Tour de Fleece is about halfway through as I write this, so I've collected some of my favourite updates and present them in this month's issue. Next month we will obviously see more, with round-ups and recaps.
TdF has always been an online event. Many real-life events and classes have had to move online over the last year for obvious reasons. Josiekitten reports her experience of taking an online workshop this month. It's good to see in-person events now being planned, some for this year. But now that Zoom-style classes and events have been tried and enjoyed, do you think this is this something that will continue when the pandemic has blown over?
Read on for this month's round-up of news, views and reviews for spinners, knitters, crocheters, dyers and weavers.
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Photo right: Tour de Fleece Day 11, danaknitshere. Cover photo Irish Peasant Spinning Flax, postcard.
Six pieces of wool and two pieces of linen have been recovered from a Viking woman's grave in central Norway dated to between AD 850 and 950.
A few more details are in this press release. Further analysis may reveal the original colours and whether the sheep was local or imported.
In this "one man's waste..." story, discarded banana stems are being turned into useful fibres and paying work for rural people.
Extracting the fibres does appear to be a mechanical process (see bamboo / viscose fibres elsewhere in this issue).
Farmers usually pay to have waste banana stems cleared up. There is a demand for the processed fibre; companies visit the village to collect it.
en.gaonconnection.com/banana-yarn-fiber...women-empowerment-positive-story
The distillery, along with Harris Tweed Hebrides, the Harris Tweed Authority and the islands' education services worked with schools to bring about their own cloth.
The children learned about the cloth while coming up with their designs.
The winning design was woven by the distillery's own Stephen Passmore and last year, Isle of Harris Distillery collaborated with designer Judy R Clark to create an uniquely special Made To Measure jacket from this cloth.
www.scottishfield.co.uk...isle-of-harris-distillery-launches-its-own-tweed
Thank you to lazykate_textiles for highlighting the Homegrown Homespun project which you may have caught on the national news.
The project aims to grow flax and woad, and then to spin, weave and dye linen and make clothing.
It's part of the British Textile Biennial, which has a programme of events through 2021
There are volunteer sessions between now and September (Blackburn)
Maja Siska introduces us to South Iceland Woolweek.
Now that borders are open to people who are fully vaccinated or recovered, it has been decided that the first South Iceland Woolweek will be Oct 3 - 9 2021.
The organisers are a group of local women, including spinners, knitters, felters.
The event will be "a truly local affair" but you are all invited to join in.
More information including the programme so far is all at the page linked below.
Cari is the name of the sheep that donated this fleece. Araignee has posted a picture of the sheep along with a sequence of pictures showing the fleece before and after washing. She put the yellowed bits straight into these jars of dye, and set the jars out in the sun.
Fibres such as bamboo or banana are available to us for spinning and it's easy to assume that the fibres exist in the plant and they're extracted for us to spin.
In fact they may be 'viscose' fibres, where the original plant (or shell in the case of crab) is dissolved chemically and extruded into silky fibres.
Is this sustainable? There may not be a simple yes or no answer to that question but it's good to have a better understanding about the processes involved.
This article by Jack H aims to present the facts.
www.ethical-clothing.com/blog/is-bamboo-clothing-sustainable
Last month's Hand Spinning News contained a story about Berta's flax, a project to distribute a dowry chest full of flax to spinners.
Vampy is a lucky recipient of said flax. This blog post contains a lot of interesting information about spinning the fibre.
My main link is to part 1, part 2 is here.
This is a short video showing beechwoodcraft spinning some of Berta's flax.
She discusses the way that she dresses her distaff and moistens her fingers.
josiekitten has taken a workshop called Dye at Home. It was conducted over Zoom with the kit of materials sent by post beforehand.
Here she documents her day. I wonder whether this kind of remote teaching will stick around after the pandemic is over?
theknittingexploitsofjosiekitten.blogspot.com/2021/06/dyeing-at-home.html
This is a lengthy but very interesting blog post. Lara has written about spinning cotton; her reasons for using support spindles, her research, a DVD recommendation and the types of bowls she uses. She illustrates and describes her spinning, plying and scouring processes.
theknitknack.wordpress.com/2021/06/12/spinnerside-on-cotton-with-spindles
The big takeaway here is Spanish Peahen's advice to "trust the process!"
With a technique such as fractal spinning, you don't appreciate the result until you've knitted the yarn. During the process it's easy to have doubts.
There are other 'lessons learned' in this fractal spinalong retrospective.
thepeahenspod.com/2021/06/17/fractal-spinalong-retrospective/
Freyalyn has spun this Boreray fleece into a fine yarn with a gradient.
The fleece contained both grey and white, and Freyalyn shows how she achieved the gradient and shares pictures and information about this spin.
