A couple of weeks ago I sorted the washed fleece into four piles, from light to dark. The Rampton 2012 Project is "Fleece to Finished Object weighing less than 125g"; I made four piles, then started flicking the locks.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Belinda the bouclé BFL: Project the First
Spinning, not weaving, and tone rather than colour.
That's Belinda in the middle, with Sally the Suffolk on the left. She was a rescue, a 'poor do-er' found on a smallholding by the shearer, who is collecting one of every variety for his shearing demonstrations. I've read that fleece fineness can be a function of the health of the sheep (finer fleece from animals doing less well) and Belinda reinforces that: her fleece is incredibly fine, and many of the twisted locks are more than the typical 'tippy' of a BFL, they're virtually glued together by something that seems to be cooked solid in a standard hot wash. Having processed some of her 2010 fleece washed the standard way, I decided to make her 2011 fleece the occasion of my first fermented suint vat. It worked well, albeit slowly (cold summer): after several weeks of testing locks I finally hosed the fleece out, then washed it normally.
Note the variations in colour.
A couple of weeks ago I sorted the washed fleece into four piles, from light to dark. The Rampton 2012 Project is "Fleece to Finished Object weighing less than 125g"; I made four piles, then started flicking the locks.
I prepped all the dark first, as I wasn't sure I'd have 30g of prepped fibre; in the end it was 32.
A close view of the bouclé. Flicking takes those brittle bleached tips off, and quite a lot of the butt of some locks - the locks are quite heavy for such fine fibre, so when sheared the fibres rebound to make tiny twisted 'pills' at the butt. Flicking also removes skin from my left forefinger (I've taken to protecting it with a sheath of duct tape), and I've got punctures in my left thumb. Many of my spinning acquaintances think I'm mad to work this hard at processing, but I am determined to make the most of every beautiful fleece I encounter. Some are easy, others require far more work, but the work is so rewarding.
The first bobbin of singles. I've finished the first colour and am about halfway through the allocated 15g of the second. I'm hoping for >1200m of 2-ply for a circular shawl, pale to dark at the edge; if I can get enough, I'll make Evenstar. If I'm close to the necessary length I'll make something else for Rampton and spin more for the shawl - I think this will look stunning, it is wonderfully soft and shiny, and I confess I'd like something spectacular at the end of all this work. I have more of the paler shades of Belinda, but it will be ... some time ... before I'll be willing to prep more of it.
A couple of weeks ago I sorted the washed fleece into four piles, from light to dark. The Rampton 2012 Project is "Fleece to Finished Object weighing less than 125g"; I made four piles, then started flicking the locks.
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Damn, you work hard at this! Amazing spinning!
ReplyDeleteAlso, and perhaps more to the point of this blog - WHY are you doing this? What drives me to choose one project over another? Why does hand-prepping fiber appeal to you? Why do you want to knit with this yarn rather than weave with it?
ReplyDeleteFunny, I came back to the computer en route to the shower because I'd just been thinking about how I would weave this if I was going to. I think the colours would be a subtle tartan/stripe pattern. It would be a shame not to use them.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't I weave this batch? Because I've been thinking about the shawl for nearly two years, since I knitted a lace swatch from the 2010 fleece.
Another reason: I'm realising that, while I think I can make fabric, I've never worked with fabric and have no real sense of what to make with what I weave. I think that if I were to weave this - maybe the rest of the fleece could be weaving yarn, with something else as warp or weft, because it's a lot of work to prep and spin enough to make fabric - it would be fine, warm shirting. Plain weave? But I'd need metres of it to make a shirt. That's a lot of spinning. Mind you, I do love doing this. Post that 'WHY do it' as the next post and I'll reply.
And how did you manage to post this whilst my back was turned? Wonderful, wonderful stuff. And! I absolutely empathize with the "and now what?" feeling about yardage. Hence the conversation with Sara and my plan of making Kimonos. (note the plural) First one underway and to be shown to Ms. L. at CNCH in May, if not sooner in photoz. And, that's also why I'm so chuffed about the garment class that's (hopefully) going on.
ReplyDeleteI'll absolutely be sharing every last bit in that department. That includes pattern drafting (some) and how to think about fabric and the yarn that goes into it. But, what I've also realized is that yardage is my tuition. And, starting with commercial yarn will remove some of the pain and some of the variables. Well done, you!