My fine hand spun silk yarn.

I hand spun this lovely silk, all of 100gms,last year.  I've been waiting to find the right colours to add to it to give it more depth.

During my visit to woolfest I found a some wonderful variegated silk yarn that had different tones of gold, green, blue and pink from Helen Brotherton owner of www.myfineweavingyarn.co.uk.  This is 100% silk has added richness I wanted to my hand spun.

I am really pleased with the result and so I contacted Helen Brotherton owner of www.myfineweavingyarn..co.uk, to tell her of the results, which I think made her day.  Then next thing now is to look for a lacey shawl knitting pattern for spring. What do you think?   Any ideas please do let me know, leave a comment.  

Thank you for visiting blog.

The handmade crafts marquee at Wilderness Wood Christmas Fair thisweekend and next. We had fabulous time and very successful day forRosa's Friday morning Craft Group. Come and join us next week on 13 and14 December and do your Christmas shopping here.

  

I know my blog has been pretty quite lately but a lot has been going on behind the scenes.  Lots of family stuff and in terms of creating well.... I have been busy selling them.  My lovely shawls have proved popular which is wonderful and so I am knitting more.  I will of course be using the dark Wensleydale yarn and will add more colour.  I love making these because firstly, they are easy to make, they grow fast and the yarn is soft and feels beautifully soft in the hand.  Anyone who has worked with a super soft yarn will now just what I mean.

Here I am spinning some silk which, I must admit, I haven't yet planned what I am going make with it.

Michelham Spinners

Had the most fantastic weekend with my friends at Michelham Goes Wild.  Sunshine and spinning.  

Lots of lovely people and good food.  

This was the first time we had a stall as a team and we all loved it.  We learnt lots and ready for next time. 

Another Wensleydale Creation

This shawl is luxurious and long and it wraps very nicely around you.    Again, my own design.   As the title suggests I have use mostly dark Wensleydale. 

The light cream colour is hand spun Alpaca and I used single  ply Lleyn wool which I hand dyed.  

This design is very eye catching and the tones are pleasant and relaxed.  The shawl hangs very elegantly and the design is very much admired.  I have received several requests from admirers for me to sell them the shawl and requests for me to make more.  So I suspect that this will be a particularly successful design which may keep me busy!   I am really pleased with the result.  This is the shawl below.  I am blocking it for  that fantastic finished look that blocking gives. 

I hope you like the photos that show what inspired me to make the shawl, the choice of colours and "feel" I wanted to achieve.

Above is a lovely hair pin my daughter bought me that not only inspired the colours but I use on the shawl.  

Thank you for visiting the blog.  You are very welcome to comment, let us know the name of your blog/website so that others may visit and do let us know what you are up to.

Rosa,s Wensleydale shawl.

After a long absence I'm back.  Since I last posted on the blog, I've had some of the beautiful Wensleydale fleeces spun and this is one of my first creations.  I've also used some single ply yarn from the Lleyn ewes which I hand dyed to add some colour to the shawl. 

It is, as we speak, blocking but soon I'll post the results for you to see. 

I didn't use a pattern I just went with the flow and here are some pictures of what inspired me.  

A rare breed, the Wensleydale is full of character they reward you with one of the most luxurious yarns.    Gorgeous to handle and a always a rewarding result.  

I would love to hear what you've been up to and what inspires you.

Cyril the Squirrel

This is a little needle felted squirrel that I have been working on. It's made of alpaca and is a fun, satisfying, quick and a relaxing craft.  What always surprises me when I take up my felting needles is the small amount of fibre you need to make these little creatures.   I need to finish it - give him a nose, add the red squirrel fur on the ears and maybe add some friends for him.  His name is Cyril and I hope you like him.

If you are getting this via email and you want to leave a comment please click on comments link or click on the blog name at the top of the page.  If you are viewing through the blog you are welcome to leave comments  below.  I would love to hear from you.  

 Comments. 

The Princess and her fleece

  

This is Princess Poppy, she is a pedigree Wensleydale and was born last year.  Her fleece weighed about 2lbs. An adult Wensleydale's fleece can weigh about 4 kilos.

Her fleece is so lustrous and the locks are very beautiful.  My goal last week was to wash and card all her fleece so that it was ready for spinning and a project.  When embarking on using wool fleeces there a few things that I look for.  I test for breaks in the fleece.  What are breaks and why do they happen?  Breaks happen when sheep have had poor nutrition or more often it is caused by stress mainly during lambing.  The stress will cause the fleece locks to be weak and unfit for the purpose of spinning.  Depending on what you need from your flock meticulous management is everything. It is a sad day when all your fleeces cannot be used for spinning!  So, how do you test for breaks.  Grab a lock and hold it at both ends between for thumb and fore fingers not too near the ends and pull sharply a couple of times to see if it breaks.  It should make a nice pinging sound when you pull it sharply and it should not break in half.  This is what you want.  I  test a few locks from different areas of the fleece.

