids of fibre; dozens of wheels; even a 16 inch electric drumcarder!! I restrained myself and only got three braids of fibre.

I have some BIG news though. I will be moving to America next year! Our house is a flurry of activity at the moment, mostly related to reducing our belongings before putting them all on a big ship across the ocean. To that end I am running a Super Sheepy Sale at Sheepshape Spinning, from now until...who knows? Until the truck comes to take our stuff away. Could be a few months from now. Could be sooner!

If something isn't on sale and you're feeling tempted, send me a message - I might add it to the sale!

Away till 6 July!

2009-06-13T21:31:00.002+01:00

I'm on vacation! No blog updates from now till 6 July, but things will still be happening in my absence:

* I'll be in the June Phatfiber box, which goes on sale tomorrow!

* The Fibreholics boxes will be released soon!

* I'll be at Black Sheep Gathering with my Sheepshape Spinning shirt - say hi! Not a vendor this year, unfortunately.

My Etsy shops are still open, and any purchases will be sent out on the afternoon of 6 July. I'll also be able to respond to email queries within a few days.

My samples for the Fibreholics UK Box

2009-06-02T10:24:00.003+01:00

As you may know, some of my fellow British fibre artists and I are creating a fibre sampler box of our handspun and dyed fibres. The blog for the project is here and we also have a Ravelry group. it's a new project and the first boxes will be on sale at Woolfest this month. After that they will be available through the website EcoProducts4U which is run by one of our members. There is a mailing list signup sheet on the EcoProducts4U site.

Our first round of samples are being finished up and sent to a central point, and I sent mine in over the weekend. Here's a photo (hosted by Flickr) and some more information!

To start with I have sent in 21 samples, evenly split between fibre and handspun yarn. Some of the samples are of items currently available on my Etsy shop.

There are three different types of fibre. The first, the puffy brown and blue batt, is made of deep brown Zwartble fleece drumcarded with a mix of dyed fleece colours. It's really soft and I have done a few more but haven't yet weighed or listed them.

The second fibre is blue, pale green and white and is a sample of the Salt Water Taffy colourway. It's Bluefaced Leicester roving, acid dyed.

The third is one of my favourites, it is fawn-coloured natural Shetland top acid dyed with blue and pink. The colourway is called Blue Raspberry.

I've sent in five different types of yarn, three of which are currently available at Sheepshape Spinning. The yarns are:

Summer Citrus, made of Columbia Dorset wool and dyed by another Etsy seller

Corriedale Glow in the Dark yarn, in a lovely heathery tan

More Corriedale, but mixed with multicolour Donegal Tweed fibre from Kilcar, Donegal

A Shetland/Merino blend made from one of the samples I received from the April Phat Fiber box - one of a kind with lovely greens, blues and browns, and very soft

The last bit of light coloured Alpaca Glow in the Dark yarn, though there are other colours of this on the shop

I'm really looking forward to the release of the boxes, and also seeing what everyone else is making for their samples! If you get one of my samples in your box I'd love to hear from you. :)

Special offer now till June 10th!

2009-05-28T19:19:00.003+01:00

I'm going on vacation soon! Since I am going to America, I am running a special "free shipping to America" offer for items from my shops.

Any purchases made at Sheepshape Spinning or Elizabeth's UK Craft Shop between now and June 10 2009 will get free shipping to a US shipping address, if you are willing to wait till my arrival in the US (June 15th) to have it shipped. Just put “Willing to Wait!” in the buyer’s notes for a full refund of the shipping charges.

Now’s the time to get your glow in the dark yarn if you’ve been eyeing it, or to request your custom sock yarn colourways!

I'll be back from my trip on July 6th and anything that is bought between June 13th and July 6th will be shipped when I return.

The farm in the middle of London

2009-05-24T16:50:00.005+01:00

It took a while to find it, and I learned that Brick Lane is very...interesting...but I have finally gone to the Spitalfields City Farm! They were having a festival to celebrate shearing day. I got to watch Pants the Sheep get shorn. She didn't seem to care for it too much, but I bet she was glad once that coat was off. It's very hot in London today.

While I was there I spoke to a staff member, and ended up buying two fleeces! (It was an adventure getting them home on the tube...) These sheep photos are credit to Spitalfields Farm because I forgot to bring my camera. The first one is Teggan. They call her the Badger-faced Sheep but I'm not sure if that's a true breed name or just a nickname. Their website says she's of the Torddu variety. She hadn't been shorn yet when I was there but this is last year's fleece. If I like it I am sure to go back for this year's!

These two lovelies are Isla (pronounced eye-la) and Kirsty. They are North Ronaldsay breed. Isla was shorn today before I arrived at the farm, and I got her fleece. (I don't know which one she is in the picture.) Apparently she was being very wiggly for the poor shearer!

I've been on the front page of Etsy!

2009-05-21T20:57:00.004+01:00

A very kind Etsy user wrote to me tonight to tell me that I am on the front page! How exciting. I took a screenshot!

In the centre bottom of the shot is my Rustic Rainbow yarn. It's been marked as a favourite seven times since going on the front page! And the shop as a whole has gotten 13 new favourites. This is great!

The final Phat Fiber sneak peek for May

2009-05-20T15:07:00.004+01:00

Some of you are already receiving your boxes! Follow the excitement at Ravelry in the Phat Fiber Sampler Box group.

Here's the last item that was sent it for my May samples! It's a Pocket Sheep!

I've put a penny into the shot for scale. This little guy is made of sock yarn and has an embroidered face, ears and feet. I hope he makes somebody very happy.

I am thinking about offering these Pocket Sheep on my Sheepshape Etsy shop. Would people be interested in getting their own Pocket Sheep that way, or do you prefer having them in the Phat Fiber box?

May Phat Fiber sneak peek #6

2009-05-19T10:34:00.002+01:00

At this moment your Phat Fiber box may be winging its way to you! Jessie of Phat Fiber tries to get them out as quickly as possible after the sale, though because of the storms she's experienced lately (an inland hurricane! wow!) I'm sure she'd appreciate extra patience. It's hard to wait, though, isn't it!

To help with the waiting, here's the second-to-last Sheepshape Sneak Peek and the final yarn peek.

These ten samples are called "Summer Skies" and are a wool/nylon blend. Each one is slightly different because of the variegated colours of the fibre. These fibres were part of my unlabelled stash that I bought from a retiring spinner, but I applied a "burn test" to the fibres and I am reasonably certain that some are wool and others are nylon, in more or less a 50/50 split. They're very soft!

Tomorrow - the final Sneak Peek where you will see this month's special unique item!

May Phat Fiber Sneak Peek #5

2009-05-18T11:13:00.004+01:00

More Yarn! The boxes for May have now been sold - I hope you got one! :)

If you did, you may be one of the few lucky people to get some Glow in the Dark yarn in your box! This month there are five glowing samples in either blue or white colourways.

The white ones are nylon and Wensleydale Longwool and I can't recall what the blue ones are but I think they are probably nylon and Alpaca. It's so fun to play with this stuff. If you haven't seen it in action check out the parts of my shop for glowing yarn and glowing toys - each listing shows an "action shot" taken in the dark! (The action shot is best viewed full size.)

Chunky Monkey yarn!

2009-05-17T12:47:00.003+01:00

Ok, no monkeys, but definitely very chunky. I finished spinning and washing this yarn this weekend:

This is a Corriedale/Ryland cross fleece that I bought from LongDrawJames on Ravelry drumcarded by me and livened up with bits of the Serendipity Fiber Arts sample from the April Phat Fiber Box. It's very chunky, very soft and I suspect is destined to become a pair of mittens. I've got plenty more fleece and a little bit more of the yellow sample batt if I decide to spin more for a matching hat!

May Phat Fiber Sneak Peek #4

2009-05-16T13:36:00.002+01:00

Today's a fibre day! It's also a very special day for the Phat Fiber community. I hope you're ready!

