August Experimental Spinning - Fractal yarns

Fractal Spinning is another way of spinning a multi-coloured top to get a mix of colours. It's based on the idea of fractals and indicates an ever diminishing division of colours. 

I decided I'd like to see what happens when you use the primary colours, red, yellow and blue. This should be bright but I was hoping for some optical colour mixing. I had the separate colours and created a run that consisted of the three colours four times.

I split it all in half and spun the first half. Then spun further splitting the remains and spinning half until I had this left for the last sequence.

Which gave me the following two bobbins, which I then plyed together.

A fun and gorgeous yarn, not as much colour mixing but not as starkly bright. 

For further reading have a look at the Schacht Spindle Company website (www.schachtspindle.com) for articles by Benjamin Krudwig exploring this topic.

Also suggested by members of Experimental Spinning:

1. Spinning a Rainbow-Fantastic Three Ply fractal ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIqr00PwvRA )
2. Fractal Spinning Preep and how to - craftymisfits Tour De Fleece Weekly challenge ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTYEZwVSIxo )

Getting Ready

Tuesdays are my Stitch 'n Bitch day at Four Leaves Cafe, so armed with my now started top down jumper, courtesy of 'Knitting from the top' by Barbara Walker, I have something to do!

Then, I have to get busy and work on this lovely fleece from Sheila Kempson at Perrynook, that I've washed to get ready for the plying class that I'm giving for the Handweavers and Spinners Guild Spinning Certificate course. 

I have to fill two bobbins and then start plying!

 Any wind the rest of the yarn ready for my jumper.

Making yarn from fabric - explorations

What's a useful way of making yarn out of fabric? That was the question first put to the test in my month long stay at the Project Space.

I used a roller cutter and tore the fabric. The roller cutter was good for 1cm wide cutting and for cutting knit fabric. Tearing was very therapeutic and gave a really good edge. I explored only 1 and 2cm wide fabric, but might expand that to 3cm for my final project. Nice size for knitting and for small basketry.

Fabric cut into strips and joined

To create continuous yarn, I have spun the yarn, picking up strips when another ran out. I created a very thick chunky and satisfying yarn out of 4 lengths at a time, 1cm wide...colour co-ordinated, of course!

Handspun yarn from fabric strips

I found a way, can't remember where, of joining strips of fabric, by cutting a slit, in each end, and threading two strips through the slit on the first and then through itself, no knots. I've also spun the resulting strips and plyed them together.

Joined fabric lengths, twisted and plied

All sorts of yarns were created, and I think I now have a workable knowledge of fabric yarn. Lots left unanswered, but let's tick it off the list anyway.

Five on Friday - what on earth have I been doing?

Well, I have been overseas, and yes, there will be photos, but I'm still sorting them out!

Here are my Five on Friday. I have started working well this week and am feeling active, we arrived back at the end of July after 6 weeks away and it's taken 4 weeks (or more!) to get my act together.

From the last experimental spinning, where we worked with Blending boards, I've spun up this, and it's nearly finished! We're at experimental this Saturday (the 5th) where we'll be spinning embroidery threads and the rooms will be buzzing with activity as the Handweavers and Spinners Guild has a Spinning Open day from 11 till 3pm.

I need to practice my weaving and thought I'd try something simple! A spaced warp with a separate warp for a little bit of seersucker. Warp looks good.

Actually weaving very nicely, except the seersucker is just a softness, rather than a bubble. Maybe when it's washed. 

I'm not supposed to buy anything this year, but couldn't resist the amazing fleece from Andyle when the Black and Coloured Sheepbreeders came to the guild. One of the few meetings I attended. It's been sitting in my car.

Thought I'd better spin up said fleece. It's gorgeous, happy so far.

 And I did fit a bit of knitting in as well.

Five on Friday - Five Finished Yarns

I did manage to do a bit of spinning over the Summer break. I have my Ashford Traveller permanently at our beach house, so I can swap bobbins between my two Ashford Wheels.

