You can hear the wind whistling through this blog it’s been so quiet the past few weeks; but not for lack of anything to talk about.
In fact, I’ve been so busy, there hasn’t been much time to sit and compose my thoughts into coherent sentences – and it’s almost all been yarny/fleecey/fibrey goodness.
Also it’s summer, and that means a lot more outdoor time. We get lots of indoor time in the winter, so here in Central Alberta we have to soak in the warm rays of the sun as much as we possibly can during the summer.
But I digress.
I was going to write one big giant blog post, but honestly that sounds like a chore, and you wouldn’t want to read a bunch of disjointed thoughts anyway (right?). So let’s do it this way – brief overview, and then I’m really going to drill down into some topics in their own posts, because whew boy, I have some things to say.
Super-Secret Shenanigans
The first thing I want to talk about, or rather, allude to but not really talk about, is my new super-secret project I have in the works. It’s been something bubbling in the back of my mind for some time, and the pieces now are falling into place for it to happen. Unfortunately, that’s all you’ll get for now – but in approximately four to six weeks I plan to announce my devious (not really) plans. It’s been taking up a fair amount of my time, and I can’t even talk about it! But it is fibre related, and it’s something I hope a lot of my fellow Canadians will be excited for (mysterious, eh?)
The Merino/Romney Fleece
I swear this is the never-ending fleece. Not that I’m complaining because it’s an absolute dream, but I’ve been a washing/combing madwoman the past few weeks, and the fleece is looking like I barely touched it. I originally thought I’d wash, comb, and spin bits at a time, but turns out I wanted to wash and comb it all and then spin. I did, however, get my first samples spun up, and I’m over the moon about them. The impetus for buckling down on the prep as much as I can before July, however, is because it’s…
Tour de Fleece!
That’s right, I’ll be participating in my first ever Tour de Fleece, and I’m pretty stoked. I’m part of Team Wool ‘n Spinning, and I want to spin as much of my Merino/Romney as I can, hence all the prepping. If I run out of Merino/Romney that’s prepped, I’ll move onto my 6 lbs of various breeds I bought from Custom Woolen Mills in May. Don’t worry, I’m certainly not going to run out of anything to spin.
S-Twist and Z-Twist… What’s the diff?
I spin S (wheel goes counterclockwise) and then ply Z (wheel goes clockwise), which is the opposite from what most other spinners do. Why do I do it that way? No idea, but when I taught myself and that’s what came naturally, and I’ve just stuck with it. Is there a difference at all? That’s what I set out to figure out, because I couldn’t really find anything definitive online – and I’m not one to leave a question unanswered. So that’ll be an upcoming blog post with what I found out from that mini experiment.
Also Natural Dyeing
Pictured left is the mini-skein dye test I did before jumping in with both feet.
And a Lazy Kate
I finally got myself a tensioned lazy kate so I can make traditional 3 plies – which I really wanted to do because my chain plying game sucks. Eventually I’ll get that up to snuff, but frankly, it’s not top priority with everything else on the go, so a lazy kate was necessary. I’ve already sampled using it, and I love my itty bitty 3 ply skein. I cannot wait to spin more.
Farm Visits!
I’ll be visiting a few farms with sheep flocks within the next few weeks, and I hope to expound a bit more on that after I come back (and also show off my new acquisitions), so stay tuned. I’m really looking forward to these visits, looking forward to some new fleeces, but maybe most of all, looking forward to petting some sheep. Who doesn’t want to pet some sheep?
I will totally be posting pictures on Instagram by the way, so come and find me to get in early on the sheepy goodness.