At first glance this picture doesn't seem remarkable. Until you discover the source of the fibre.
Caesar weed is tropical but is invading parts of North America. So Karlissa Keller was performing a service when she gathered some from her local park (as long as the seeds aren't inadvertently distributed).
Here is her account of retting, preparing and spinning the fibres.
However you spell it, the word won't be new to you if you're a regular reader.
The craft uses an eyed needle to make crochet-like chains.
lovestoswatch writes a little more about the craft and has some fabulous project suggestions.
lovestoswatch.wordpress.com...nalbinding-nalbinding-nalebinding-nalebinding
Some favourite posts
Here's a stop-motion video of spindlesandstitches swopping her drive wheel and other parts in preparation for the Tour.
The old drive wheel was decorated (pictured) and now she has a blank canvas for some fresh customisation.
Tour de Fleece is about personal challenges and goals. If you're not familiar with the concept, Ewespecial explains. Her plans involve cotton.
On day 5 Spinning Shepherd plied this yarn, spun from rolags made from 50% wool, 30% alpaca, and 20% angora sprinkled with a bit of "pure gold" angelina.
On day 7, Julia posted these very cheerful rolags. There's also a picture of the fibre being blended on the blending board.
This is danaknitshere's 'day 11' shot. It's a sexy spindle and some pretty purple fibre.
When little needs saying except 'beautiful colour'
The Tour de Fleece has rest days, alongside the cyclists' rest days.
But spin_up_girl says "no rest day for the wicked". She even took a spindle to her games night with friends.
She calls these colours "delicious" and I agree. The fibre is Into the Whirled Falkland.
These very striking rolags were inspired by the witches in the print. Nicky also includes a picture of the 155 yards of fingering weight yarn.
Here's an interesting combination of greys with fiery colours. It's called Charcoal and Maple, Polwarth dyed by Three Waters Farm. Dannilise has spun it during Tour de Fleece.
This is a very satisfying video showing the sped-up movement of sheep. Their movement is fluid.
Footage is by Lior Patel
Here are (as you'd expect) three good-quality tips from Kate Davis. She includes a link to a further article about working out where to start the heel.
kddandco.com/2021/07/02/knitting-and-fitting-colourwork-socks
Spinning from the fold is one of my favourite drafts. In this part of her current 'Worsted to Woolen ' series, Jillian gives a tutorial which gives an airier, less dense yarn.
www.jillianmoreno.com/journal...sample-along-spinning-from-the-fold-wosted-draft
A good button band can make the difference between wanting to wear your new cardigan or not.
Sarah Solomon has written a very thorough article on the subject.
www.interweave.com/article/knitting/handknitters-double-knit-buttonband
You may have seen the new electronic yarn meter by Maurice of the Electric Eel Wheel.
Carrie Sundra explains how you can build your own device to measure your yarn as you ball it, or more specifically, to measure the rotations of a wheel so that you can calculate the length of the yarn.
I haven't tried it but I would suggest that this type of electronic counter could more easily be attached to the vertical type of skeiner and I guess that would be more accurate too, as you'd be counting much larger revolutions.
plymagazine.com/2021/06/hacking-yarn-tools-how-to-diy-an-electronic-yarn-meter
In her latest Knittyspin column, Jillian explains the considerations when using handspun yarn for a project, and how to choose fibre and decide on the best way to spin it.
Do you measure the twist in your yarn? It may feel right but if you want to re-create or describe it for others, you'll need the numbers.
Amanda Berka explains twist and twists per inch.
Also appearing on Spin Off this month, Carol Huebscher Rhoades looks at the qualities of camel fibre.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have created a fibre that can sense, store and analyse information.
Up until now, 'smart yarns' have had electrical / mechanical properties along their length. (Such as the yarn in this story, also seen this month.) This new fibre contains tiny interconnected individually addressable chips along its length. It's unobtrusive when woven or sewn into a garment and can collect data over time, and react, for example change according to the physical activity the wearer is involved in.
Story shared by Fiber Sprite Pamela, who finds it "cool but a little creepy"
Everlane has launched its lowest-impact collection of clothes to date.
The 'Cleanest Denim Collection' consists of jacket, shorts and jeans which are made from certified cotton and a stretch yarn which isn't made from harmful chemicals. It uses microplastic-free dyes and recycled trim.
If you like Yvonne, click the image to find her page, you can use next and previous to explore more cartoons.
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This is a review by Sukrita Mahon of a video which in turn is about electric spinning.
Power Spinning is long and detailed but not free. Read Sukrita's review if you're curious about e-spinning and are looking for a thorough introduction. She finds that the video has merit but feels that all of the information may be already out there for free.
plymagazine.com/2021/07/review-of-power-spinning-video-from-sarah-anderson
This is a review of a very old book - from 1868 - which contains specific instructions for making socks. The world's first, says Kate Davis.
