Friday, March 25, 2022

Fiber Arts Friday: Save our Sheep Sweater, part 4

Continuing with my Save Our Sheep Sweater...

Recently, I had a weekend with very little we had to do and no where we had to be.  These were unusual circumstances and the weather was kind of icky, so I was able to relax a bit and spend some time with my sweater.  Both of which were supremely wonderful.

I finished Sections 1, 2 and 3 - Upper Back and Shoulders.

I picked up all of the stitches, counted them, and got the correct number.  WooHoo!


Then, since the next set of instructions were confusing to me, I added a life line.

After thinking a bit, and reading ahead in the pattern.... I believe the decrease instructions listed in Section 4 are not necessary, and actually intended for Section 5.

At this point, Section 4 and the first set of Navajo Lines are complete and I am still using skein #1, Clun Forest.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!

Friday, March 18, 2022

Fiber Arts Friday: Washing Woolens and Handknits

I have posted about washing fleece and raw fiber before.  But since my neighbor recently asked me about how I wash our raw alpaca and that I've been having a little stress about where to do it at our new place, I thought it might be a good time to write another post.

When washing fleeces, yarns, finished woolen items, or delicates, the method is essentially the same.

The only real difference between sheep's wool vs. alpaca or chiengora (or angora, cashmere, silk, etc) is that sheep's wool typically contains Lanolin and Suint.

Lanolin and Suint are often referred to as grease and there are reasons to keep them.  But if you're after a non-"greasy" sheep's wool, you may need to use a scouring step or a stronger detergent in order to get the fiber fully clean.  For that, I refer you to this series of posts by Deborah Robson.

If the grease has already been removed or was never present, then the process is essentially the same.  The key to remember when washing natural fibers is:  

heat + soap + agitation = felt

If you want felt, then increase one or all of these elements.  If you don't want felt, then be careful to minimize all elements.

Let's take each elements one at a time.

Heat

I try to keep the water close to lukewarm.  There is tolerance here.... but I don't want it hot, because I don't want anything to felt... and I don't want it cold, because submerging my hands into a basin of cold water doesn't feel good.

Soap

Personally, I like the wool washes because they are low sudsing, and therefore require less water.  But you can use any soap you prefer.  Dog shampoo is often low sudsing.  Human shampoo and dishwashing liquid work well too, but will likely require more changes of clean water to remove the soap.

When I had reached the age of caring about how my woolens and delicates were cared for, I started using Woolite and handwashing garments regularly.  I don't have this on hand anymore because I prefer to use the above Wool Washes, but Woolite would work too.

I recommend reading the label, then choosing the one that you prefer based on ingredients and scent.

Agitation

I put the soap in the water, then splash it around to make suds.

I submerge the item, then gently squeeze the soap and water thru.  There is also some room here, but I am careful not to shake/agitate too much... I want to make sure the water and soap are thoroughly incorporated into the item, but I'm not trying to replicate a washing machine.

Time

I set a timer for 15-20 minutes, then get back to my basin when I have a few minutes to change the water.

At which time, I pull the item out of the basin and squeeze the water from the item.  I don't wring.

Frequency

Typically my items require one soapy change and two-three non-soapy/clear changes.  However, in the case of these hats, this is their first washing and two of them have yarn dyed in the red-to-purple family.

While the quality of dyeing these days is generally very good, you may notice that colors in this family bleed into the wash basin (there's probably a more technical word for this....exhaust?).  So in this case, I did a few changes of soapy water before moving on to the clear water changes.


(I hate that the ugly "theatre" lights are reflecting in this photo, but hopefully, you get the idea... and now you know something about one of the upcoming improvement projects needed at our new place. lol)



Blocking/Drying

Garments with negative-ease (stretch when worn), such as socks and hats, typically don't need to be blocked severely.  Unless you want to highlight a pattern or make it a bigger size.  So in this case, my blocking is essentially just minimal shaping and removing a few wrinkles.

For this step, a drying rack can be helpful.  But since I don't have one, I am using old towels to absorb extra water.


In our former house, I did this on the guest bed, because it was out of the way of daily living and I could leave my items for several days while they dried.


We don't have a guest bed at our new place (yet, because some things should be upgraded), so I laid these out on the bathroom counter.  Fortunately, the counter is long-ish and we are not having company anytime soon.  Though, I will need to come up with a larger location before it's time to block my Save our Sheep Sweater.

As the top face dries, I adjust the towels and turn the garments over.



Depending on the relative humidity and airflow, this whole process can take a few hours to several days.


Hopefully this was helpful.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!

Thursday, March 17, 2022

Things That Work: Stick Blender

I love my Stick Blender.  Love it!