Hand-dyed blue roving, the fibre is Bluefaced Leicester. Each roving is at least 1/4 ounce and is dyed in shades of blue and green - the "showers" part of Showers and Flowers! There are fourteen of these mini-braids out there...I got better at braiding during the course of preparing for this box, too!

Bluefaced Leicester is a wonderfully soft fibre and also very good for spinners who are just getting to grips with their spindle or wheel. I've got some in a pastel colourway in the Spinning fibre section of the Sheepshape shop - and if you're a member of the Ravelry PF group don't forget to check the Box Day Specials thread for a one-day discount offer!

May Phat Fiber sneak peek #3

2009-05-14T10:29:00.002+01:00

Time for another Sneak peek! There will be seven in total, following a pattern of fibre, yarn, yarn, fibre, yarn, yarn, surprise. So today is yarn!

There's a colourway in my Etsy shop called Lilac Gardens. I have sent in two samples of Lilac Gardens for this month's box. I had enough for about 2.5 samples, so one is normal sized and one is jumbo!

It's worsted weight, 50% Corriedale wool (the darker purple) and 50% a mix of white silk and light purple Merino wool. The shop listing has 252 more yards but there's only one listing and when it's gone, it's gone! Also, for the month of May this yarn will ship anywhere in the world for free.

Quick informational post

2009-05-13T11:36:00.003+01:00

I've just run through all the listings on my Sheepshape Etsy shop and added estimated currency conversions for British Pounds and Euros. I'm happy to invoice any purchases in those currencies instead of US dollars!

May Phat Fiber sneak peek #2

2009-05-12T15:14:00.002+01:00

Part two of seven for the Sheepshape Phat Fiber sneak peeks!

Today is a yarn day, and the sample is a three ply cabled yarn called Strawberry Patch. This yarn is made of Jacob and Merino in grey, green and dark pink. It reminded me very much of visiting my friend Benji in Delaware and seeing the strawberry garden he had tucked away behind the house. I;d love to grow strawberries at home!

A cable yarn is made of two or more smaller plied yarns twisted together. Technically I suppose this isn't *quite* a cable since I used one two-ply and one single, but it works for me. This type of yarn is made by making some singles, intentionally overtwisting them when plying, then taking the overtwisted plied yarn and plying it with another overtwisted yarn, but going the opposite direction of your usual plies! The second round of plying gets rid of the extra twist and you end of with a thick, textured yarn. You may have done this to make long, thick handles for bags but twisting the yarn, doubling it on itself and letting it ply itself together to get a thicker "rope". It's fun!

First May Phatfiber sneak peek!

2009-05-08T15:38:00.004+01:00

Can you believe it? It's nearly time for the next Phat Fiber box!

This month Sheepshape Spinning has sent in fifty samples, more or less evenly split between yarn and fiber. That is, if the "Garden Explosion" pencil roving isn't counted as both yarn AND fibre! Pencil roving is a thick unspun line of wool, about the thickness of a thinnish pencil, that has a bit of twist in it - just enough to keep it from falling apart, but not quite enough to call it spun yarn. But you can knit with it if you like!

Here is the "Garden Explosion" colourway. Each mini-skein is at least 1/4 ounce of wool:

To spin from a pencil roving, you will need to predraft, because the fibres get a little bit compressed in the processing. Start at one end and hold a strand of the roving in your hands with your hands a few inches apart, and pull gently. The fibres will move apart - the trick is to let them extend and fluff up without pulling so much that you end up with two pieces of roving. Once you've predrafted that bit, move your fingers along a few inches and do it again. It can take a while but makes the spinning much easier.

If you have trouble working with pencil roving, I suggest spinning it in the opposite direction to what you usually do. When you're making the single, spin your wheel or spindle counter-clockwise, and ply it clockwise. This is because the small amount of existing twist in the roving is in the clockwise direction. When I first started spinning this kind of roving I found it difficult to draft it while spinning it because the roving twist and the wheel twist would build on each other and make it difficult to draft. But by spinning it backward, the wheel helps to pull the roving's twist *out*, leaving you free to draft as needed.

Enter to win a free skein of yarn!

2009-04-29T17:25:00.004+01:00

I'm being featured on the Phat Fiber Giveaway! Just read the post on the Phat Fiber blog and leave a comment on it for your chance to win this skein of my handspun alpaca:

Thanks for featuring me Jessie!

Got my April Phat Fiber box!

2009-04-28T13:19:00.008+01:00

And I suspect I'm about to add to the unfinished projects list! But it will be fun.

I'll mention some of my favourite items first and then the rest are in no particular order. Everything is lovely!

OK, if someone asked me to pick my favourite five things from this box, they would be the following. If you are trading any of these items from your box, please get in touch with me!

1) "Earth Day" Jacob wool and Firestar from Desert Gardens - a lovely blue, green white and copper firestar batt

2) A green pepper stitch marker from Yarndemon Designs - I don't know why, I just love this little guy! And I don't even USE stitch markers! I think this may be the start of a collection...

3) "Dafodails" batt (wool, mohair, alpaca, bamboo) in green, white and yellow from Silver Sun Alpacas - I hven't spun much alpaca and wasn't hugely keen on what I had spun, but this is a) sparkly and I love anything sparkly, and b) looks to be much easier to work with than the other alpaca I had!

4) Icelandic sheep wool samples from Cedarland Farm - I LOVE natural tones of wool between black and white, and this is a lovely collection of grey, deep brown and light tan.

5) "Greener Pastures" from Moonwood Farm - green batt from reclaimed fibre. Small but adorable! It's like a little Tribble...

OK, in NO particular order - just as I took the pictures - here's everything else!

A red, purple and yellow braid of Merino fibre from Abstract Fiber

"Calypso" purple green and brown merino braid from Greenwood Fiberworks

A green and brown "Ofelia" New Zealand Merino braid from Maude and Me

A bundle of wool/mohair/cotton ticking fibre from Farmgirl Chic

A purple luxury batt, wonderfully packaged, from Zebisis Designs

Dark green yearling mohair from Flying Wright Farm

A very soft silklike yellow/gold bundle from Polyart Design, I'm not sure what it is but maybe it says it inside the label, which I haven't removed yet.

A bright yellow-green variety batt from Serendipity

Green Border Leicester cross locks from Altered Visions

A snowflake-shaped needle gauge from 7 Yaks Design - now traded for more Silver Sun Alpaca fibre!

Knitting-themed notepaper from Becky's Paper Creations

A Phatfiber button that says "You can feel the difference" from Wild Hare Fiber Studio

"Oh My Aching..." salve from Desert Gardens

Cream de Mint Biscotti from Matilda's Italian Cookies

A beaded brown and white stitch marker from In Stitches

And a blue strawberry (blueberry?) stitch marker from Blitzknits!

Click on any of the pics to go to the Flickr page for the photo, where you can enlarge the shot for more detail!

Monday Update: The Land of Half Finished Projects

2009-04-27T21:47:00.003+01:00

I'm sure you can relate to the title of this post.

At this very moment, I have the following projects on. In some cases, on hold.

* knitting imperfect socks from the toe up, a training project. I love how the stripes are turning out. I'm going to look like the Cat in the Hat.

* knitting my Gotland shawl. I can't wait to wear it. But it's still too small. And I need to get a shawl pin. I'm worried that it will end up too heavy to wear. Definitely not lace weight!

* knitting a Fuzzy Mitten lamb. It's all done except for the eyes. I made it larger than usual and I can't find my stash of different-size safety eyes.

* dyeing Shetland fibre. It's cooling in the bathtub. I hope my husband didn't want to take a shower tonight...

* carding Corriedale/Romney cross fibre on the drumcarder. Takes A.G.E.S. I've done about a dozen batts already but it still seems like there's a sheep's worth of fibre left!

