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Tour de Fleece 1 took place on the original dates of the 2020 cycle event. It now appears that there will be a Tour de Fleece 2, taking place alongside the rescheduled race. I hope that the many TdF round-ups featured in this issue might inspire you to consider taking part in the second TdF of 2020.
e-spinners have become mainstream equipment rather than a necessity for those unable to treadle. In this issue there are reviews covering three different e-spinner models.
Wool has appeared in the news quite a bit this month. Sadly many of the stories relate to farmers composting wool since the price has dropped due to the coronavirus. But there are also more positive stories hitting the news about new and novel ways to use the stuff.
Read on for this month's cunning curated collection of inspirational information and entertainment for spinners, knitters, crocheters, dyers and weavers. This is the full issue for August 2020.
Photo right: Dieser Moment. The cover photo from a manuscript, 1478.
Contents
In the media
Wool insulation campaign, 'worthless' wool more valuable as compost, wool packaging, Chimney Sheep
Handspun stories
Tour de Fleece, seven year experiment, rhubarb seeds, spinning in medieval art, Spin the Bin, sheep to sweater contest, tannins, low-tech equipment
Tips and tutorials
Yarn substitution, colour theory, band weaving, yarn measuring app, kumihimo disc, style a stole, make good spinning notes, steaming, felted beads
Below you'll see some stories about the sad state of affairs regarding the price of wool.
On the more positive side, the NFU has backed a petition which calls for real British wool to be used in the government's new home insulation scheme and carpeting in any public financed building projects.
The petition itself is here. I've added my name, please add yours. As I write this, the petition has more than 23,000 signatures of the required 25,000.
'Worthless' wool more valuable as fertiliser, says Shropshire farmer
This is an article from the BBC but it appeared widely on media websites. One farmer explains that the price of wool is at a low point because of the coronavirus pandemic. He feels that it has more value composted and spread on the land.
The article refers to the campaign for the use or British wool in government projects.
Here's a very heartfelt social media post from one shepherd on the same subject.
This is a pile of fleece which has amazing properties, yet is going for composting.
Says Facebook user Fletcher's Flock, "people are walking around in man-made fibres derived from the petro-chemical industry, panicking that the oceans are filling up with plastic while blaming ruminants for climate change"
Wool project to source record 22 tonnes amid crisis
This is an unexpected use for fleece.
The Chimney Sheep is a chimney draught excluder. The Cumbrian maker collects wool directly from local farmers and pays them a better rate than they'd get from British Wool (which at the moment isn't saying much.)
This year they're increasing the amount that they buy from 16 to 22 tonnes.
In true "and finally" style, a video has gone viral which shows a possibly successful attempt to pass off a goat as a sheep by glueing a sheep's fleece to it.
In "forgotten experiments" news, beechwoodcraft had a tidy-out and found this jar containing two small skeins of ryeland and masham wool steeping in boiled tomato leaves.
The leaves were boiled for 30 mins and the yarn left in it for seven years.
She wonders at what point they reached this lovely colour.
This is Maude, named after Diane's maternal grandmother.
Diane has written the story of how she and her husband collected the loom, assembled it, got it working and built a fly shuttle system and bench, all during lockdown.
The knit knack has written a long post below her 'progress' shot. It combines a discussion about using a sweater quantity (SQ) of handspun yarn for a garment, with lots of information about the history of this particular project.
Although this looks very wordy, it is a good read. Sissel Ellevseth writes on the subject of travelling with spindles; the pros and cons of different types, her own experiences and some tips.
"I think we can all learn something from the example of Upper Itchingweasel", says thetwistedyarn, "which is that when faced with a frightening global pandemic, take out your needles and KNIT!"
Yarn bombings aren't news any more, but the work on display in this village is brilliant.
A woman's work was never done: spinning in medieval art
This month's cover image is also used at the head of a "not used in the print issue" article on the Ply magazine website.
The painting dates from around 1478 and is from a medieval manuscript of La Cité de Dieu. The ladies appear to be spinning a fine linen thread on their spindles.
It contains many medieval illustrations showing women spinning and a description of the spinning style.
They used a distaff and a small spindle. This arrangement allowed them to spin all the time, while walking and even while tending livestock.
This is the third week of Goldilox' Tour de Fleece, during which she used her collection of onion skins to dye these skeins. She describes the colour as a very pretty apricot.
