A vintage mystery

I.m always on the look out for vintage knit-abilia (I thin I just made that word up - someone correct me!!) so yesterday I was delighted with these two finds in Oban's Oxfam shop

A set of long Aero dpns, size 11 (3mm) with the original wrapper marked with the price- 1/6 (thats about 7and a half pence!)  and a knitting needle guage. I already have one of these bell-shaped guages but iIthought this one was rather cute.
It wasn't till I got it home that I realised that the numbers depicting the sizes are a bit strange.

For example, the old size 11 (3mm) needles fit the hole with the number 18 beside it.
If anyone can shed any light on this measuring system I'd be very glad to hear from them

The Strathearn Tour de Fleece 2012 is over

Yes, after spinning every day for three weeks, the 2012 Tour de Fleece is over. We kept our Strathearn version simple - just spin what you can, when you can and record the length of yarn produced.

Some of the Strathearn Tour de Fleece 2012 entries

On the final day we got together at Home Farm, Culdees, Muthill - home of Strathearn Fleece and Fibre - to spin the last leg of the Tour together. Not quite the Champs Elysees but Linda's home baking and the tranquil surroundings, with sheep baaa-ing outside, made it a very enjoyable day. Some people had forgotten to bring their TdF record sheets, some had forgotten to bring their TdF yarns, but clearly it was the taking part that mattered and no-one was in a competitive mood. Some of the yarns are shown in the photo above.
As there are some people who took part even though they could not join us in person, the winners will be announced at the weekend, when everyone has had time to send in their record sheets.

My own TdF yarns, at the start of the final day, so the yellow bobbin is still unplied. I'll tell you more about the multi-coloured bobbins in a later post!

For my own Tour, I decided to finish spinning some alpaca (from Strathearn Fleece and Fibre) - the best natural black I have ever seen, and some lovely ginger that matches my cat. Then I went on to spinning some of the wool I dyed in my mega dyeing spree back in March. I really enjoyed having the added impetus to spin every day, and kept myself motivated by posting what I had spun each day on facebook. My total length of finished yarn (mostly 2 ply) was 1335 metres - 20 skeins, all different. I also spun in a few different places - mostly at home in Auchterarder, but also in London, in my uncle's beautiful garden in West Sussex, at the Lochearnhead Highland Games and starting and finishing at Culdees - so literally a Tour.
Join us next year?

In the afternoon I ran a Fleece sorting and Fibre Preparation workshop. I demonstrated sorting a lovely Ryeland fleece, then everyone spread out their own fleeces and got on with sorting the wool into three or four different qualities. As usual when I'm teaching, I forgot to take photos! It was fascinating to see how different all the fleeces were - four Texel cross, a Jacob, two gorgeous Blue Texels and a Shetland. All except the Shetland were from Strathearn Fleece and Fibre, the four Texel crosses being from the Culdees flock, chosen before they were shorn, at our Fleece on the Hoof day last month. The Blue Texels are so lovely I succumbed to one as well as the Ryeland, so my fleece shed once more needs the door wedged shut with a table pushed against it!!

As always we had a lovely day at Home Farm, Culdees, and I'm looking forward to our next spining day there. New workshop dates will be posted (under the Workshops tab above) in the next day or two.

Me and Merida at the Lochearnhead Highland Games

on Sunday 21st July I did a spinning demonstration at the Balquhidder and Lochearnhead Highland Games. It was a proper traditional Highland Games, with the traditional Highland athletics events, traditional Highland dancing competitions,traditional pipe band and march of the Chieftains, traditional muddy grass underfoot and traditional Highland midgies. So, it was all very nice and traditional and I had a lovely afternoon spinning and chatting to lots of people.
 I do sometimes get some rather strange questions and requests when I'm spinning in public. This time I was asked by Kim Provan, from Briar Self Catering Cottages at Lochearnhead, if she could take a video of me spinning, with her Disney Merida doll sitting among my display.
No, I have no idea why, but it is a nice little short video which you can watch by clicking here

Tour de Fleece days 2 & 3

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Day 2 - alpaca singles - ginger cat colour, to use with the black from day 1 and a larger amount of beigey-grey which I spun a couple of months ago.

day 3
I spun the rest of the alpaca, plied it into a 2-ply.

The purple singles is the first of my 'medieval Dyeing' samples. Fine white fleece which I dyed with Brazilwood, pre-mordanted with alum and cream of tartar, then modified first with iron and then with ammonia. The result was a strong magenta with navy blue tips. I spun it without carding to get a tweedy and somewhat neppy singles. I'll spin the other half  on day 4.

We're off - Tour de Fleece day 1

A small select group started the Tour de Fleece yesterday with a spinning day at Home Farm, Culdees, Muthill, hosted by Strathearn Fleece and Fibre - and I know we have other team members spinning wherever they are, in Scotland and Italy
I've started a Ravelry thread here http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/tour-de-fleece/2201726/1-25 so we can all post what we've been spinning and keep in touch.
I'll also be updating on Facebook
here is the fabulous Strathearn Tour de Fleece mascot created by Linda

Ann chose the start of TdF to spin for the very first time - here's her first bobbin of Home Farm's own texel Cross wool - love-ewe-ly! All the time we were spinning we could hear the same sheep baaa-ing just across the farm road

And here's my TdF day 1 offering - a bobbin of black alpaca, spun and plied in the Home Farm stables, next to the field in which the alpaca was grazing (his name is Kyle). Thats what I call 0km fibre!!!

