Recent Work

Some of this week's work.
    Pure Wensleydale yarn made from the long staple wool and then hand dyed.  I made 400gms of this.
 Some Wensleydale locks that I have named 'Storm Clouds'.  These are hand dyed using food dye and  the dye set in the microwave using the new steamer I got yesterday.  I think that I will dye more in this colour way and then spin them up myself when my new spinning wheel arrives.  I think that it will make a lovely art yarn.   My new wheel is on its way from the US and I am really excited as it will spin any thickness of yarn
   Lastly my soaps these I felt using  a coarser fiber that is not really suitable to make into yarn as it is not soft enough

Wensleydale Batts

The first wool batts from this year's fleece.  These are from a half bred sheep that I sold last Autumn to a neighbour.   I now have the whole fleece and as with my other half bred sheep it is a large fleece.  I have washed  and then kettle dyed some of the fleece using Gaywool dye.  This has produced a lovely denim coloured wool which I have blended with Angelina to make a lovely fibre ready for spinning or felting.  There is still a little veggie matter in the fiber although it has been through the drum carder 3 times to blend the dyes lots thoroughly.  I have put it up on my Etsy web site.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/153841397/victoria-beckham-hand-dyed-wensleydale-x?ref=shop_home_active 

Shearing the Sheep

A busy morning in the yard with the sheep shearers.  All the adult sheep are shorn and they will  be more comfortable for the summer and I have all their lovely fleeces to play with.
It is important to get all the sheep shorn when the warm weather arrives as all sorts of nasty beasts can make their home in all that wool, apart from it being very hot and the sheep are in danger of becoming 'cast'.  That is when they get stuck on their backs and they die very quickly.
All a bit uncomfortable for them while it is happening but it only takes a minute or two.
I took a photo of the rams enjoying the evening sun a few hours after their ordeal,  perfect weather for them.
The first of the fleece is already washed,  dried  and in the dye pot as I write this.    Great to have the weather to dry the fleece

Summer May have Arrived

Carding some Jacob fleece in the garden.   The first day this year that the weather was nice enough, and no wind. to do some work outside!   The great thing about it is all that dirt is left outside rather that on the floor in the house creating more dust.   The end product all those lovely batts of carded wool ready for the spinning wheel,  Oh Joy

Setting Sun

More lovely long Wensleydale locks.  The 6 inch ruler can just be seen in the top photo.
 These are dyed using food colouring.  Dyed and then rinsed well in soapy water.  These locks have had no harsh or dangerous chemicals used in the washing or dyeing process.  They are from the first shearing of my year old lambs and so have really nice tapered ends

Dying with Stinging Nettles

These are the colours I got using Nettles to dye my yarn.   I used copper and allum as mordants and the brown is copper and the green allum.   Nettles are a very traditional dye plant and give good results which are pretty dye fast for natural dyes.  It took me nearly 2 hours to prepare the nettles and I used both tops and roots and only got stung  a few times!   The end product is 200 grams of both colours.  I am pleased with the colours as I had looked on line and it seemed that other people had got very weak colours and I was worried as it is a little early in the year and we have had so little sun.

Purple Headed Mountain

This yarn is named after a line in the well known hymn   'All Things Bright and Beautiful'   which was written at Markree Castle.    I was getting withdrawal symptoms as I had no fiber ready to spin and so had a dig around in my fiber stash and came out with these colours.    The fibers are a mixture of long and short staple pure Wensleydale and a little Wensleydale X Suffolk.   I carded them individually first and then mixed them once on my drum carder and this just mixed the colours rather than blending them.     The yarn has a lot of texture,    thick and thin bits,  slubs and curls  giving it lots of character.  I ended up with 4 hanks all weighing around 100 grams which I then listed on Etsy
https://www.etsy.com/listing/151592229/purple-headed-mountain-hand-dyed-and?ref=shop_home_active