* crocheting a blanket in strips. This one has been snoozing for a while. I can't remember what size hook I was using...!

* washing a light brown crossbreed fleece. I got nearly all of it done a few weeks back and ran out of steam....

* my never-ending Irish non-Jumper project. It's been washed, dyed and spun but I haven't found a suitable pattern for the amount of yarn I have! At about 720 yards it certainly won't be a jumper. Curse my bulky-weight spinning!

Whew. I'm going to be a pensioner by the time I finish all the projects I have going on. (Because, of course, I will not learn from this and will continue to add projects.) But it sure is fun!

spin knit spin knit dye spin fun!

2009-04-26T12:42:00.002+01:00

April's Phatfiber samples are starting to turn up in people's photos! It's great fun to see them. Remember, if you received a Sheepshape sample in the April box then you can get a discount on any purchase between now and mid-May by responding to the feedback request on the enclosed card.

And...the MAY samples are already winging their way to Phatfiber headquarters! Nothing like being part of the Phat Fiber contribution team to make the month fly by...

Yesterday I took an advanced sock knitting class at I Knit London where I learned a couple of different ways to start toe-up socks. It was fun, but I think I would have preferred an intensive project workshop like the beginner's class, where we went through the entire process. I struggled a lot with the process at home last night and am also VERY wary about how to deal with the heel when I get that far. But it's good to know how to do the toe at least, and two people at the class admired my sock yarn. I was using a skein which I had dyed myself so I was very pleased about that. It's bright blue and red stripes - click that link for a photo from my Flickr site.

Of course, since it's the weekend, I have also been spinning! Yesterday I finished some lovely lavender and off-white Corriedale two-ply, and today I am working on a wild mish-mash of colours form a bag of waste rovings from a British wool mill. Since it's waste they can't guarantee whether or not the rovings are synthetic, so I'm putting them all together in a completely random way and seeing what happens!

Monday Update

2009-04-20T15:56:00.003+01:00

The April Phatfiber boxes have been released into the wild! I have spotted three of my samples in photos so far. I wonder who will get the glowing yarn and the mini sheep...!

This past weekend I refused to leave the house as I was having so much fun spinning, knitting, and dyeing - not in that order though. I have decided to participate in the May Phatfiber box - I should have time to get my samples in if I can finish them up this week - and so I dyed some pencil roving in bright springtime colours for the "Showers and Flowers" theme. I'm not sure whether to call it yarn or fibre though, as it can be spun or knit!

I also finished spinning the spare Gotland fibre that I had around, and have decided to make my Gotland shawl bigger, so I unpicked the castoff row and have been adding length and width to it. I can't get over how much fun it is to work with Gotland. I keep having to stop myself stroking the shawl as I work. Her'es a photo of it from back in December...it's bigger now.

I also managed to get some knitting done and made two more animals for the Sheepshape Shop:

The top one is a sheep made of Corriedale and Merino, and the bottom is a bunny rabbit made from Alpaca. They turned out really well and I will miss them when they go!

I love Gotland fibre

2009-04-15T14:10:00.003+01:00

I love working with Gotland sheep fleece. I really do.

Last night I was spinning up some mid-grey Gotland because I am making more little knitted animals. I decided to make a bunch of sheep for my shop because they have been selling better than the other types of animals. Plus I had nicked a little grey Gotland sheep out of my own shop to keep - technically I suppose I've bought it from myself!

I have finished most of another sheep, but ran out of yarn before finishing so I needed to spin up more. I have the most lovely, pillowy soft Gotland batts from last year's IKnit London show. It's SO nice to work with. I am really glad that I got 1.5 kgs of the stuff at the time! I can't help but stop and touch it while spinning.

Since then I have also managed to get some Gotland roving from an online shop and some scoured locks from a Ravelry trade. Haven't used those yet, but knowing I have more Gotland is making it a little easier to use the stuff from the IKnit show.

Monday Update - the final April preview!

2009-04-14T07:56:00.002+01:00

The April Phat Fiber Boxes will be on sale soon! Here are the last preview pics of the items that I sent in. I am really excited and I hope everyone will love their sample items.

First up - the glow in the dark yarn featured on the YouTube video. I wasn't able to send in lots of these but I will aim to have a few sent in every month. These are made of Alpaca:

And finally, we have a little friend for someone! This is a sheep made of sock yarn, small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. He's got BIG ears and is the only Big-Eared Pocket Sheep I have ever made.

I spent the long holiday weekend working on a ton of spinning, dyeing and knitting, which is why the Monday Update is a little late. There's several new things in the Etsy shop, though, and more animals will be going up soon!

Monday Update - Phat Fiber peeks, and my house smells of sheep.

2009-04-06T11:41:00.003+01:00

I have had a large black plastic bag in the bathroom closet for nearly a year, so yesterday I figured it was well past time to take care of it. I knew it was from Wonderwool Wales in 2008 but couldn't remember what was in it, so I was looking forward to the surprise!

It turned out to be a large crossbreed fleece, a lovely midbrown colour. Here's a pic from Wales when I got it:

It's the big one on the bottom right.

I spread the whole thing out on the bathroom floor yesterday (my husband is so understanding!) and started trimming and sorting it. I have washed about half of it now; I had to stop yesterday because I ran out of places to dry it! I'm still depending on the radiators for drying, and with the warmer weather they don't kick in till about 7 PM. I'm hoping to be able to finish the rest of it tonight.

As it's Monday here is the next round of sneak peeks for the April Phat Fiber box! If you're not already on the mailing list to find out when these go on sale, pop over to http://www.phatfiber.com/ and sign up!

Today I'll be showing you some more yarn samples and some crocheted goodies:

These samples are spun from the same green merino rovings that some of you will be receiving in your boxes. The roving samples were shown on March 16th.

And these are a bit of fibery goodness to keep with you all day long!

Crocheted star keychains made of handspun yarn. Two of them also glow in the dark! They're about 2 inches across, if I recall correctly.

The April box isn't even out yet and I need to do my May samples, though! The May theme is Showers and Flowers and I suspect most of my Easter weekend will be spent preparing for it.

Monday Update and more Phat sneak peeks!

2009-03-30T12:10:00.003+01:00

Monday again, the last Monday of March, so it's time for another PhatFiber sneak peek! My samples have been safely received at Phat Fiber Central, which is a relief. I never 100% trust the postal system!

So here's this week's Phat Fiber Sneak Peek!

This is a lot of seventeen mini-skeins of handspun Merino in white, light purple and teal blue. Every one is slightly different.

Busy busy weekend

2009-03-29T15:32:00.003+01:00

I gave myself a day off from the day job on Friday to take advantage of the fact that an empty house meant uninterrupted crafting. I had a field day on the sewing machine and made four drawstring bags, three tissue pack holders and an eyeglass case! Over the course of the weekend I finally finished carding and spinning the massive pile of fleece from Ireland, which you may recall from last summer's blog posts:

IT'S DONE! Finally! Once the last lot dries I will measure it all and see if I've got enough to make myself a jumper, of the raglan variety that Mr Teddy is wearing in one of last month's photos.

Here's a sample shot of what the spun yarn looks like. Imagine about 8 or 10 skeins just like it. :D

Here are a couple of photos of two project bags that I made this weekend. They are now in my general Etsy shop and I hope to add more soon.

Check the blog in another few days for another sneak preview of the items for the April Phat Fiber box! They have safely arrived in the states and are waiting to go to their new homes. :)

Giveaway on the Phat Blog!

2009-03-27T14:05:00.003Z

My Etsy Shop Buddy, Winemakerssister, is offering a giveaway through the Phat Fiber blog! Check out the blog and enter for a chance to win a most excellent handcarved Celtic heart stamp.

I've always been bad at math.