Thread Head Joanne has finished her Spin the Bin challenge.
This would have been a great challenge for anyone to have taken during lockdown. The opportunity isn't over. The challenge runs from December to December, and the rules say that you can start at any time. I'd strongly encourage you to read the rules, there's lots of fun stuff including chat, 'use it or lose it' and a price for bailing on your bin.
Joanne combined this with Tour de Fleece and now has over five miles (including plying length) of spinning.
The Fibre Co makes a yarn called Meadow which is an eclectic blend of merino, llama, silk and flax.
Rachel decided to make her own blend using a similar mix. The result looks amazing, I'm looking forward to seeing the vest that she plans to make with it.
Among the virtual events this year was the third annual virtual spinning camp, #CAMPSPIN15IN20
This included zoom meetings and a Sheep to Sweater competition.
The competition required participants to spin just 5g of fibre and make a 2" high sweater. The prizes were some beautiful Allen Berry spindles, awarded in four categories. As I write, the winners haven't been announced yet but for the thumbnail and link I've chosen my favourite of the entries. You can see the other diddy jumpers here.
From a distance this skein looks quite muted but close up you can see the strong colours. The colourway is club fibre from Southern Cross Fibre called Hope Springs.
Because Sarah has chain-plied, the colours will stripe when knitted.
Elsewhere in this issue we see HighlandHeffalump's finished Reyna shawl.
This is her round-up of her Tour de Fleece spinning, which includes the pale blue and peach baby camel combed top, chain-plied, which she used in that project.
There are lots of images on this page, showing the batts, the singles and the finished yarn. All of this took most of Northern Lace's second week of Tour de Fleece.
Following beautifully from the last story is this blog post from Tracy Hudson.
We have seen how a backstrap or belt loom can be anchored to any convenient post / tree / doorknob. Tracy wants to use her foot-tensioned loom and has been considering foot dexterity and trying to exercise hers.
Just like craftmehappy, I have concentration problems when I try to count the winds in my skeins.
If you use a swift or skein winder to make your skeins, then this is a simple way to automatically count the turns.
It relies on the smartphone / iPad being able to sense a magnet passing. You attach a magnet to your swift and after calibration, make your skein and then read off the number of turns.
craftmehappy demonstrates the iOS app, but notes that there are similar apps on the Play store for Android devices.
There are other kumihimo patterns with more or fewer moves. This Piecework article has step-by-step instructions for a 3-move braid using a portable disc. It's easy to learn and do in public.
Emonieiesha isn't recommending steaming as a general alternative to your usual method of setting twist, but there are a couple of occasions when it's a fast and convenient choice.
Here she explains when it might be useful, and the tools you'll need.
There are two ways to felt wool, wet and dry. In this article Tammy refers to a magazine article about making wet felted beads by Amy C. Clarke. I've found that link to be broken (it may simply be a link to purchase the magazine).
Tammy goes on to explain the process for dry (needle) felting and how to embellish beads for jewellery.
We're now so used to buying textiles manufactured abroad, it's difficult to imagine the revival of a booming textile industry. What's stopping Western countries from expanding their textile manufacture at an artisanal or industrial scale? The answer may be in this chart.
Fibershed's analysis relates to the Western US, but I suspect that it broadly applies to us here in the UK, if only the bast fibre and wool sections.
The interesting take-away is that it might only take the plugging of a few gaps before we could be buying more clothes that are grown and sewn close to home.
Questioning the role of biosynthetics in regenerative fashion
Even though there is currently an abundant supply of natural fibre, the textile industry is still looking at recyclable plastic fibres as a sustainable choice.
But even "infinitely recyclable" polymers must return to the soil and will ultimately be a pollutant, says The Nature of Fashion.
This is a heavy article but a convincing argument that neither recyclable or biosynthetic fibres have the biodegradability or closed loop system possible with natural fibres.
Wool masks introducing new customers to the fibre's many benefits
A Hong Kong company is producing a face mask using Australian Merino wool.
A water resistant ultra-dense wool fabric for the outer layer provides extra protection against droplets or splashes.
It's said to be breathable (which is probably important for a face mask) regulates temperature, is reusable and biodegradable, and has a high quality next-to-skin softness for the user.
This article suggests that such products may introduce people to the many benefits of wool.
