Dog hair yarn

I have been saving up my dogs undercoat as she sheds because it is incredible soft and long. I thought it would be great to spin up and make something for everyone in the family. She is a cute dog, very hairy. But she doesn't shed and leave hair everywhere she goes. We have to pull out the undercoat as it gets loose. Here is willow:

She is so cute!

So under all that soft silky outer coat is a downy uber-soft undercoat. It looks like this:

I put some of the willow hair next to alpaca and yak to compare as both of those fibres are soft as well. This is what it looks like:

The alpaca on the top is the longest, then willows hair and then the yak down which is quite short in this instance. 

Next to the Dorset x wool from my neighbour it looks like this:

I took a bunch of the dog hair and carded it in with some wool so I could spin it up and see what it felt like and how it knitted up. I carded some with black welsh:

With merino:

And a bit of pure dog.

It is all good.  Now that I like what I see and feel I feel pretty good about going about spinning the dog hair into some of my work. She is a big dog, so I have collected a lot over the past couple of years. I will show you what I do with it!!

Weekly accomplishments

Spare time. Ahhh, it is not common at this time of year. I am in the throes of nutcracker costume sewing and alterations. But still I find some time to call my own. Time to make things, a time to get rid of crankiness and a time to play. 

I finished my bfl/ramie blend. I Navajo plied the single and created a small 42g skein. It looks silky and is soft. I will likely make more. 

The colours are pale, not usually on my project queues, but I kind of like it!  This will likely go into a pair of mitts, or some other small project. 

I finished a Navajo 4 ply from malabrigo nube merino fibre, that I purchased at Deanne Fitzpatrick's shop. I spilt the hand dyed roving lengthwise and spun both the same. I then 4 plied Navajo style but altering the two singles in the 4 ply position. It is very soft and just over 100g. 

Then, one night, I was cranky and I needed to crank something out fairly quickly to have a positive thing in my day. (Work was the pits, social life sucked, kids were trying my patience and I needed to be solitary. So I made a quick 50g skein of chunky BFL - alpaca. First, I blended alpaca across the hand carders with part-brown hand-dyed fleece artist wool and part-blue wool. I kept the two wools from blending but blended bothe with the alpaca.  I spun 2 singles in thick and thin and plyed them together. 

It's lofty, it was therapeutic. If only I could take my spinning wheel to work. I might be a better person there!  Ha. 

Lastly, I made this one tonight. A two ply yarn consisting of one single merino and one single merino/camel/nylon mix.  It is so incredibly soft!  The merino was a rainbow blend of many colours. It works perfectly with the blend. Which in its own is so soft. The end result is a yarn that would make a cute scarf or cowl. 

For now I dream of what comes next. When it comes to me, I will create. For now I am content. And that's a good thing!

Blending hand painted wool

I like playing with colour and the depth that different colours bring to a finished yarn. I am also enamoured with the feel of fibre. The feel as I spin it, the feel as I knit or crochet it, and the feel as it is worn on my body. Sometimes I feel like adding a bit of a different texture into the wool, and when I use hand painted wool sliver or roving, the are multiple option for affected colour as well. My current project is a wool/ramie blend, using hand painted fleece artist bfl wool:

And ramie, which is a plant fibre:

In this case I carded te wool and ramie and then used a diz to create a blended "roving" which I wound up into nests. A diz is a tool with a small hole in it, used to pull the wool through, and I pull right from the cards. I could also create a rolag from the cards, but I like spinning from a roving. The nests are small, fluffy, and soft:

I organize the nests in the order they were carded from the sliver of wool. The hand painted colours are muted because of the white ramie added, but the colours are still distinguishable:

From here, I could choose to alternate the nests in the spinning to make a different variation in colour changes, but I plan to spin them in the order they were carded. I will be spinning a light weight single and then Navajo plying to make a 3 ply yarn. 

Due to the technique used to prepare this fibre I am spinning a woollen yarn, using a long draw method. 

When it is done, I will show you, but the result will be soft and silky!  I can't wait!

Machine knitting immersion

When I was little, my siblings and I played around with my Oma's knitting machine. We didn't really know how to use it, and things would just unravel once we took our "work" off the needles. Well, there was no casting on or off, so what could we have expected?  At thanksgiving I asked my mother if I could borrow it, and she said that if I could figure out how to use it and make something with it, my Oma would be very happy, in heaven that someone made something with it. 

I started out looking at the pictures in the manual, as it is completely in Dutch, and I do not know what it says. I tried to find something in YouTube, but the model is so old that the search for information was just resulted in a bunch of dead-ends.  I figured out how to cast in and adjust the tension, and to knit rectangles. I tested a bunch of different yarn and made a cowl. I knit a rectangle, and seamed the side. It took 20minutes of knitting to create the rectangle and an hour more to seam it and make an edging by hand.