Sometimes just a picture is enough
quiteayarnblog has finished this Patina Scarf using Schoppel and embroidery thread. I believe that it would be a great project for a handspun gradient.
Hook This, Weave That has finished this lampshade using handwoven fabric.
This earlier post shows the weaving on the loom, and mentions "those kits that you can buy". Google 'lampshade kit' and you'll easily find kits that include the wire frame in a variety of shapes and sizes.
These mittens look very cosy. Josefin says that nalbinding produces a structure which is strong and warm.
Further to this, she has fulled the mittens which makes them even stronger and warmer. They have to be made slightly oversize to allow for some amount of shrinkage.
This yarn is "Rainbows and puffy clouds" by twistedzistersnz
Usually I do like to see art yarn knitted or woven but this really does look great as it is.
The fibre is 100% Rambouillet from @su.krita. cdickdesigns believes that objects retain the energy of their makers.
this is a 'fleece to finished' project. Bettina washed and carded the fleece, mixing in some silk noils for flecks of colour.
Winters Beach Cardi is the second pattern she tried for the yarn and found it a perfect match.
spindleknitter has finished these socks in handspun Cheviot, dyed in denim blues by BansheeFiberArt.
She spun two identical skeins by spindle, each 56 g and 195 yds, and knitted the socks using the Porthos pattern which is one of a set of three patterns named after the Musketeers,
Wildpurls knitted this jumper in around a month. The yarn is very interesting. She spun two quite different colourways and plied them together. She held them with a commercial kid mohair. You can easily see the halo in the pictures which I think is lovely. I also like the way the colours have pooled in the body, I find this more pleasing than stripes.
She used Love Note by tincanknits
This is a beautiful graduation and hmwendt had to do some clever manipulation of the batt to make the graduation in each mitt match the one in the hat.
The pattern is Buddleia by by Brenda Vanlerberghe. There's a picture of the batt which was made by Fossil Fibers.
A selection of free seasonal patterns which will work well with handspun yarn.
Once you know that this is a sock with no heel and toe, then you need no more than your favourite sock pattern, or just make up a stitch pattern.
Knit cuff down and Ann describes how to make the decreases.
Amy McKnight says that the humble rigid heddle loom is very versatile. Here she explains how to make this bag using the small Cricket loom with a variable-dent heddle to create the textured fabric for this bag.
This gansey-inspired femenine jumper requires > 1000 yards of DK-weight yarn. The suggested yarn, Di's Lalland, has a handspun cabled look.
The jumper has a short body but some knitters have chosen to extend it.
digilpin.com/collections/knitting-patterns/products/moray-star-gansey-pattern
I like the arrangement of garter and openwork in Helen's pattern and I particularly like the graduated colours in this example. It really is reminiscent of the shore.
I'm linking to Helen's blog post which contains the link to the pattern and also contains a code which will give you 25% off the already-reasonable £4 price. (Code is good for the rest of June.) All proceeds are going to Helen's favourite charity.
She'll also be hosting a makealong in July.
theknittingexploitsofjosiekitten.blogspot.com...southwold-summer-wrap.html
Two spinners have finished a handspun Ripple Bralette recently, and taken different approaches.
crayondisaster made the pattern without modification, using around 200 yards / 75 grams of yarn spun from luxury rolags containing wool, silk and cashmere.
CloTricots extended the length, turning it into a tank rather than bralette. She used Targhee/Bamboo/Silk.
The pattern can be used as an outer garment in Summer or cosy under garment in Winter.
The example here uses one type of yarn which has long colour changes, such as you might get by chain/navajo plying a braid of indie-dyed fibre. It requires 1540 - 2200 yards, which is a few 100g braids.
If a crocheted skirt appeals to you as much as it does to me, this suggestion comes from a list of a dozen (count 'em) crochet skirt pattern suggestions presented here by Interweave.
www.interweave.com/product/aslant-skirt-crochet-pattern-download
Artist Tahir Salakhov is pictured here with weavers before a carpet woven from one of his portraits. A number of works are currently on show at the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum.
Azerbaijani carpets are classified as flat-woven (pileless) and knotted. I can't find this information but I assume that these works are the former.
The artist became interested in seeing his paintings worked into carpets after seeing a picture of Picasso before a tapestry based on his canvas Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. He worked closely with the weavers and saw the exhibition before his death on 21 May.
This is art under construction. Sissel Fogodgaard is proposing a work comprised of 10,000 crowdsourced 'shadows' which are simplified socks.
Ewespecial reported the details and includes a video which demonstrates how to make them.
I'm Shiela Dixon, I've beeing doing this for around ten years in order to promote and encourage the craft of spinning.
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Happy spinning!
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