It was one of the few appliances I unpacked from our move thus far, because I use it to blend soups... and since it has been winter, I have been making a lot of soups.  ;-)

It is so easy to use, and even easier to clean... and I killed it.  :-(

I put it in the lower rack of the dishwasher and melted the collar.  :-(

I don't remember exactly how it was oriented, but I must have put the plastic portion in the bottom of the silverware bin, which is close to the heating element.

I was so sad.

It appears that replacement parts are available but was not clear which model I had.  So Hubba found a new one.

It has survived it's first couple of washings and I've used it to make peanut sauce so far.  :-)

Stick Blenders definitely work!

Tuesday, March 15, 2022

Benefits

The benefits of being toward the end of our Farm Moving Project, and not travelling every.single.week, and having a day job that allows me to work remotely and primarily with my strengths is that I am starting to have time.... which really means I am having the energy and clarity of mind to write/edit, and therefore publish my thoughts.

As a child, I understood that one could either be good at writing OR math.  Not both.

I was, naturally, very good at math... while reading comprehension/writing were harder for me.  So since I was a girl and good at math, I was weird, but normal.

In high school, I decided that I wanted to be better at writing and have since worked very hard to improve my writing skills over the years.  You, as the reader, can tell me if I'm good at it or not.  ;-)

I think I'm decent at it... though, some posts are certainly better than others.

But I digress...

For me, one of the great benefits of where I am in life right now, is that the energy and mental clarity for writing/editing is available to me again.

It helps that I'm not working on classified or confidential projects in my day job, nor am I travelling every week to an office out of state, nor driving every day to an office an hour away.

So this is contributing to the fact that this blog is more active right now... and this makes me quite happy.

I hope you are happy too.

Friday, March 11, 2022

Fiber Arts Friday: Save our Sheep Sweater, part 3

Continuing, very slowly, into my Save Our Sheep Sweater...

I felt like the slowest swatcher ever, but I have had to remind myself that there are a lot of other things demanding my attention... and I had no expectation for completing a sweater by the end of February.  ;-)

The good news is that there was no expectation by the Livestock Conservancy to complete this project by the end of February either (and given the date of this post, it has not occurred anyway).  It's just the formal support for the project ended at the end of February, but recent announcement has the private Facebook group open until the end of April.

Getting to a finished swatch took some time, and I am fortunate to learn that several other participates are at the swatching stage, while several others are in the spinning and dyeing stage.  :-)

This swatch was made of Jacob American, which is the heaviest guage of my lot and was finished at a tiny bit over the prescribed gauge of 5 stitches/inch with US4 needles and a little bit short at 3.5 inches.

The pattern suggested US7, which I am happy to learn thru the Q&A Sessions is not all that unusual to need to go down in size in order to meet gauge.

Looking under a variety of different lights, I've settled on the yarn order.  Knitting Top-Down, starting with Clun Forest.  Followed by Navajo-Churro, Tunis, Gulf Coast, Shropshire, Hog Island, Jacob, and Black Welsh Mountain.

The Leicester Longwool on the the left is for the Button Band.

So with all of that and my Measurements being complete, I've settled on knitting the medium size and then measuring length along the way.

This means I definitely have enough yarn made to complete the sweater... and can likely leave out the Black Welsh Mountain, which is the most coarse of the lot.

I would like to share that even though I have not been able to attend the Q&A sessions live, the recordings have been helpful.

Casting on finally occurred on February 20th.

While some of the participants have finished already, or are close to being complete, I am hopeful to finish this project during this calendar year.  We shall see how that goes.  ;-)

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!

Wednesday, March 9, 2022

In the Garden: 2022, part 3 - Continuing to Plan

Since my last post (part 2 on 2/2/22 ha), I received all of the ordered varietals and maintained my organization by planting date.  My seed box is packed very full.  :-)

I have a loose plan for what to plant where.

I intended to prune my Black Raspberries in mid-February, but we've actually had winter, including some extremely cold temperatures.... so this has not yet been completed

The "sun room" has not gotten warmer since January, so I'm losing confidence that this will be useful for seed starting.  Which means I will likely be on the hunt for seedlings in mid-May, rather than starting the late-season seeds here...  on the bright side, I will have lots of late-season seeds for next year.  :-D

I still need to clean out the beds and improve the soil with the alpaca and goat manure we've collected thus far.

I also need to firm up the compost location.

While there is always more to do, and it is snowing today, there are signs of spring... Robins, Red-winged Black Birds, tiny bits of green... spring will be here soon.

Friday, March 4, 2022

Fiber Arts Friday: Milestone

Now that we are closer to the end than the beginning of our moving process, I want to highlight an important milestone here...

The last of my raw and skirted alpaca fleeces have been moved to our new house.

It's going to be some time before I have the next batch ready for the mill, but wow.... I am excited about this!

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!