How textiles undergo fossilization via mineralization
Textile fragments exist which are 5,000 years old. A French research team has published a paper explaining how fibres can become mineralised and then fossilised, and the conditions needed for this to happen.
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The Coronavirus pandemic is causing havoc in all our lives at the moment but what about the charities and organisations that rely on public fundraising to maintain their care services? Martin House Children's Hospice is such a charity, with an annual running cost of around £9 million to provide their vital services to families, they need our help.
As a way of offering support to Martin House, Adam Curtis Online are donating a percentage every sale of their two most popular ranges, the Best of British Wool Throw Collection and the Real Shetland Cushion range.
Please see their blog for more information about Martin House and the fundraising products.
In May's issue we saw a blog post from Debby in which she chose the colours from her stash for a nightshift (and chose some fibre which she has since spun).
This is the finished shawl. As Debby says in this article, the colours you choose for your Nightshift pattern combine in interesting ways.
Sue calls this the 'Ugly Hat' but I don't think that's very apt.
I think the reason for the name is because Sue had problems dyeing the fleece, there are more details in this earlier post, but the results are good, if not as intended.
thefibrefemme has made this "Scrappy Shifty" out of yarn from projects over the years, handspun to big box yarn to indie dyed. Even the yarn weights vary widely.
The mix of colours really works. Sadly there was a problem with gauge and she's not able to wear it herself.
This is a beautiful picture of a beautiful finished project with beautiful words.
"The moment when a piece of knitting is finished and worn for the first time, and also made of hand-spun wool, simply doesn't need any words. every knitter knows how I feel right now".
It's lovely to have a gallery of finished project photos.
In an earlier post, HighlandHeffalump didn't seem happy with the inconsistency of the yarn. She started spinning during last year's Tour de Fleece, with a third skein spun at this year's TdF! She blames not making notes or sample cards for the inconsistency.
I think this is a case of 'no one else would notice' and it's a beautiful project, particularly close-up when you can see the jewel tones. This blog post also contains lots of detail about the pattern, yarn and timescale.
This is a functional project that uses small amounts of four different colours, though the designer suggests that you could experiment with two or three colours.
This pattern did appear in Simply Knitting but Helen's now free to sell it herself.
She says that its 'concertina' stitch pattern makes for a comfortable sock, "perfect for lazing around in your pjs on having a chilled out day at home."
It's a simple pattern to memorise, so ideal if you're a new sock knitter, or want some easy TV knitting.
"the pattern would work well with any gradient yarn, or a speckled or tonal too," she adds.
The pattern is £4 with £1 going to a charity close to Helen's heart.
This handspun top is delicate and summery, although Gaye calls the yarn "rustic-weight". She made some modifications to hers and blocked aggressively to get the bust fit.
The pattern is Nick Davis' Teaselpod. It deliberately has a shawl look. The designer says that it looks "good in hand-dyed or natural fibres" and adds a WPI suggestion for spinning your own yarn.
It uses a surprisingly small yardage, 400 - 550 yards.
Saturday, August 29, 2020 until Sunday, September 20, 2020
This is part two of the Tour de Fleece which will run while the cyclists ride.
If you've been inspired by the spinning and challenges of part one (which took place at the usual time but without the cycling race) then it's all due to happen again during the rescheduled race.
There is no entry fee to register a team. Spinners will be invited to donate a minimum of £5 each and ALL funds raised in 2020 will be donated directly to the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution)
A final word of thanks to everyone who blogs, writes articles or posts pictures on the subject of spinning, knitting, crochet or weaving. This newsletter wouldn't exist without people writing interesting and useful things.
I don't feel that I want or need to state very much on the subject of diversity. I would encourage anyone to blog, write or publish content on the subject of spinning and make sure that I know about it, whatever their gender, age, sexuality, skin colour, physical ability or any other personal attribute. When compiling this content I am often ignorant of these things because pictures tend to show projects rather than people and nicknames are often used. I'm making my decisions based entirely on the content and I believe that's the way it should be; all about the spinning.
If you enjoy Hand Spinning News, please don't keep it to yourself. Obviously the link to the full version is a benefit for paying subscribers, but please do share a link to hand-spinning-news.com by email or on social media with anyone who may be interested. An edited version of this particular issue will be visible there towards the end of the month.
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