I've finally washed the skeins and reskeined half of them, all I have to do now is photograph, measure and put them on Etsy, the least enjoyable part of the job. Anyway, here they are:

A fibre sandwich from the Harrietville weekend, plyed with purple. Have more to go!

Alpaca, with knots throughout. Not my best knots, but always give that little extra texture.

Dyed wool from Kathy's Fibres, purchased at Bendigo, navaho plied to keep those gorgeous colours alive!

Dyed yarn from Experimental Spinning, plied with fine Polwarth from Tarndwarncoot. The fine single was not scoured, so was scoured AFTER plying. The two different fibres reacted differently and I manage to get a slightly more textured two ply.....deliberately!

This is English Leicester and was spun for a non-spinning Leanne who won it at a Harrietville weekend. I think we'll be able to make a pouch for phone and keys when she goes on one of her photographic expeditions.

I've now started several more spinning projects....but I must finish the Samoyed!

Five on Friday - Chocolate Fleece

It's been a busy week, but no work has been done. The highlights were my youngest son coming home from his holiday in New Zealand and going to the movies with my mother, her Christmas present.

The movie was great....Cinema Nova run a series of beautifully filmed operas from the Met in New York. We saw the Barber of Seville. My mother loves opera and I get to learn a little more, then we have lunch, in this case.

Anyway, my Five on Friday is all about my chocolate fleece; well THREE chocolate fleeces. Given to me by a friend, surplus to a school's requirements, I thought I had three bags of fleece, but turns out to be three fleeces.

I've already given some away at Experimental Spinning, and am processing the rest of that fleece on my wool combs.

The fleece is not particularly good, all the best bits have gone. It is actually a lovely fleece, a bit dirty, but a really lovely chocolate, couldn't quite capture that.

 Part of the deal was to get better at using the wool combs. There's lots of rubbish left over.

Could do with an extra comb, but you end up with a lovely product, ready to spin.

25grams done, just want to get to 100 grams quickly!

Five on Friday - new year, new start, new idea!

Ok, so I haven't blogged much, but after a relaxing Summer holiday I feel that perhaps I need to take a new approach. It is fun and I like the discipline of having to do something so I can blog about it!

Taking a leaf from Leanne and her photography blog, where she has themes for her various, varied and numerous posts, I thought I'd start a 'Five on Friday'.....five pictures of the work I've done through the week. Hopefully, they'll form the basis of more extensive blog posts, but lets start with this.

Here they are:

1. Coming back from the beach, where I've been taking pictures of shells. More food for my A-Z of shells design project, which is a bit slow at the moment because I need to do some spinning and/or some dyeing.

2. Having finally started, after years and years (yes, really!) of spinning a multi-coloured fleece that was a gift from a good friend, to design and knit this fairisle jumper. The pattern is loosely based on banksias and is coming up quite nicely.

3. Knitting more socks. Now I'm trying to time how long it takes me as I want to try out for the Sock Madness Forever Groups', Sock madness 9 on Ravelry. It opens up on the 1st February for Registration.

4. I like to have a few bobbins of fine spun singles to ply with so I've been topping up my natural and purple. I want to do alot of spinning this year, a definite stash busting year!

 5. And today, I went to see Jean Paul Gaultier at the NGV International. It's finishing soon and it full of amazing stuff, though I did think I saw something labelled as knitting when it was crochet!

So, don't forget to see Jean Paul Gaultier, it finishes on February 8th....that is, if you're in Melbourne!

TSB textile July Newsletter

Ok, so it's August, but here is my current newsletter

                                                              

     

TSB textile opening hours:

                Tuesday 12pm till 6pm

                Wednesday 10am till 5pm

                Thursday 10am till 5pm      

                Saturday 11am till 4pm  

77  Grimshaw St,     Greensborough

tsbtextile@yahoo.com.au

               

TSB textile newsletter – July 2014

I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be offering spinning classes, the first commencing in August. Starting on the 23^rd August, the course will last five weeks, with a break in the middle. We’ll cover spinning on a drop spindle in the first two weeks and then work on spinning wheels for the next three weeks. This is a basic course focusing on getting you to spin your yarn. The class will be small, all materials and equipment will be provided.