Strathearn Tour de Fleece

Join us for the

Strathearn Tour de Fleece 2012

Saturday 30^th June – Sunday 22^nd July

Let’s keep it simple - The idea is to spin every day that the Tour de France is on, recording what you spin – fibre, singles or plying etc – every day.  Add up the total length of yarn spun over the Tour.

You can join us in person for the start and/or finish – see below – or spin where ever you are and keep in touch by e-mail

 Spin whatever you like and as much as you like – maybe you want to set yourself particular challenges on the mountain stages or individual time trials. There are two official rest days – you can use these to catch up if you have missed any race days!

The race schedule/record sheet is under the Tour de Fleece tab

If you spun one metre of yarn for every kilometre of the race you would have enough yarn for ten pairs of socks!!!

Look on www.ravelry.com for more inspiration

Linda Maitland Gardner is hosting two drop-in Tour de Fleece spinning days at Home Farm, Culdees, Muthill , PH5 2BA

Ready…Steady…Go!!!  10.30am – 4pm Saturday 30^th June

Finish Line                     10.30 am – 4pm Sunday 22^nd July

There will be fleeces, fibres and other related goodies for sale. Tea, coffee, cake and good company all for £10 each day!

Bring your spindle or spinning wheel and fibres, and your packed lunch. Please let me know if you plan to come, so we have an idea of numbers.

If enough people request it I will run a Fleece sorting and Fibre preparation workshop from 1 – 4pm on Sunday 22^nd July (£30), as part of the Finish Line spinning day. I will demonstrate sorting a whole fleece into different qualities of fibre, and teach the most efficient ways of hand carding, drum carding and combing raw fleece. You can then either sort your own fleece with a bit of help (if needed) or practice your carding and combing.  Let me know if you’re interested in this.

For photos of the recent Fleece on the Hoof day see previous post

e-mail me on Deborah.gray7@btinternet.com or call me on 07776092903

Fleece on the Hoof

Fleece on the Hoof – the ultimate in traceable wool 

On Sunday 10^th June a group of spinners converged on a farm in Perthshire to choose the fleeces for their next projects – while they were still on the sheep!

This novel idea came about when Linda Maitland Gardner and her daughter Sarah learned to spin at one of my spinning workshops. The first part of the workshop focussed on choosing fleeces, sorting and preparing raw fleece for handspinning. It transpired that Linda and husband Colin have about 400 sheep on their farm, and we discussed ways in which their fleeces could be kept in the best possible condition for handspinning, and how spinners and farmers could connect to give wool its proper value.

So, fast forward through six months of planning and preparation, with a lot of help from family and friends, to Fleece on the Hoof Day at Culdees Farm,. The spinners came from Glasgow, Edinburgh and beyond, as well as more locally. We gathered in the morning to spin in the large stable building which had been cleared and cleaned for our use. Spinning wheels and spindles were soon in action.

 As well as the (essential) tea and cake, there were displays of handspun yarns and natural dyeing, a range of different types of fleece available locally and (very popular) some superb quality alpaca fibre, along with information on forthcoming workshops and examples of the Culdees fleeces (either unprocessed or cleaned and carded)  to try.

The wool is open, soft and springy with a good staple length – a real pleasure to spin. The morning passed happily in spinning together, chatting, meeting new and old friends and admiring each other’s work.

While we were tucking in to our packed lunches, Colin brought the carefully selected sheep into pens conveniently close to the stables. They were Texel cross gimmers – that is, young female sheep that have not yet had a lamb, for the un-initiated! Daddy is a Texel, the Mummies are Blue-faced Leicester crosses. Despite the overnight rain and drizzly morning they looked in fine shape. Thankfully the rain had stopped by the time we went over to the pens for the exciting business of choosing our Fleece on the Hoof.

Colin was kept very busy holding and tagging each sheep once a spinner chose it, while helpers noted the tag numbers against the spinner’s name to ensure that the right fleece would go to the right person. Many of us took photos of ‘our’ sheep, and tried to befriend them (with rather varied success!). So we can trace our wool, not just to the breed or the area, but to the individual sheep.

Shearing took place over the next few days (when the sheep were dry enough!!) - I really enjoyed helping to roll the warm, freshly shorn fleeces and then label them ready for collection.

 As we each spin our Culdees fleece I am sure we will all have unique memories of this most special and unusual day. I’m also sure there will be more exciting woolly events at Culdees, as Linda and Colin have proved themselves warm and generous hosts.

For more information on fleeces and fibres available contact: Linda Gardner (Strathearn Fleece & Fibre: website being developed shortly) e-mail strathearnfleeceandfibre@gmail.com

For more information on workshops on spinning, dyeing and felt-making, contact deborah.gray7@btinternet.com or look at the Workshops tab on my blog at www.perfectweatherforspinningandknitting.blogspot.com