2009-03-20T15:34:00.003Z

Yesterday while walking to work, I was daydreaming about spinning. Again. And I realised that I may have made a mistake in the way that I was measuring the yardage of my handspun. So when I got to work I took all the handspun off the shop, so I could double check it.

Last night I put all of it back up again with corrected figures. In some cases I had misjudged the yardage by half! So some skeins that I had originally listed as 36 yards or 55 yards are now 71 yards and 113 yards. I had been wondering why my skeins were always so short...this explains it!

So if you've had your eye on some of my handspun but thought "Hmm, not enough yardage there for my project" - check again! It may have magically "grown" overnight.

And remember...measure twice, list once!

Monday Update

2009-03-16T12:52:00.004Z

This week I'll be sending in my samples for the April Phat Fiber Sampler Box! I'm very excited to be a part of this. Here is a sneak preview of a few of my items!

Seven mini-skeins of Romney fibre, dyed by me.

Five mini rovings of merino fibre, also dyed by me.

There will be additional shots of the April samples in future weeks, so stay tuned for more spoilers!

In other news - I have learned how to make custom ponytail ties! It has been great fun and I nearly gave myself blisters this weekend working on them. I am sporting a blue irish tweed ponytail tie today :D Some of the others are in my http://avanutria.etsy.com shop and others will join them soon!

Buy a Sweet Pea Fibers batt!

2009-03-14T08:31:00.006Z

I just have to tell you about this seller.

Recently I traded some yarn for a set of two batts from Sweet Pea Fibers in the "Beach House" colourway. I started spinning the batts yesterday and they are exquisite. The description given on her shop is "Black merino blended with carbonized bamboo(silvery grey) and topped with more merino, cultivated and tussah silk, firestar and angelina for more sparkle. Silk and bamboo is mixed in with the black merino so that the fiber stands out. It's not homogenous. Then more color and texture are added on top."

What she fails to mention is that this batt is an absolute joy to spin, effortless and soft as clouds. Once I have spun it all I will ply it with pure black merino so as to get as much yardage as possible out of this wonderful fibre!

Here are some photos:

I'm in a treasury!

2009-03-11T16:47:00.003Z

The top left corner is my Blueberry Smoothie Yarn!

My first knitting pattern is also up for sale now - the Chain Cable Scarf. Check it out on either of my shops. The testers on Ravelry really loved it!

Winemakerssister

2009-03-08T06:15:00.003Z

Meet my new Etsy Shop Buddy, Winemakerssister!

Heather is a graphic artist from Michigan who specialises in stitch markers and great hand-carved rubber stamps. She's got some fantastic designs, including some knit and sheep themed stamps! This one has got to be my favourite:

We're both members of the Stone Soup Challenge and since our stuff goes so well together, we have decided to be Shop Buddies! I'm not really sure if such a term exists, but I guess it does now!

Check out Heather's shop - how can any knitter resist this stuff? In addition to the lovely handmade greeting cards, linen tea wallets and Harry-Potter themed charm bracelets, she's got an entire category called "Goods for Knitters"! More stitch markers than you can shake a knitting needle at, and several lovely project bags are there at the moment. Make sure you check her other sections too, as I have a suspicion that this linen bag in the Soft Goods category would make an excellent spindle case:

One of the great things about Heather's work is that she loves custom orders. If you've been hankering after something special and haven't seen it yet, why not drop Heather a line and suggest it?

Any pattern testers out there?

2009-03-05T16:42:00.006Z

I'm writing my first knitting pattern! Once I'm finished it and have had it tested I will put it in my Etsy shops.

Linkbacks!

2009-03-04T10:39:00.003Z

I decided to google Sheepshape Spinning to see if I was linked anywhere and didn't know about it. I found a lot of links! I have decided to do a "Kudos" post and link to everyone who has linked to me. If you visit some of these you will find some really nice sites!

First up is We make London, which I did know about because I did a craft fair with them in December. This is a really great organisation that gets London-area (and beyond!) crafters together in one place to show and sell to the public. Their first event was last summer and I hope they'll be doing another one soon! In the meantime, they have lots of Designer Spotlights on various UK artists.

Next is Shop Handmade UK, a great directory of handmade products and producers.

Next, The Sick Chick Crafts. I didn't know about her, but it looks like she is also based in London, and a fellow American on the East side of the pond to boot.

K'nerd is another I didn't know about, but I'll be reading up on this one! Looks very interesting, though it hasn't seen an update in a while.

This spinning resource site, Handspinner.co.uk, looks like a great reference, especially the Resources section which has some articles on spinning tools and fibre types.

Some good sites out there! If you've linked me, and I missed you, let me know!

Blueberry Smoothie yarn

2009-03-03T09:27:00.005Z

I reskeined and measured the blue and gray alpaca yarn that I mentioned yesterday, but I'll probably end up retaking the photos in natural daylight at the weekend. It's up on Etsy but the colour isn't showing up as nicely in the photo as it does in person!

It's difficult to balance photo-taking with a full time day job sometimes!

Monday Update

2009-03-02T09:41:00.002Z

I've knitted a sweater for my teddy bear!

This is the result of a two-Saturday class offered through I Knit in London and taught by Gwen Raftery. It was great fun, surprisingly straightforward, and now I hypothetically have the skills to make a person-sized raglan jumper. Once I finish spinning the red, white and blue Irish fleece (see post from 14 November) I may have enough to give it a try. So far I have three hanks finished and I still have a lot more fibre to card!

I'm still making up samples for the Phat Fiber Sampler box. I have enough for April now but I'd like to send in a batch for May at the same time, so I only have to pay the shipping to America once. I spun up some variegated green Merino that I dyed on Saturday and should be able to get a few samples out of that. I've also included unspun dyed fibre for a few of the samples.

My other spin-and-dye job this weekend was some alpaca that was dyed blue and grey in roving form by the person I had bought it from. I expected a lot of the dye to come out in washing, and I was right, so I overdyed the resulting grey yarn with different concentrations of blue acid dyes. It came out very nice! I've now got to re-skein it, measure it and get it up onto Etsy.

The Make Lounge

2009-02-26T10:03:00.003Z

Last night I went to a class at The Make Lounge in north London. This was my first visit to their new location near Highbury & Islington - previously they had been next to Angel tube station. Both places are convenient for me to get to after work, which is great!

As it says on their website, The Make Lounge offers contemporary craft workshops with a stylish, social twist – perfect for embracing the ‘make do and mend’ ethic in a fashionable way! And they're right. The new location offers several brightly lit rooms with large tables for working on, quiet music in the background, and an assortment of drinks and nibbles to enjoy.

So last night I took their Survival Sewing course and it was really good. Five of us brought along things that needed small repairs - ranging from loose buttons and hanging hems to stuffed animal surgery and the transformation of a dress into a top! We all got clear demonstrations of the "felling stitch" for hemming and the best way to put on a button, and then those of us with simple repairs got to work while individual tuition was given to the people with more complicated projects.

I am proud to say that I have repaired the hem on my best "dressy" trousers, replaced the missing button on my coat and secured several others, and gotten started on raising the hem on a new pair of jeans. The plush spotted seal that another person brought has come through surgery fantastically, and a little boy won't be tripping on the hem of his cricket trousers anymore. And all this in only two hours!

I'll be going back in spring for another workshop, about zips and buttonholes. After all, I'll need someplace to put all my newly attached buttons!

Get your Fiber on!

2009-02-24T13:14:00.003Z

Sheepshape Spinning will be represented in the April 2009 Phat Fiber Sampler Box! People who get a box may get a sample of my glow in the dark alpaca yarn or a piece of hand-dyed roving, and one very lucky person will get a miniature knitted sheep with big ears!

Click here to see a list of all April's contributors!

I've contributed to the Stone Soup Challenge

2009-02-18T12:13:00.004Z

What a deal - not only am I supporting a fellow crafter and getting karma points in the Stone Soup Challenge, but I also have two braids of this to look forward to!

