Tour de Fleece update

I had a very busy weekend without much time for spinning, but I did manage to card & spin a little each day so far. This is me sitting at a welcome table at the Bluemont concert in Warrenton on Saturday night, carding in between customers. By the way, the band that night was Furnace Mountain and they were wonderful, as always.


I started at the beginning of the alphabet (actually, I skipped Black Welsh Mountain - it feels like steel wool!) with Brecknock Hill, which as I learned from my reading in the Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook is a type of Cheviot. I carded this fiber and spun the singles on a Bill Hardy spindle and then plied it on my Bosworth Moosie.


So, on the third day I have my first finished skein - a whopping 50 yards and I haven't weighed it yet, but it should be somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 ounce. I washed it this morning and I'll weigh it when it's dry.

As it took me three days to card & spin one ounce, I have my doubts about getting through all 48 ounces in the three weeks of the Tour, but I am delighted to have started this project and I hope to see it through no matter how long it takes.


I am still washing fleece - the last pair was Polwarth and Rambouillet. I have used up my two little sample sized packets of Power Scour and now I'm trying out Kookaburra Wool Wash.

I decided to card & spin the Cheviot and North Country Cheviot next, so as to compare the three Cheviots. I started carding the Cheviot yesterday and may get to finish this evening.

This week is going to be very challenging. With the July 4th holiday it's already a short week, and I'm leaving Thursday around 1pm to drive up to Gettysburg PA to teach at the Mid-Atlantic Fiber Association conference. So I have to get everything packed for my MAFA class (I'm teaching 18th & 19th c. Linens), get work organized to be away for 4 days (we have 6 concerts this coming weekend) and card & spin!

I'll let you know how that works out.

Ca Commence!

Tour de Fleece Study

Long time, no blog - well, I had a tough winter and when you're depressed, the last thing you want to do is talk about yourself. I think next winter I will get some of those lights that help with seasonal affective disorder.

But now, it is summer. And with summer comes.... Tour de Fleece!

I am so excited about participating again this year that I talked some friends into joining me. We have our own team on Ravelry: Team Peace & Solitude 2011, led by Gretchen from Solitude Wool and myself from Peace Weavers. Anyone is welcome to join us - so far we have friends from two of our local Virginia guilds - the Blue Ridge Spinners & Weavers Guild and the Waterford Weavers Guild and also friends of Solitude Wool. Our team invites participants to set their own goals.

My personal goal this year is to spin through the Fleece Study I bought from Jackie Bland some years ago, while reading the wonderful The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook by Deborah Robson and Carol Ekarius. I was able to buy a copy and have it signed at Maryland Sheep & Wool, but I haven't had time to do more than glance through it so far. I thought it would be perfect to read about the breed I'm spinning as I work my way through this Fleece Study.

My Fleece Study has one ounce raw fleece samples from 48 different breeds. I made a spreadsheet today to help me keep track of things, and I am busily washing fleece in preparation for the start of the Tour on Saturday, July 2nd.


I was worried that I would have trouble telling the different samples apart and I've been keeping the little labeled bag that each came in with the bowl as it soaks and with the fleece as it dries. I've got two good sized bowls that I'm using to soak the fleece with Unicorn Fibre Power Scour, and so far each pair of breeds has been easy to identify.
Here you have Columbia on the left and Clun Forest on the right.

And this is Coopworth and Cormo.


The next few little bags, waiting for their turn in the bath!

I am washing the fleece in alphabetical order, but I'm thinking about spinning the breeds in related groups, like Down breeds, or possibly spinning the most coarse through to the finest wool. The latter is appealing with the softest, sexiest wool being the carrot to get me through the rough stuff. Black Welsh Mountain feels an awful lot like a Brillo pad to me!

Intentions

I have been doing more blog reading so far this year, and one of the most inspiring was this one from Knitfinder. I love the idea of intentions rather than resolutions - and I have a sticky note on my monitor at work with a list:
Exercise - Walk, Yoga, Swim
Counseling, Meditation
Mindful Pursuits - Design, Class Planning
Future -A New Home, Family Budget

So far, January was a bit of a blur - I had two weeks to do a month of day job work so that I could spend two weeks with my friend and mentor, Norman Kennedy. He came to visit for a week and we scanned a new set of slides - these were all warp weight loom pictures. Then we drove down to the John C. Campbell Folk School for a week of spinning class. Norman co-taught the class with Martha Owen, the resident spinner/knitter/dyer at the Folk School. Martha is another one of my favorite people, so I had a lovely, relaxing week and fell in love with a Kromski Polonaise wheel. I hope that someday one will come and live at my house.



Norman & Martha getting the class started.

We had a waulking, which is always great fun, and someone caught me in action!

Here is our whole class.

February, so far, has been some catching up from being away, starting to take regular walks again and a weekend spinning class that I taught locally at the Round Hill Arts Center. There has also been a great flurry of preparation for an exhibit that I have been asked to be a part of. I will tell you more about the exhibit in about a month when it launches, but the first task was to write a Biography and a Philosophy.

