SPINNING IN THE MUSEUM GARDENS NOT

The title of Saturday's meeting was Spinning in the Museum Gardens - however the weather intervened and we were, sadly, indoors instead. It was, nonetheless a fun meeting - one of those chatty informative ones where you find out snippets of useful info that can be taken away for future use - in this case we were talking about weaving and it came up that someone in the Mid Essex Guild always leaves thread on the loom so that a new warp can simply be tied to this and pulled through - how cool is that.

We had visitors from the Mid Essex Guild (hence the previous conversation) which was particularly nice, and the museum had a Roman event where they built a bread oven based on an upturned basket covered in clay - this was fired by lighting a fire inside, the embers were later scraped out and bread was cooked inside. The first loaf cooked to a crisp on the outside in 5 minutes flat, whilst remaining soft inside. They also had a little bakery type stall set up demonstrating other Roman delicacies.

Inside in the dry with us was another lady in Roman attire demonstrating drop spindling and weaving on a warp weighted loom.

I spun more green and pink fibre towards the finishing of the scarf that I started in Ireland - this is nearly finished now, just a curly fringe to complete the look - so, by the end of the week.......

I FEEL LIKE THE QUEEN

Gosh it's been a good morning - the postman has been and he brought me lovely pressies. I feel like I've just had a second birthday!

Last month it was my real birthday and I was given lots of loverly money to spend. Needless to say I imediately went mad on Etsy and ordered a selection of bits and pieces - mostly spinning related.

Yesterday after a tiring day at work I arrived home feeling a little flat - soon after there was a ring at the door - my neighbour delivering some lumpy post that wouldn't go through the letterbox - and...YIPPEE - it was some scrumptious fibre that I'd ordered from Frog Hair Fibres. one called Carnivale and the other Goddess - both very aptly named I feel.

This morning I couldn't wait to start spinning Carnivale and, just after getting stuck in, the bell went again - postie delivering more lumpy post - WOOHOO - this time it was a lovely little fabric basket that I'd chosen with the express intention of putting hand spun balls of yarn into it, and also a hackle complete with diz and clamps from Catskill Mountain Fibers. I am delighted with the hackle - it's nicely made and finished, so now I'm torn between carrying on spinning the fuzz I started on this morning, and getting out some more fuzz and blending it on the hackles! I just love the roving that comes from using a hackle and diz to blend colours. (mmm can feel another post coming on)!

Below is a pic of the basket from Wrap 2 Patch

links:

wrap 2 patch

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5692334

catskill mountain fibers

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5790175

frog hair fibers

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5586487

SIMPLE SCARF PROJECT

THE PROJECT

This project came about because of a fleece to garment day that was held in a lovely old barn last year. Several guilds took part (the guild that I belong to came 3rd - or second to last!) It was a great day with all sorts going on and I'm really looking forward to taking part again this year. The garment(s) we had to produce were two knitted scarves, knitted end to end - 125 stitches on size 8 needles for 25 rows. The finished scarves had multicoloured lengthways stripes and were extremely pretty - so naturally I thought "I could do that at home" - and, being more of a crocheter than a knittter the natural progression was to crochet my scarf rather than knit it.

FIBRE PREPARATION

The fibre I have used for this project is commercially prepared and dyed Merino tops. I've chosen warm reds and pinks with a little white for highlights. I bought the tops from my fav crafty shop - Handweavers Studio in Walthamstow.

The tops come as tightly wound balls which need to be opened out and then split. To do this I hold the top up and gently peel off a strip from one side (see pic) - if the top is fairly new this will be relatively easy. However if it's been in the bag for a while it may resist a bit.

Once I have my strips ready I then pre-draft them prior to spinning - this just makes it easier to control the thickness of the yarn that's being spun. (If you want to mix colours you can do so quite easily at this stage by pre-drafting two colours together or by pre-drafting two colours separately and then winding them into balls together).

To pre-draft simply hold the yarn in your left hand (if you're right handed) and, with your right hand, pinch between forefinger and thumb and pull gently toward you - just enough to open the fibres up - not so much that they drift apart. The strip you end up with is much longer and thinner and the fibres are very open - this is the key to controlling the fibre during spinning.

I then wind all my pre-drafted wool into loose balls (I used to use "nests" but I find that they snag more, when you're trying to spin, if you move them about too much).

SPINNING

I then spin on my Ashford Joy spinning wheel and ply into a two ply yarn which I like to wind into centre pull balls ready to be crocheted.

I had six colours - two pinks, two warm reds, a deep burgundy and almost white (one ply white and one ply mixed white and red).

For this project I spun a yarn that was about 17 wraps per inch. The finished scarf weighed 75g. This means that it weighs about .4 of a gramme per 10cm square.

CROCHETING THE SCARF

The final phase is to crochet the yarn into a scarf.

For this scarf I used a crochet hook that's around about 3mm (It's an antique bone hook so I can't be exact but this is a reasonable estimate). I crocheted 200 stitches lengthways then, using double crochet (American singles), I randomly changed colour for each row until I'd completed 39 rows. My scarf measures approx 49 inches by 6 inches (125cm x 15cm)

I then washed it in a gentle woollen washing liquid and blocked the scarf to finish - I don't always do this but these scarves tend to go a little curly if you don't also it does give a smarter finish, which I felt was appropriate here.

The yarn weight is unimportant as you can change to an appropriate size of hook for your yarn and then crochet an appropriate number of stitches - this is dependent on the length that you want your scarf to be (I like a shortish scarf that can easily be tucked into the top of whatever woolly I'm wearing - but this isn't to everyone's taste). you can use your own colours and if you're not a spinner you can use commercial yarns - these projects are a great way to use up oddments - you can create scarves with a rainbow of colours and a myriad of touchy, feely textures. So have a go it's simple and can be completed quite quickly.