This is Superwash roving from Hullion Artworks.

Let's make Stone Soup together!

2009-02-17T10:20:00.005Z

When you were younger did you ever read the book "Stone Soup"?

In Stone Soup, a stranger comes to a starving village and looks for food. He puts a pot of water on the fire and adds a stone, telling everyone he is making stone soup. Gradually, the villagers come forward with ingredients to add to make the soup. The contributions are items that the villagers are hoarding due to their fear of starvation. Each villager only contributes a small amount, but the end result is a soup that feeds everyone.

Right on the heels of yesterday's post about the slowing economy, I've discovered the brilliant Stone Soup Challenge.

It's about independent crafters helping each other by pledging a percentage of their net sales to buying other handcrafted items. If you're a crafter and would like to join then see the information post on the Stone Soup Challenge blog. If you're not a crafter why not visit the blog's main page for the latest featured artist?

Monday update

2009-02-16T15:36:00.003Z

The slowing economy is definitely hitting Etsy...my sales have dropped off almost completely. When then means, of course, that I have no Paypal dollars to spend in other Etsy shops. I would like to get some more interest in my shops - have you got any ideas? Are you running a raffle or charity project and need donations? Let me know!

This past weekend I spent a lot of time working on my current pair of knitted socks. I've been suffering from second-sock syndrome, and have had only one done for ages! But this weekend I managed to turn the heel and am now decreasing the gusset. Nearly the home stretch! The yarn I am using is Trekking sock yarn, same as always, and it's one of my dye jobs. It was a failed experiment, unfortunately. My idea was to get a variegated yarn by dyeing a skein red, balling it, and then dyeing only the bottom half blue. Unfortunately I think it was balled too tightly, as the dye didn't permeate as far as I had hoped. The result is a red yarn with lots of blue at the start and then less and less as it goes on. I didn't feel that that was good enough to sell, as I will only put my best work on my shops. So it's socks for me! The first sock has a cool blue spiral down the leg, and less and less blue as it progresses to the toe. The second one doesn't have nearly as much blue, but does have the occasional dark blue stitch, which is kind of interesting. I'll certainly never have a problem telling the right and left apart!

DH has asked me for some knitted fingerless mitts! I think he was inspired by the ones I made recently for Lesley (photo shown below) and the fact that it was really cold outwide when he was playing his fiddle on the weekend. So I'm going to make some from brown shetland.

That picture shows Lesley's mitts in handspun BFL and alpaca. The pattern is Waffle Stitch Fingerless Gloves by Jill Toporkiewicz, available free on Ravelry. It's a great pattern - easy to read and really quick to do! The spinning took forever but the knitting was only one night per mitt.

My surprising dye result

2009-02-05T21:29:00.002Z

I like it!

The extra dye in the bath is being put to use with a second skein, which looks to become a rather shockingly vivid shade of pink.

Don't count (out) your dye job before it's cooled

2009-02-04T11:55:00.002Z

We've been hit with some heavy snows here in London, so last night was the first chance I have had to mix up my new dyes. I purchased Royal Blue, Pink and Turquoise acid dyes from the Handweaver's Studio via mail-order, so now I have a full range of colours available to me.

By the time I got the dyes mixed (and washed the worst of the pink and blue spots off my hands!) it was getting fairly late, so I skipped the roving plan and instead soaked some pre-skeined sock wool that I had tied some time ago. I wanted to do a turquoise and pink skein, with sections of purple where the two dyes combined.

In the crockpot, I heated the skein to 135F in a thinnish layer of water/vinegar/ecover, then carefully poured pink dye on some sections and turquoise on others. I then covered the pot again and left it for about half an hour, then came back to check on it.

I didn't have pink and blue. I had purple soup. "What happened?" I thought...

Oops. I forgot to dilute the dyes. WAAAY too much dye in the bath.

Disappointed at my seemingly solidly purple bath, I turned off the heat and let it cool overnight. This morning before work I removed the yarn. (I left the extra dye in the pot and will use it to dye another skein.)

Surprisingly, after a rinse I have discovered there's still sections of bright pink and blue amongst the purple. Once it's reskeined it should actually look pretty good! The colours are very vivid, too.

So today's lesson is - even if it looks terrible in the pot, don't give up, as you may be pleasantly surprised by the result.

I won't be home till late tonight but I will try to get a picture of that skein up here in the next few days.

*****

In my previous post I talked about some new rovings that I had dyed and was waiting to get pictures taken of. Here they are!

First, a Texel wool roving in red, grey and purple:

Next, a matched pair of Falkland wool rovings in yellow, green and orange:

Finally, a Romney roving in orange, yellow and black. With this one I was trying to reproduce an "autumn foliage" roving I once saw in a raffle.

All of these are now on the Sheepshape Spinning Etsy shop!

Caution: Dyer at work

2009-01-30T12:07:00.002Z

A combination of an early spring cleaning and a purchase of some more acid dye powder means I should be able to take pics of some interesting dye jobs soon. I'm getting better at dyeing fibre, which seemed like it'd be really tricky (and in some cases still is) but I'm improving with every try. I've got four braids dyed and waiting to go up on Etsy, just haven't had the space to take the photos. Hopefully tomorrow!

Take note - http://www.worldofwool.co.uk is having a sale on fibre until tomorrow! I bought from them earlier this month and am very happy with the speed of delivery.

Happy 2009!

2009-01-08T21:06:00.004Z

Hello everyone, and happy new year! I'm sorry it's been so quiet here. The craft fair was a huge success, and afterward I put my remaining stock onto my Etsy shops. Between that, a bout of flu, and then holiday travels it's been hard to find time to make updates!

The first few days of the year have seen me trying to spend more time at the spinning wheel - partly because I don't spend enough time doing it, and partly because it's one of the warmest rooms in the house! London's having quite a cold spell. As a result of this time well spent I have several new skeins of yarn. Some I've yet to take photos of, but here are the ones already on Etsy:

This one is Romney fibre, which I dyed myself. Specs: 9 WPI, 86 grams, 55.7 yards. If you check the photo from the 19th November 2008 entry you can see what it looked like before it was spun.

The next three all glow in the dark! The top two are Alpaca and the bottom one Shetland. If you want to see pics of them glowing, check the Sheepshape Etsy shop.

I've got three more to take pics of...hope to get them up this weekend for you!

Come to We Make Christmas tomorrow!

2008-12-05T09:04:00.002Z

Come to We Make Christmas tomorrow on Tottenham Court Road to see these little guys and many more gifts made by talented UK crafters! Full details on http://wemakelondon.blogspot.com/

Charity Prize Draw

2008-12-04T11:39:00.002Z

A prize draw for charity has been started by a fellow blogger, Cherryred, to raise money for the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation. This draw is in memory of her mum, who sadly passed away in November.

Every £2 donated is worth one prize draw entry. Prizes include handspun yarn, stitch markers, and fibre.

Please visit her blog for full details:

http://woolly-knit-bits.blogspot.com/2008/12/sad-news.html

Two weeks to the craft fair!

2008-11-21T22:41:00.003Z

My yarn has been measured and the labels are made. My price list is set and a poster for it created. I've started packing my suitcase of stuff to bring with me to the fair, and figured out what types of baskets and other display items to bring - mostly, anyway.

All but two of the bigger stuffed animals are finished, and I still have some mini-sheep faces to make, but other than that all the knitted/crocheted items are done. I still have to put together the sock dyeing kits, though.

Once I get all the yarn labelled I'll take a photo!

Success!

2008-11-19T10:58:00.001Z

Here's a photo of the finished roving, from the experiment a couple of days ago. I like it!

The promised Workshop photos

2008-11-18T16:42:00.003Z

Shots from a weekend dyeing workshop at Handweaver's Studio - highly recommended.