So, all right. I can make rectangles. What else can I make?

I found a pattern for a triangular scarf, with eyelets. It is not specifically for my model of knitting machine but I managed to figure it out. I am on row 39, and while the simple increase rows are quick, there is some fiddling in order to do the eyelets on every 10th row. Still, quicker than to knit it by hand. Don't get me wrong, I am not giving up hand knitting, I just think of how fast I can whip up a hat, or cowl and maybe someday, a sweater!!!

We shall see, but anyway, here is the knitting so far (with mistakes) on the wrong side of the scarf. 

When I finish this piece, I'll be sure to think of Oma. 

spinny spin spin!

I have been testing out my new-to-me louet spinning wheel. This is causing me a great amount of excitement. Like that my life is perfect!  Whoa, doesn't take much, does it. Heh. I have only spun wool on drop spindles up until this point, so having a wheel certainly is opening up some new doors in my imagination.

I decided I would see what I would have to figure out and study in order to create various types of yarns. These tests are just that, imperfect amounts of yarn for me to learn from. 

I started first making a single yarn. No plying in this first one. 

This is a small amount of alpaca wool single, slightly fulled and knit. 

I am in the parking lot of the ballet studio waiting for my kids, thus the photo quality is meh. 

The next one I tried was a 2 ply. I created a two tone yarn, as you can see in it's knit form. 

Here is a close up:

This is very similar to what I would make using a drop spindle. The next 3 examples are made so much easier with a wheel!  The 3 ply turned out better than when I ply using a drop spindle. I have both my hands available to ensure things aren't getting twisted up. 

A close up of this one:

This next 3 ply is made with one single where the above example uses 3 singles. The Navajo 3 ply is super easy to do with the wheel. When I made this type on the drop spindle I did it "on the fly". This is way better. 

Sorry for the terrible photo. I can't help it. 

The final example is a Navajo 4ply!  I have never done this before, but with the wheel was really easy. This is what I am most excited about and I am sure I will do a whole post on the topic!

One more close up:

There you have it!  Now to make a bunch of stuff until my fingers hurt. Yay me!

UFOs coming out of the cows

I really enjoy creating. I dream of colour, I imagine shapes and patterns, I anticipate the softness of a special blend of fibre.

I blend wool and fibres with hand carders.

I use a drop spindle to create singles and ply yarns.

I recently obtained a spinning wheel from the side of the road in the garbage. I have made a few skeins of yarn as I test this new twist.

I knit from patterns already made, but also create my own inventions

I crochet, both Tunisian and one-hooked.

Hmmm, but...

I do not weave in my ends. Almost all my "finished" projects sit in a 95% complete state. I decided to wipe them off the almost-done list and put them on the finished pile! So, I got these done in one night (not sure why I hadn't done this sooner...) and on the way home last night, I made my daughter stand on the side of the road so I could take pictures of the finished work. Here are some photos.

This is a Tunisian crochet cowl that I designed.

wound twice around, this is a cozy wardrobe addition

This is a capelet that I made, using a pattern from a magazine, Delicata by Brooke Nico

on an adult this will look different, but my 11 year old is all I had for a model today.

One of my favorite pieces to make.  It was fast, and the yarn is soooo amazing.  Mirasol Qina

The pattern is 

Peaches and Cream Shawl by Therese Chynoweth

This is a prototype bonnet hat that I designed.  There are lots of patterns for these around, but none matched what was in my head.  (maybe nothing really does, hehe)

She wants this hat.

This is one of the most fun hat patterns I have made.  It can be extremely slouchy if you want.. The pattern name is Aspen Ice Hat by Liat Gat

This is a less slouchy version of the same hat.

This is another one of my Tunisian Cowls - I have not named the pattern, nor have I written it down.

Another version of the same Tunisian cowl, using Alpaca...

SO SOFT!!!! AHHHHH!

She wanted to pose some shots with the cows.

 

This is Aranami Shawl by Olga Buraya-Kefelian

I used a thicker yarn than what was called for, and I like it's gushiness

This is her showing off for the cows, I suspect.

This is another invention that needs some testing. 

She wanted to keep this one too.

This is a linen/cotton scarf-ette, a pattern called 

Ironwork Shawl by Tara Miller

This is from the book, Cowl-girls...it took a very short amount of time to create, as the yarn was extremely bulky.  

#09 Seed Stitch Cowl by Cathy Carron

Another of my inventions.  These mittens are the BEST!  made of possum fur and have a super-nice fit.

Another of the same pattern cowl as the others.  This one was made all from handsun yarn ( the second skein of yarn I ever made)

This is a top for an adult, so it looks kind of baggy on her, but I really like how this turned out, and can't wait to wear it next year (winter is a-coming!)

A ham, through and through

 

So, three cheers for me, right?  I suppose I should work on finishing projects.  This was an incredible amount of fun.