Learn to Spin.

Saturday, 23^rd and 30^th August, 13^th, 20^th and 27^th September

2-4pm at TSB textile in Greensborough

Cost: $150 all inclusive.

Bookings: 0413054075

Saturdays we’ll still have activities when the spinning classes aren’t running.

                2^nd August – CLOSED – at Experimental Spinning at the Handweavers and Spinners Guild of Victoria

                9^th August – Come have a go at Tunisian crochet. One of Knit Picks dishcloths is Tunisian crochet. So try your hand at making your own facewasher or dishcloth. I have Tunisian crochet hooks to spare and yarn too.

                16^th August – To commemorate Anzac Day in 2015 Poppies are being crocheted and knit. I’ll be making some, and will get them to a delivery spot. Come and join me in this amazing project. For more information see 5000poppies.wordpress.com.

Unfortunately, for August, I won’t be opening on Friday nights….it’s cold! Hopefully back in September….it will be SPRING!

If you’re interested in some interesting exhibitions there are the following:

Bendigo Art Gallery – ‘Undressed – 350 years of underwear fashion’ from 19^th July to 26^th October 2014

                                                ‘The Body beautiful in Ancient Greece’ from 2^nd August to 9^th November 2014

                What a great pair of exhibitions around the body. This wonderful gallery is well worth a visit. Bendigo is a great place for a weekend getaway, even in Winter! More information at http://www.bendigoartgallery.com.au

Craft Cubed is Craft Victoria’s annual festival in August. Lots of different events and exhibitions. For information: http://www.craft.org.au/see/craft-cubed/

Remember to drop in sometime and see me at TSB textile. I’m always working. 

Cheers, Teresa

Celebrate with a mystery box!

Jan and Marie from the Handweavers and Spinners Guild of Victoria have come up with a lovely way to celebrate the coming 60th Anniversary of the guild. They distributed mystery boxes, filled with mysterious stuff which we will make into something mysterious for an exhibition in April and May next year.

Here are my boxes:

Yes, I know, there are two.... I didn't realise that I would get a choice, so while I was trying to make up my mind, the keepers of the boxes (Joy and Doris) decided I could have one of each! How could I refuse? I can't pick spinning over weaving, or weaving over spinning...just not right!

Here is what is inside:

 I think you can see the strange threads, bright blue beads, feathers, a playing card!, bits of wire, all sorts of yarns and fibre, oh, and shells....

These are actually the most interesting and the colours match yarns and fibres, and me, and will form the basis of whatever it is I'm going to make. It will be a sculpture, and, as far as I can, I will use all the materials and it will be done by the 29th March, 2014.....just not sure about those blue beads yet!

Stay tuned for progress reports!

Oh, and sorry for not blogging for awhile, bit crazy round here, going to get crazier....

Samoyed and new toys!

Eventually you have to get on with things. I've finally managed to catch up with the lovely Samoyed owner W and discussed progress on the spinning and weaving of a blanket from her lovely Samoyed fur. Many things had to align for us to finally have an excited and exciting discussion. We're both passionate about this project, I for the challenge it will be and for W, the promise of a wonderful reminder of a friend.

Here is the bags of fur that I now have to spin!

It also means that I do feel the pressure and was highly delighted when I showed her the small spun samples and the little bit of weaving that I had done. The weaving was done on a weave-it loom, which is only a square with nails and gives a fairly rough approximation of the final product. Fortunately, her immediate response was positive!

In testing out the spinning I used my small wool combs and loved the result so much that I determined to buy the much bigger English combs when I went to the Australian Sheep and Wool show in Bendigo in July. I've been playing with these monsters ever since, and just love the speed of preparation and the resulting ease of spinning. It is these that I will use to prepare the Samoyed for spinning.

Now I'm off to spin up some the wonderful wool top from Andyle to make into lovely natural coloured neckwarmers. I've just realised that without really thinking, I've been doing the right thing. In the middle of winter, when I can't really get any dyeing done as there's nowhere to dry and the boys don't really appreciate having their bathroom taken over by slow drying skeins, I spin natural wool tops that I get at the sheep show. It makes so much sense. Now, I have to make a special big effort over the summer to do alot of dyeing!