The general activity hub:

Very colourful results in wool, hanging to dry:

Now we get messy - this was my favourite part!

Some results of experimentation:

Dry, labelled, and ready to be squished!

My new dyeing training

2008-11-17T21:33:00.002Z

I spent the past weekend taking the two-day Dyeing workshop at Handweaver's Studio in East London. It was great fun and I'll be posting some photos in the next update - they're uploading right now.

While you're waiting, I can show you what I'm working on right now. During the workshop I wanted to know how I could use my existing equipment to make the dyed rovings that I love so much (and spend so much money on!) One reason I'd like to make my own dyed rovings is because sometimes, after I spin and wash a pre-dyed roving that I buy, the colour washes out. It's incredibly frustrating, and I figure that if I dyed my own rovings then either they wouldn't wash out or I'd have no one to blame but myself!

So - I measured out about 100g of Bluefaced Leicester roving, and put it in a soak of water with a touch of Ecover washing detergent. While it soaked, I prepared three dye stocks from my Kool-aid stash. In each of three canning jars I put two packs of Koolaid (5g each), 10g of white vinegar, 250ml boiling water and 250ml cold water. I chose Lemon Lime, Orange, and Black Cherry for my colours.

Once this was done I laid a strip of cling-film (saran wrap) in the tub - I chose the tub because when I did this in the class I got dye all over the place!) I picked up the roving from the soak and let the extra water drain away, then laid it out on the cling-film. Using a 10ml syringe (without a needle!) I placed dye on the roving like this:

Then I rolled up the cling-film, from one long edge to the other. This sealed all the dye inside. Afterward I rolled it from end to end, and put it in a heatproof baking bag:

Then I placed this package inside the crock pot, which had a few inches of water in it, and semi-sealed the bag with a plastic tie (I want the heat to build up but I don't want anything exploding!). It'll be in the crockpot on high for a few hours, then I'll cool it overnight and take it out in the morning.

Fun times!

Three weeks to the fair!

2008-11-14T09:40:00.004Z

Less than a month before the We make London craft fair. I've got nearly all of my animals finished (still have to embroider a face on a glow-in-the-dark-sheep) and a large quantity of handspun yarn that needs to be measured and labelled, but a lot of the logistical details of preparing for a craft stall are finished. If you're coming along, be sure to try out my Dark Bag - a little patch of nighttime where you can see the glow in the dark animals working!

In other news, I am currently spinning up this lot, which you might remember from July:

It's Donegal wool, dyed with Koolaid. I've got a full bobbin so far and I'm trying to decide whether to ply it with glow in the dark or to ply it with itself, since I have so much of it. I think I'm leaning toward plying it with itself, and maybe I'll end up with enough yarn to make something bigger than a two-foot-tall teddy bear. I've been carding it on my drum carder which has been remarkably easy to do, a lot easier than when I was carding the Romney wool that I have. But I think I was trying to card too much Romney at a time.

This weekend I'm taking a Dyeing workshop at the Handweaver's Studio in London. I'll bring my camera!

The kindness of strangers

2008-10-26T01:04:00.005+01:00

And a stranger's just a friend you haven't met!

Yesterday I received a gift of a Brother KH-710 knitting machine from a Londoner on Ravelry who unfortunately is moving out of the country. She wanted it to go to someone who would get use out of it. I am really grateful to her, because I've been intensely curious about knitting machines for a long time but had no idea where to start or what kind of investment would be needed.

Here's a photo of my first properly-cast-on project, the details of which I can't go into detail until after Christmas:

Shortly after taking this photo, unfortunately, I was merrily knitting along when disaster struck. I'm not sure how, but it appears that an entire row of stitches didn't take, and just left a string of yarn in *front* of the machine. When I started moving back the other way, the stitches promptly knitted onto thin air and the entire thing began to curl off the machine! I caught it about a third of the way across and eventually managed to restore order (triage with a lifeline and then painstaking work with various hooks and needles). Fortunately I was close enough to the end of the project that I was able to improvise and repair things. It was really weird though, and didn't happen until I was several hundred rows in!

You know what this machine really means though? I can try knitting up sock blanks for dyeing! I probably won't get to really go into that till after my craft fair, but I'm looking forward to it!

Progress

2008-10-19T16:59:00.003+01:00

My pile of animals for the craft fair is growing...

Four bunnies, three sheep, two cats, one mouse, a bear in a jumper and a really big bear in the middle.

All of them are handknit, nearly all of them are from handspun yarn, and several of them are hand-dyed as well. The bunnies at top right and bottom left glow in the dark.

Some of these guys are available (or will be available) on my Etsy shops - links on the right. Anything that doesn't sell by the end of the craft fair will go up on the shops too.

My sheep is famous.

2008-10-11T09:48:00.002+01:00

A very nice person convo'd me on Etsy to tell me that my knitted sheep has been featured in someone's Treasury collection. Here's the link to the collection, which is called "Wanna Snuggle???":

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=14232

How fun!

I'm still busily crafting away for the fair. I have about a dozen stuffed animals finished, not including the glow in the dark one that sold on Etsy last month.

Been busily crafting...

2008-09-17T12:21:00.002+01:00

A month of silence...sorry about that! I've been spending every free minute spinning, knitting or crocheting for the craft fair. I haven't even had a chance to take photos of the animals I've been making. Hopefully this weekend.

Today I receive a batch of glow in the dark yarn from my supplier, as well as some extra spinning bobbins, so I'm all set for a weekend of making glow in the dark handspun! I've got a full bobbin of white Wensleydale Longwool ready to ply with the glowing stuff, which should make a white, fuzzy glowing plied yarn.

I'm about to send off my "freebies" too - promotional items to be placed in the We Make Christmas bags. On the day, visitors will be able to buy decorated tote bags filled with little handcrafted goodies from vendors. This week we're sending in samples that will be given to the media so they can advertise the fair. My freebies are crocheted star/flower keychains and tiny knitted sheep!

Upcoming craft fair!

2008-08-17T18:35:00.002+01:00

I'm proud to announce the participation of Sheepshape Spinning in an upcoming London craft fair! We Make Christmas will be held on 6 December on Tottenham Court Road. See this blog for full details:

We Make London Blog

I'll be spending the next few months building up my stock - handspun yarn, handspun sock yarn, and knitted animals will be my primary items, but I'm also working on Christmas stockings. My very special item will be glow in the dark teddy bears! Made with handspun and glow in the dark yarn, like the cat I made earlier.

This is going to be a lot of work, but a lot of fun too!

Using up lots of yarn...and some glows!

2008-08-10T22:50:00.002+01:00

This weekend I made a Fuzzy Mitten present for my husband, using some of the Freecycle yarn that I received a few weeks ago. Here he is!

Also, I finally finished my present to myself - a stuffed cat (again a Fuzzy Mitten pattern) using glow in the dark yarn that I spun myself! I really like it - though next time I will use a different pattern for the head, as I think it could have been better shaped around the muzzle:

I am hoping to make glow in the dark toys for my etsy shop but first I need to get more glow in the dark yarn.

Fuzzy Mitten patterns rock

2008-08-04T16:44:00.003+01:00

I spent a very enjoyable weekend watching Star Trek on TV and knitting a polar bear. And a mini jumper.

This is one of a set of patterns by Barbara Prime, owner of Fuzzy Mitten. I really like her patterns. I am very much a newbie knitter but even I can manage them. I bought her book of patterns from Lulu.com, and these coupled with a huge lot of yarn that I received from Freecycle last week mean there are many little knitted animals in the Sheepshape future - though I need to learn to knit less tensely, I think. My bad elbow hurts a bit today, so I need to give it a rest for a little while..

More dyeing experiments

2008-07-22T11:55:00.004+01:00

I dyed some more roving yesterday and would like to post a picture but my memory card adaptor and my computer seem to not be talking to each other at the moment. I'll have to try to get them off the camera using a different adaptor. Sorry!