However, before touching or using any fleece I always make sure (this is important) that the shearing took place AFTER a minimum of three months of the fibre being treated for blowfly.  Many spinners do spin their yarn straight from the raw fleece but I prefer clean fleeces.

I always prepare the bath first and never put the fleece in a container and pour the water on the fleece.  I use  water that is hot enough for my hands to be comfortable in and add either hand wash soap for wool or silk or just a children's shampoo.  I push the wool down under the water and give it a 30 minute soak. I never agitate the fleece just push it under the water.  

I changed the water at least four times and always made sure that the temperature was more or less the same as the previous soak or it might have felted the fleece.  Each time I removed the fleece from the dirty water I grabbed a bit with both hands.  I placed one hand and underneath and another on top so that the friction of the water running through the fleece had no chance of felting and I squeezed the water out.  I did this every time.  Just a habit I picked up.   In the last couple of soaks I didn't add any shampoo or soap so that the fleece was rinsed when clean.  Often tips of locks have a little dirt left but I find that this is perfectly OK and will disappear when you card it.   I prefer to wash fleeces during the summer months and soak them in rainwater first to soften any mud and dirt.  I then use the water in the vegetable garden or for the plants.  Any bits of the fleece that I don't use I line my hanging baskets with.

This fleece was really lovely and my favourite to work with.  The locks are so curly and shiny. Maybe I am biased but they are beautiful and I often stopped carding to admire the different appearances of the fleece during the different stages of carding.  I did use a drum carder and I think that if I had used hand carders I would have picked the locks first and then carded it.  I put each batt through at least three or four times and is now ready for spinning.  I want to make something really special with this so I will be looking for inspiration and ideas.

I look forward to making up my mind and making a garment with this fleece.  When I do I shall up date you all.  Thank you for visiting the blog!

Beret Beautiful Dark Wensleydale

At last I received my yarn from the mill.  I sent off just over 40 kilos of Wensleydale fleece from my flock of 9 Wensleydale!  Some of the fleece has been Super Chunky woollen spun and some 2 ply Worsted spun.   You can see the flock on on one of my previous blogs. You will see that some are getting on in years and have started to produce some beautiful silver coloured  fleeces and some are dark chocolate in colour. These fleeces were all mixed together to produce this yarn which will shortly be added to the Yarn page.  I have, however, stashed about 5 Kilos of carded fleece which is ready to hand spin.  I shall spin some and show you another day (I shall add a Fibre page soon and include this as well as other fibres to it ).  Back to this dark chocolate yarn.Having put all the yarn away in the wool craft shed (yes, it does actually exists) I eagerly added some of these balls of wool to my goody basket and hurriedly slunk indoors to get creative.

I begun to look through some patterns for inspiration and in two shakes of a lamb's tail I hand knitted this!

I had come across a Sirdar pattern for hats and berets which you can see in the basket above - the Click Chunky 9060. It didn't take very long and was easy to follow.

Very chic and lovely to wear.  The wool has a lots lustre as you can see.

So, that's the first project with this yarn.  I have started to crochet a blanket with the white alpaca and lambswool chunky yarn (see the yarn in the Yarn page)  and will be adding this dark yarn to it. Stay tuned and I will show you this work in progress soon.

I also have another grey chunky yarn (see the yarn in the Yarn page) which is made from my Lleyn flock.  it is made of 70% lambswool and 30% grey Alpaca.  I am going to knit this beret in a smaller size with it and see see how yarn from different breeds can possibly affect the result of a garment.

What are you working on?  click on the word "comments" below let me know.

Tortillas

It's that time of the year to harvest our vegetables.  John grows all our vegetables from seed and with some simple ingredients we cook some tasty snacks for supper.  The eggs in this recipe are not homegrown but we will soon.  There may be much discussion amongst my family members about how I make my omelettes but that is life!

I made two omelettes a small thin one for sofia because that how she likes them and a big  fat one for us.  I like my tortillas (omelettes) with the egg a little runny. The ingredients were 2lbs of potatoes, 4 extra large eggs, 1 large onion and I used olive oil.

I made my life easy by slicing the potatoes and onions using a small food processor.  When the oil was hot I poured it all in the pan and after a few second I turned the heat down a little so let the potatoes and onions "stew" not fry crisp.  When cooked I carefully removed the potatoes and onions from the oil and poured them in the bowl of beaten egg.  I mixed everything well and I added some salt.  Using a smaller non stick pan I poured some of the mixture onto the oiled pan.  I only greased the pan with oil at this point.  When the bottom side was cooked I removed the pan from the heat and placed a plate that was larger than the pan over it.  With my hand firmly placed on the plate and the other on the frying pan handle I flipped the whole thing over leaving the tortilla cooked side up on the plate.  The frying pan went  back onto the heat and I eased/slid the omelette back onto the pan ucooked side down.