Plastic spinning

As I look forward to Experimental Spinning on Saturday, I realise I haven't even said anything about last month, and, we had such alot of FUN!

It was a plastic month. I've spun with plastic before and got some great results.

This time I had an ulterior motive as I wanted to have a go at combining some stashed acrylic yarn. Yes, I'm the person who everyone gives it to, and, I just can't say no.....

Even to pink!....

What I wanted to do was spin plastic around the acrylic and see if the colour would show through but be a bit more subdued. The result is not too bad...

Now, I hear you all ask, what are you going to do with it? Well may you ask...but I want to make some more nests....

Anyway, there were some amazing yarns created, combining yarns and plastic. We did discuss what you might do with these yarns and thought that things like little bags, you know, for phones and other young stuff! might be fun. I am looking forward to seeing what the others come up with.

The Queen of Canine Spinnables!

Sometimes a project comes along that you just have to do. It's a challenge and interesting and, more importantly, it's of special importance to someone. Just such a project has come my way thanks to the meeting place that is my local cafe 'Bien' at the Greville Rd shops.

One of my 'neighbours' has asked me to spin Samoyed hair from her previous dog. She has collected the 'blow' each year from her Samoyed and kept it. She has also lent me the book 'Knitting with dog hair' from which the 'Queen of canine spinnables' come from. This was obviously a special friend and  a labour of love.

Some has already been some spun in Tasmania and a lovely job. She has a little knitted sample and the halo is just amazing. It's like Angora rabbit and you could argue just as soft.

So, with all this in mind, I need to spin to match the current sample, but I want to create something that will reflect my own interests and fulfil the need to have something that reflects the relationship. At the moment we're contemplating a woven rug and I want to keep it as simple as possible and add interest by spinning two different yarns: a plyed yarn to match the sample and a single to add contrast.

These are my first samples and I'm very happy with them.

Now I have to spin bigger samples, 10g plied and 10g single. This will give me an idea of how long it will take and, more importantly, how much length I'll have to play with!

Yes, I do have a new wheel

I'm not really sure why, but when you have one spinning wheel, after a while, it seems to need company and eventually you have more! I have four. Now to justify the first three is sort of easy: one is my first wheel, an Ashford traveller, which lives at the beach; the second is a traditional Ashford, which I keep for my general, everyday spinning; the third is a Poly wheel, which is for all my big chunky spinning.

Surprisingly, I have been on the lookout for another wheel, but it was supposed to be for fine spinning and portable. Unfortunately, my friend Marion from Fancy Spinning a Yarn had a lovely wind wheel for sale. I resisted for quite a time, but finally succumbed.

Here it is:

 It's a wonderful quirky wheel that I've seen over the years. Everyone who has one loves them and I've had a spin on them and they're a very gentle wheel. Needless to say, I've always wanted one. It does fulfil one of my needs it does fold like this:

It's an Ettrick wind wheel and there's a history I don't quite know, but they weren't the original designer of the wheel. It has changed over time and they're still currently being made. Check out Ettrick. There's an interesting website, Australian Spinning Wheels, that has a brief description of various Australian wheels, including the wind wheel.

After my spilling of oil on the drive band, the wheel is slowly returning to normal...note to self...be careful with oil!

Spinning yarns

Today, surprisingly, has been a little chilly, just as well, as I have been spinning yarns in preparation for making them into neckwarmers for the coming Winter (or current Winter, if you're in the middle of it!).



There are blacks and greys, both in thick singles and slubby yarns.

They're destined to be shocked. Not a big shock, they'll be plunged into hot water, just to encourage the fibres to stay together and not stray onto a coat when they're later worn.

Then there are the creams, again, thick and slubby yarns. They'll be dyed, not sure what colours yet, but that will achieve the small shock needed to keep them together, but because of the dye time required, I will be a bit careful. I just want to shock them a little, not felt them!

When that's done, hopefully they'll turn into something like this:

I only have a few left, and they're now all in my Etsy shop!