I have a brochure for the classes I teach, and that has a short bio but I needed something longer and more detailed. And the Philosophy was more of an artist's statement. I have new respect for anyone who has ever written one of these things. I wrote a draft and then my husband helped me develop and edit the second, third, eighth drafts... it took at least a week, but I'm fairly pleased with the final product.

I apologize for the teaser, but this will all be online on or around March 18th. I promise to post more information and links then!

So - upcoming I have an Acadian Weaving class at the Round Hill Arts Center on Feb. 19 & 20. There is still room in the class, but I am mailing out the warp yarn in the next day or two, so if you are interested, do not hesitate!

There is also still room in my Modular Knitting class at the Campbell Folk School March 6 - 12th. A week of knitting all manner of interesting shapes and playing with colorful yarn!

On the knitting front, I am working on a lace design for Solitude and I have a few small projects on the needles - Handsocks, a Selbu Modern hat and a Springtime in Philadelphia hat. I'm longing to cast on for a sweater, but I'm also kind of grooving on turning back to some unfinished projects. I need to decide if I want to knit any new shapes for the modular knitting class, because that is about 3 weeks away.

I have decided Not to Buy Yarn this year. I even told my husband! I have a seriously prodigious stash and it is likely that we will be moving in the next year or so. I have collected a lot of lovely yarn and most of it is earmarked for interesting projects, so I want to try to cast on some of the patterns from my queue rather than continue to add new projects. So I will try to avoid temptation, and cast on whenever I feel like it, but at the moment I'd like to finish some of the UFOs.

Knitting the Threads of Time

Knitting the Threads of Time by Nora Murphy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This lovely little book was a pleasure to read. In sharp contrast to the many knitlit books on the market today, this is a nonfiction book that follows the author through a winter season while she knits her first sweater and explores the historic and cultural context of knitting. She does not whine, she does not meet any famous knitters and her knitting is eventually successful. Can you tell that I have not enjoyed most of those knitlit books?



I think the main difference is that this is a real story, gently and genuinely told. It reminded to me to think about both the process of a creative project but also about the larger experience of creativity in my life and in the world.



This one is worth sharing.



View all my reviews

Upcoming Fiber Classes!

I will be teaching a variety of classes this fall and winter.


October 10-16, 2010 Acadian Weaving at the John C Campbell Folk School, NC


November 6 & 7, 2010 Acadian Weaving at the Round Hill Arts Center, VA


November 16, 17 & 18, 2010 Tartan Weaving 101 at WEBS in Northampton, MA

February 5 & 6, 2011 Traditional Fiber Preparation, Point Spinning and Color in Spinning for the Blue Ridge Spinners & Weavers Guild in Purcellville VA


March 6 - 12, 2011 Modular Knitting at the John C Campbell Folk School, NC

I'm also teaching a special sweater class for the BRSWG Knitters group this year, but that class is full! We have about 25 participants and it's a lively group.

If you are interested in any of these classes, follow the link to the sponsoring organization, or contact me for more information.

I hope to see you at a class this year!

Tour de Fleece

I have watched the fun of Tour de Fleece for the last year or two from the blur of my very busy job - we typically run 55-75 concerts in ten weeks in the summer.

This year I decided to join in spite of my job. I decided that I would try to spin every day of the Tour and just see how much spinning I could manage.

I spun on my two low wheels at home in the evenings, and I brought a spindle to concerts and sometimes had time to spin a little.


Here is my grand total (roughly from left to right):
Lisa Souza Merino in Beachstone: spun 324 yds, plyed 108 yds (spindle)
Shetland top in grey, spun 132, plyed 66 yards
Shetland top in fawn, spun 174, plyed 87 yards
Lisa Souza BFL in Deep Sea: spun 150, plyed 298 yards
Blue Moon Sheep to Shoe in Bruiser, spun 500, plyed 587 yards
Spirit Trail Polwarth Luxury Blend: spun 424 yards
Merino in blue: spun approx. 200 yds (bobbin)
Grand Total 3,066 yards!

I finished spinning the Polwarth just before midnight on Sunday, July 25th - and then stayed up to wind the singles off on a nostepinne, wind this together with the first bobbin of singles and then I just had to go ahead and ply them so I could see what the yarn would look like! At 1:30 I wound the 2 ply onto the niddy-noddy and found I had 212 yards - a nice worsted weight 4 oz. skein.

I was also inspired to inventory my spinning fiber stash, so I pulled it out of all the cupboards and bins and weighed, photographed and made notes. I still have a little left before it is all done - I'll let you know what the total poundage is! I found spinning projects I had started and abandoned and I am hoping to keep spinning and finish up some of these, along with some new projects.

I also found a Jackie Bland Fleece Study kit - 1 ounce each of more than 40 breeds. I'd really like to dive in and work my was through this. It would make a great Spin-A-Long - would anyone care to join me?