                                                                                                          

I finished cooking our tortillas and we sat down to a lovely supper.

Tip:  If like us you try and grow your own veg.  then you know that courgettes and marrows grow in large quantities.  I try to use these in many different ways just to eat them up.  I have used these in our tortillas instead of potatoes.  They worked well.  Just remember to use the dry fleshy bits or it will be too soggy. They make great Tortillas.  I peeled the marrows or courgettes and fried them using a non stick pan which was only greased with oil so this is great if you want a low calorie tortilla.  

Blissfully Soft Lambpaca Socks

 

I have finally finished my socks.  I used one of the 100gram skeins of 50-50 Lambswool and Alpaca DK and hand painted the yarn.   You can find this yarn on my Yarn Page.  Dyeing is always a very exciting process  for me as I never know what I am going to get.  I loved the outcome and was surprised to see how the colour pooled according to the stitch I used. A wonderful designer Cat Bordhi shared her methods on You Tube.  I have used some of her methods and have her links below.  I wanted them snug on my feet for warmth and will thus make the sock wear evenly. I used Patty Joy's magic loop  toe up two at a time cast on method which can also be found on You Tube.  I only increased at the toes until I reached the top of my little toe and I then continued knitting until I reached the top of  my leg. 

 

I decreased a certain amount of stitches so that they fitted well around my ankles.  I used 1 x rib for the leg until the yarn was nearly finished. I used Jeny Staiman's surprisingly stretchy bind off which can also be found on You Tube and finished the sock.  Let me know what you think and if you want me to demonstrate the methods I used and you are local and I can arrange a demo.  You can also purchase a single pattern from Cat Bordhi on Ravelry for $6.

 



This weight of yarn makes a good 'proper'  boot sock.  Very cushionie, soft and very warm.  I didn't want to take them off.  I promise you that the softness of the yarn always surprises everyone that tries them on.  The leg 1x rib makes a good thickness and protects the ankle from boot rubs and keeps you warm on those very chilly days.  When using walking boots the top of the socks fit nicely with them.  It is super easy and quick   Just keep trying it on as you knit it and it and they will be perfect. Let me know what you think.

 

I used Cat Bordhi's 'sweet tomatoe heel'.  There is a tutorial for this heel on you tube.  To view this video click on the following link .http://tinyurl.com/4x4xmp2.    http://tinyurl.com/3dayxlt I highly recommend her fantastic book and if you wish to purchase it click on the following link http://catbordhi.com/books/cats-sweet-tomato-heel-socks-3/

The Black Wensleydale on the High Weald

Meet the new members of our flock.  They have arrived and am happy to say that they are not only beautiful but come from amazing stock. This is not achieved easily and without hard work.  I am very lucky to own this rare breed and colour. 

They have settled in very nicely and already know what to do to get what they want!

Our handsome ram is strong, healthy and, as they all do, has  a luxurious fleece.  I aim to breed from them and perhaps cross breed a few to see what benefits this can bring.  All the ewes are of pedigree standard and are registered with the Wensleydale Longwool Sheep Breeders Association.  I intend to shear them twice a year because of the benefits this brings to their health, welfare and the advantanges it has during lambing time. 

I want to thank all the Wensleydale owners that I have met; who have encouraged me, and readily offered their help and advice.  For me, their experience is invaluable and the generosity with which Wensleydale owners and breeders have shared their knowledge and expertise has to be acknowledged and is the reason we still have this breed today.   The Wensleydales have been on the brink and they are here with us because of them

Enjoy the pictures of some of these wonderful sheep and their fleeces.

The Wealden Woollyholic

At last I have received some of my wool back from the mill.  I spent all morning dyeing these DK skeins.  I used food colouring which is a good use for the stuff.  My daughter, who is now 7 years old, helped me name the different skeins and some examples of the names are Sunset Dance to Lollypop World.  Great!  Of course I must mention a big thank you to my friends behind the scene who do all the work who made this wool from grass!

THANK YOU

I hope you enjoy what we do here so please subscribe and it would be really good to hear from like minded people out there. 

We are in the full swing of lambing and so far we have had a lots of healthy lambs including some lovely triplets.  I shall be taking some pictures in the next few days and posting them for you to see.

Some of the fleeces from last years lambs are at a specialist mill and are yarn from these will be ready, by next week, for sale.   This yarn will be 50% Lleyns lambswool and 50% alpaca.  Beautifully soft and white in DK and Bulky.  I can't wait to see it and will be posting photographs as soon as it is available for you. 

I am busy with spinning fleeces from someone else.  I am working hard to complete all seven fleeces.  These are white, grey and brown.  The yarns I am spinning for them are all bulky will either be all grey, grey and white, brown and brown and white.  This is the sort of projects I really enjoy.