Tag Archives: Fiber

I’ve been sick with some respiratory thing or another since the end of February and it only seems to be getting worse. This means I’m not doing much in the sewing room (lest I sew my finger!) and am not up to complicated knitting much either. Spinning is something I can almost always do. We didn’t have much bitter cold this winter but the one week we did, one of the local librarians fell head over heels for my handspun angora hat and asked if I might make one for her. Towards that end I’ve been working on yarn for that here and there. It’s a two color hat so I have some lovely tan angora already spun up that will be paired with two plies of green merino, yet to be spun, and pictured here is one of two plies of cormo/Romney (aka a sheep named Tarragon) that will get plied with a white angora singles.

Varitek is off the wheel and boy did this yarn turn out nicely! It’s a mohair Coopworth blend and I ended up with 614 yards/100grams of delicious laceweight. There are still shares of the next round of yarn and roving available over at the Gilead Fiber Farm etsy shop.

I’m headed up to Gilead Fiber Farm  on the weekend to see the new triplet Finn lambs and I’m on a mission to finish up one more skein of yarn to take along for show and tell. After seeing how beautifully Varitek spun up, I thought I would try a laceweight with my Seymour share (kid mohair, Finn lamb) for a shawl. This is naturally much slower going than the heftier yarns I just finished. Here’s the first bobbin all spun up and waiting for a mate.

Because we had such a warm winter last year, the fleeces were all smaller than normal. That meant Shale’s fleece was not even 2 pounds. You lose a bit in the washing and a bit more when the fleece is carded into roving so I asked Lynn to use her judgement with this fleece. I sent along Dora’s fleece which is also BFL but it just didn’t seem as nice. I though maybe Dora and Shale could be processed together but I knew Lynn might have a better idea and boy did she ever! She pulled just a couple ounces of merino/camel/silk and blended that into Shale’s fleece and sent me this amazing roving. It’s only a few ounces added to about a pound and a half but it makes all the difference. It’s such a pleasure to spin and I can’t wait to finish the first skein of yarn. I’m planning a 3-ply to show off all that lovely sheen so it’ll take a little while. I’m a slow spinner because I pick out all the vegetable matter and most of the nupps I come across.