I can at least describe what I did. I've been working with braided dyed rovings from HipKnits lately and wondered if I could make something similar. So I took a length of Romney roving and braided it to itself (the remembered skills of my seven-year-old self do come in handy sometimes!). I then soaked it in water while I prepared the dye baths.

I decided to dye the roving three colours, in sections. I mentally divided the roving braid in half and folded it over so that the centre of each half would stick down into a jar. I then prepared Berry Blue and Orange Kool-aid in two different canning jars. I put the folded fibre into the jar, leaving the ends and centre of the whole braid out. I let these cook on medium for a few hours, and then pulled them out and rinsed them.

Then I prepped a third jar with red (well, it was leftover red, I don't know which mix it was) and put the still-white centre of the braid into the red. I left that for a few hours as well.

This morning everything had cooled. I rinsed the braid, unbraided it and left it to dry. It looked really cool, and I took a picture to show you, but unfortunately I can't get it off the camera at the moment. I need to find my other card reader...

Edited - OK, I've gotten the photo sorted out now:

New camera = new pictures!

2008-07-19T19:38:00.003+01:00

I've gotten a new digital camera (Casio EX-Z1080, on sale at Jessops) and that will help me get photos taken and uploaded more quickly.

So here are some new photos!

The first is some of that Donegal wool that I mentioned in my last post. I took some of it and dyed it with blue and red Kool-aid, both colours at once in a slow cooker. I really liked how it's turned out but I can't decide the best way to prepare it for spinning - carding or combing. Suggestions?

The second pic is a collection of some of the handspun I've done in the last few months.

The two green ones are from a large Ebay lot of wool and they turned out surprisingly nicely, but I don't know for certain what type of wool they are. I will probably make a stuffed animal from them, as there seems to be enough of it for that.

The brown at the top is the first skein of my most current spinning project. It's Shetland Moorit. One single was prepared roving and the other (lumpier) single is from wool that I washed and carded myself. I have a whole bobbin full of the single from the roving, but am balking at carding more of the moorit...it's been very difficult.

The two multicolour skeins (well, one is a ball) are from home dyeing projects with Koolaid earlier this year.

The blue skein is some of the dyed roving I bought at Wonderwool Wales this year. It's very soft and is from the same seller as the pink yarn that is currently in my Etsy shop.

Back from my sheepy holiday

2008-07-06T06:42:00.002+01:00

I just got back from Ireland last night, and most of my checked baggage was wool! I really wish I had been able to take all the wool that was offered to me - it was amazing how it kept turning up.

I got some carded and coloured wool from Studio Donegal in Kilcar, which wasn't too expensive, and I got to go into their back rooms to pick out whatever I wanted from their stock. They literally upended big black bags of roving onto the floor for me to pick and choose from!

I also got a white and brown alpaca fleece from a friend of a friend who has an alpaca farm in Kilcar - once she found out I was a spinner she brought over a huge bag of wool.

AND one of the farmers in Glencolumbkille gave several fleeces to another spinner who was visiting, and once she had chosen her fill she offered them to me! It was painful to leave behind three or four nearly complete fleeces but I got as much as I could manage into my bag.

I also learned some Aran knitting stitches while there and am making a scarf from some locally produced donegal tweed yarn but I had to take it off the needles for the flight home, so that's on hold until I get it back on again.

Finally, a friend from the states brought me a bunch of Berry Blue Koolaid, so I am restocked for blue yarn dyeing!

And that's just the crafty side of the holiday! My Irish language skills are polished up again, and I need to work harder at keeping them from tarnishing this time....might have to update my Gaeilge blog!

Temporarily out of the country

2008-06-12T11:49:00.002+01:00

I'm off to Ireland on Saturday! It'll be my second trip and my first one as a fibrecrafter, so I'm looking forward to seeing what fibre goodies I can discover. Back after the first week of July and I promise I will get more photos up of recent craft activities!

Same dye + different fibres = different colours

2008-05-22T13:57:00.003+01:00

This skein is pretty interesting. I spun it in a workshop at Wonderwool Wales where we used a variety of materials - wool, alpaca, silk, cotton, and I think a few more I can’t remember. Once back home I navajo-plied it on itself and dyed it in a slow cooker with one pack of Lemon-Lime Koolaid. The different materials took the dye differently - one material even turned tan instead of green!

Unfortunately, other than the silk (the darkest colour), I am having trouble identifying the different materials. I think we may even have used two different types of silk (I do remember the word ‘tussah’), because some seems to have taken quite a lot of green while another has stayed pure white.

Has anyone else done something similar?

Mmm, grapes!

2008-05-20T10:00:00.002+01:00

My house smelled like Grape Koolaid for much of Saturday. Having recently taken possession of a large number of Grape packets I decided to put some to use and find out what sort of purple would emerge. Turns out that a very nice purple emerges!

Knitting with handspun

2008-05-17T20:57:00.002+01:00

So far I've found that I have trouble actually *using* my handspun, because I don't make enough of it for standard sized projects. I tried looking in those "one skein" books, but since I'm not really into hats, handbags and other fashion accessories I didn't care for most of the patterns in them.

But recently I purchased the online book "Fuzzy Knits" from www.fuzzymitten.com and discovered that they are the perfect size to use up little bits of yarn. There's a free lamb pattern on her site if you want to give it a try - I did, and here's the result. I proudly introduce my first non-rectangle, non-sock and non-workshop knitted project!

The darker yarn is a navajo-plied Zwartble fleece and the lighter one is from a merino pencil roving that I got from Handweaver's Studio in east London. Now I have to work out how to make one of those miniature jumpers from the book...or maybe I'll just stick with the scarf.

Decreasing the stash

2008-05-05T17:37:00.004+01:00

Stashing is fun - I'm the first to admit it. But when I can bring home four folding plastic storage boxes from Wilkinson's and fill them all with fibre within minutes of arriving home, I can't help but think that I need to do more spinning and less stashing. Granted, this was after Wonderwool and a marathon of fleece-washing, but still...

To that end, I tackled some of my Wonderwool stash this weekend - two of the pink dyed fibre braids from the "Sunday haul" photo in my previous post. They were from http://kerriesplace.co.uk/hipknits/ and one of the sellers is "hipknitskerrie" on Ravelry. (I need to remember to contact them and ask what kind of wool this is!) They spun up really quickly, I was actually rather surprised - so I can conclude that 1) hipknitskerrie sells good stash and 2) my skills must be improving! I was very careful not to overtwist the ply this time too, which made for slow plying but a better result.

The yarn is actually still a bit wet in the photo - it's hung up to dry all day but I wanted to get the photo done before the light faded. Pink isn't really my thing so I imagine it'll go onto Etsy once it's dry and measured.

I learned a few things from spinning this one, which is a two ply of as-yet-unknown length or wpi:

* I shouldn't spin while listening to music unless the music has the same beat throughout all the tracks. Instead I kept a particular tv advert in my head this time which has a good beat to it and that really made it a lot easier to spin consistently. (If you're curious, it's the one with the girl singing "beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep go the horns on the cars in the street..." It wouldn't get out of my head, so I put it to work.) *Plying* to music, though, didn't seem to be a problem since I kept stopping to check the twist anyway.

* Predrafting is pretty essential for me, and I should keep doing it, especially with fibre that has been stored in a braid.

* It's worth putting a bit more twist than you think you need into the singles when you're making them - I didn't have any problems with it breaking while I was plying, which normally happens at least once per bobbin.

I ended up - as usual - having more of one single than the other, so I've got a bit of leftover pink. I may end up taking all of these leftovers and making a completely wild skein - I could call it Technicolour Dreamcoat or something. What do you do with your leftover singles after plying?

I'm still not quite to the point where I will be able to spin my own sock yarn, but I think I'm getting there...

Back from Wonderwool Wales!

2008-04-28T17:28:00.003+01:00

What a fantastic show! We just got back a few hours ago. There were massive amounts of fibre, yarn, dyes, equipment, etc etc. I was there from about 10 AM to 4 PM both days and still feel like I may have missed seeing something. I also took three workshops, which were great fun. But first...my new stash!

On Saturday I got:

* an Inkle loom and a loom book
* 250g oatmeal Bluefaced Leicester tops
* two 100g packs of Sockstuff fibre from a fellow Raveller
* a Tunisian crochet hook and two booklets about using it
* A free Spinning door sign from a fellow Raveller, and a sock needle holder from the same person
* Alpaca gloves
* cashmere blend fingerless gloves with a sheep on the back! Wish they hadn’t run out of the fingered ones, I’d have bought both!
* A drum carder cleaner from Hedgehog Equipment
* A mini pompom maker
* 100g washed Teeswater wool (I hear it's hard to wash!)
* an embroidered sheep badge (I collect badges…got a Wales one too)
* 200g of Superwash white merino fibre and 100g spot dyed merino from the same seller
* A wooden needle holder for my sock knitting kit
* a great little “Know your sheep” book

AND - my wonderful husband bought me two presents while I was in the show! One was a painting of Rainbow sheep that I had admired in a shop window on Friday night, and the other was a sheep cushion for my spinning chair. He's so great!

Sunday was my bulk fibre day. I got:

* 12oz of unwashed Poll Dorset
* 7oz of midbrown Alpaca, unwashed, but not dirty looking
* a whole Shetland Moorit fleece, unwashed
* a large “crossbred” sheep fleece, unwashed
* 100g Llama fibre
* 200g Gotland fibre
* about 80g purple dyed continuous fibre, I think it was Shetland, from a fellow Raveller. It was the purchase that was “meant to be” on Sunday morning!
* 2 bags of “stuff your own” dyed fibre
* a whole (small) tabletop of dyed/braided fibre! It’s the first time I ever got to say “How much for everything on that table?” heehee

And I meant to get two braids of dyed fibre from Fyberspates, but when I went to buy it I had an unfortunate moment where I thought I had lost all of my money! Took me a while to recover from the shock and I didn’t get a chance to return and get it. I hope someone else did!

The workshops that I took were really fun. Two were for spinning (one each day) and one, on Sunday, was needle felting. I felted three things in the two hour class - a landscape of a sheep pasture, and two 3-D sheep! They are in the photo above.

The handdyed roving has been spun!

2008-04-21T09:42:00.002+01:00

This weekend I finished spinning and plying the two skeins from my roving-dying project. Here's a photo of each bobbin, before plying:

You may remember that one roving got a lot more dye than the other one. The first roving, with less dye, is the bottom one in that picture.

Here's the plied skein:

As a reminder, this is Romney wool dyed with three colours of Kool-Aid in a slow cooker. Each of the two rovings weighed about 50g before dyeing. I haven't taken measurements on this yarn yet but I will try to add them in later.

I think I'll call this skein "Salt Water Taffy"...it's got that interesting mix of muted colours that I associate with those strange sweets.

This coming weekend will be exciting - it's Wonderwool Wales time!

Scurf!

2008-04-15T10:46:00.002+01:00

Scurf.

It's like dandruff, only sheep-scented.

Unfortunately one of the dark coloured fleeces I bought recently seems to have it. It shows up as little white specks near the base of each lock, apparently - this is according to a description in one of the online spinning groups I belong to. It's caused by mites on the sheep, I think. It doesn't wash out very easily, and the general consensus on the spinning group was that you can never get all of it out, and combing will get the most out of all preparation methods.

However, all is not lost. I've contacted the farmer and she was very apologetic, and offered to send me a new fleece! She says she will check this one over double-thoroughly to make sure there are no problems and that she will also have a word with their shearer. I'm going to send samples of the afflicted fleece (in lock, batt, and yarn forms) to show her what I found. I think it's entirely a case of something being accidentally overlooked and I am very pleased with the response of the seller. Which is why I am not identifying the breed or the farmer!

So the moral of the story is, if you think you have a flaky sheep fleece, contact the seller and enquire about it. Chances are they will welcome the opportunity to put things right. Farmers want to keep spinners happy, after all!

As for the scurfy fleece, I'm going to put it aside until I get some wool combs, then try combing each lock to see if I can get the bits to fall out. If that fails I can always use the wool as stuffing!

"Squishy" as an adjective for yarn

2008-04-11T16:01:00.002+01:00

I've often seen the word "squishy" used to describe yarn, usually in the context of someone saying "It's just so squishy!" about a particular skein or type of yarn. I never really understood what it meant until recently.

I finished spinning this yarn last weekend:

It's a three ply - a gray Jacob Z twist, a green unknown wool Z twist, and a dark pink Merino S twist. They were plied together with an S twist. I figured this would be OK because the grey had been a bit overspun and the pink very loosely spun.

It worked. I ended up with a 115 yard, 110 gram skein measuring about 8.5 wpi. And after washing it, when I took it down from the shower rail where it had dried, one word popped into my head.

Squishy.

It was just the right word to use. It isn't a hard yarn (some of my very first ones definitely were!) and it compresses in your hands but springs back instantly when you let go. It's fluffy but not fuzzy. This is my only true three-ply to date (excluding Navajo ply, which uses only one single) and it makes me wonder...is squishiness related to the number of plies? Or did I just get lucky with the amount of twist in each single. Was it mixing singles of Z and S twist? Would it have come out the same if I hadn't (seriously) overtwisted the grey single?

I have no idea. But I'm very much looking forward to experimenting to find out! I still have more green and pink singles, I just have to spin up a third single. I could do more grey....but do you have any recommendations for a good colour to go with the other two?

Full results of roving dyeing

2008-04-10T12:01:00.003+01:00

The second roving has finished drying, and I really like how all this has come out! It'll probably be a few weeks before I can get around to spinning it...the projects appear to be backing up quickly (darn this day job!) and I'm sure to come back from Wonderwool Wales later this month with even more to work on! I also have to learn how to thoroughly clean my drum carder, or I'll end up with bits of brown Zwartble wool in my nice white-and-homedyed mixes.

Here's a shot of both rovings on the radiator. The earlier one is the rolled up one.

Experimenting with roving dyeing

2008-04-10T11:15:00.002+01:00

(Originally posted on my old blog on Tuesday 8 April 2008)

I got some undyed Romney roving in my bulk purchase, so I measured out about 50 grams of it to try spot dyeing in the crock pot. I'm not sure I've done it right, but we'll find out in a little while. I think maybe I should have put more water in, and more dye too.

This is the roving soaking, with the prepared dye close to hand. I used Orange Koolaid, Strawberry Mixade, and Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade Koolaid. (one packet, one tbsp vinegar and 6 oz water per jar, but I may change these ratios.)

Here's the roving in the pot with dye on it. I was afraid to put too much dye in because I was envisioning the whole bottom of the roving turning murky brown.

I think it probably would have been better if I had put more water in the crockpot, up to the top of the roving, and then squirted in the dye. As it was the dye seemed to be dripping down through the roving to the water underneath...

OK, some time has now passed and I've retrieved the roving. It doesn't look too bad, though there are some bits that have next to no colour and some that have a bit too much. Here it is in the salad spinner and then on the radiator:

Not bad. I'm starting another one, with substantially more dye this time:

I think I'll try spinning singles from each and plying them together - that should even out any saturation problems - and see what happens.

Moving House

2008-04-10T09:33:00.002+01:00

I've just been made aware that the site I previously had my blog on, http://sheepshape.blogstream.com/ , won't let people leave comments if they are not members of the site.

I hate that.

So I'm moving things over to here, because a friend of mine uses this site and I know non-members can leave comments.