Highland HandmadesA Dyer's Notebook

Yes, yes, I know I haven’t blogged since August.  I’m just so busy working that I rarely find the time to TALK about working!  Thankfully tonight I’ve been playing, not working, and I’m so so so excited to show you what I’ve been up to.

Last week, I received a very generous donation to the podcast.  It was so generous, in fact, that I was able to purchase a piece of equipment I’ve been longing for.

It came today, thanks to my lovely UPS Lady.  I took photos just to share with you.  Wasn’t that nice?

the box The box, open There it is! So Pretty Tools and Things Set Up! Beauty Shot Another Beauty Shot A 4 oz Polwarth batt of goodness! It’s big  (the smile AND the batt) And it makes me happy! It’s so FLUFFAY! Tied with a bow.

Carded Batts are something I’ve wanted to offer for quite some time; until now, it’s been just a dream.  The reason I bought this specific carder is because it can make a 100g (3.5oz) batt.  That will save me loads of time as I won’t have to create three of the same thing to make a bat big enough to be worth spinning.  I plan on offering batts made from my wholesale fibers (mostly combed top, as this one is) as well as batts made from scoured fleece.  I have a few fleeces that aren’t big enough to have professionally processed into roving as well as small amounts of fibers like cashmere, alpaca, silk, and more.  This way I can create spinnable preps that are fun and fluffy!  I’m so in love with this thing it’s ridiculous.

A HUGE thanks to the women (there were actually two) who made the donation to the podcast that enabled me to reach another level of business.  Thanks also to you guys for sticking with me and supporting me as I’ve made this journey.  If you’re excited for batts, I hope you’ll let me know in the comments!

Hubs and I went to the Dover Fair this weekend, which has the fancy title above but is not much fun to type.  I entered two of my knit items into the arts & crafts “competition” and won TWO first prize ribbons!  Most everyone won a blue ribbon, but that didn’t detract from mine at all.  We also saw LOTS of adorable animals.  Pictures below.

SSMS by Wendy Johnson, knit in Highland Handmades Sugar Maple Sock in “Half Shell”

Girasole by Jared Flood, knit in undyed sheep’s wool yarn.

 

Smooth faced sheep… 

Wooly faced sheep!

Incognito Sheep!

Smooth ear cow …

Wooly ear cow!!

Much fun was had by all, and I managed to snag two bags of my favorite maple-sugar cotton candy.  All was right with the world!

Singles

Spinning Navajo-churro may be something many people enjoy, but I have to say that I am not one of them.  I decided to spin this very long, hairy fiber as a thicker single with low twist; I was worried that too much twist would make the ends of each fiber poke out too much, making this already prickly fiber even worse.  Above is the single, all wound up for plying.

The fiber drafted from the combed preparation fairly well, and the fibers slid past each other fairly easily.  But the feel of the fiber in my hands was very much that of over-treated hair.  It was by turns crunchy and slick.  The fibers had a pretty consistent length and diameter, as much as my hands could tell me.

2-ply

It wasn’t long before I’d spun up the entire sample.  Unlike the Southdown, which likes to be spun thin, the N-C fiber enjoyed the thicker single (and I enjoyed having it out of my hands sooner).  As I plied the single ends in the opposite direction, I ended up with the 2-ply you see above.  You can really see the halo that the fiber has; even spinning it loosely, there are a lot of ends poking out.  I ended up with 34 yards, which is a third of what I got from the Navajo-Churro.  The finished yarn is interesting, but it isn’t very fun and I don’t think I’ll ever purchase an N-C fleece for my own use.

The next fiber I’ll be studying is a new one to me: Oxford!

The cleaned N-C fiber weighed in at 37g after I took out the weird little bits that were different odd fibers (see part 1).  I lost 23g from the pre-washed and picked fleece.  That’s much more significant than I’d expected, especially considering how little lanolin I noticed.  There must have been a lot of dirt and sand in this fleece to account for the difference!

I got out my Indigo Hound Viking combs to process the N-C locks.  This fiber is exactly the type of fiber the combs were made for.  I slid several locks onto one comb, tip out:

After combing, the fiber looked much more uniform in color and crimp:

However, once I dizzed the fiber, I noticed that the combed top still had remarkable color variation.  I really enjoyed the effect.  It remains to be seen how this fiber will look spun and plied up.  I gently wound the top around itself to make little nests of fiber.  Aren’t they cute?

There was a lot less noticeable veggie matter (VM) in this top as compared to the Southdown.  The fiber wasn’t crimpy enough, I think, to hold a lot of VM within the fleece.  Don’t get me wrong, I am NOT complaining!

After removing the waste bits from the combs, I ended up with 27g of combed top.  I lost just over 1/2 of the original weight of the fiber.  Even so, what remains is MUCH more pleasant to touch, smell, and look at than the original was.  It still feels very much like human hair and looks like a bad faded-to-gray bleach job.

Stay tuned for Part 3 – Spinning!

On to the second fiber from The Spinning Loft’s fiber sampler.  This fiber is very different from the last.  VERY.  Here’s what the experts have to say about Navajo-Churro sheep and fiber:

Pic from Navajo-Churro Sheep Association

• N-C sheep are descendents of Churra sheep brought to Mexico from Spain between 1494 and 1540.
• The sheep were raised by the Navajo people, and in the late 1800s the US Army slaughtered thousands of these sheep in an effort to control the Navajo tribe.
• N-C sheep are hardy, adaptable sheep that deal well with periodic doubts and meager vegetation.  They are also parasite and foot-rot resistant.
• Because of the unusual characteristics of the wool, the N-C breed helped develop the textile traditions of the Southwestern native peoples.
• N-C sheep are double-coated and have a lot of variation within the breed.  They range in color from white to tan, black, brown, gray and even spotted.
• N-C sheep can have up to two sets of horns; a curly pair that hang below their ears and a longer, larger pair that curl less above the head.

Pic from Slow Food USA

Navajo-churro fleece is considered to be suitable for “mid-range garments, outerwear, and rugged outerwear, depending on the grade.”  That means everything from mittens to rugs.  Quite a range!  This is due to the relationship of the two types of fibers in the fleece.  The downy undercoat, the softer of the fibers, makes up about 80% of the fleece weight (which can be up to 8 pounds!) and has a micron count between 10 and 35.  10 microns is finer than merino!  High 20 micron counts begin to become prickly.  The remaining 20% of the fleece is “guard hairs” or outercoat. The micron count of the outercoat begins around 35 microns and goes up.  Once resource did say that up to 5% of any N-C fleece may be very prickly kemp that comes in at 65 microns and up.  This is, clearly, not ideal.

Fiber in the Bag

The fiber that I received from The Spinning Loft was less than ideal, for sure.  Not the quality of the fiber; that seems to be consistent with what I’ve read about the breed.  But the SMELL of the fiber was absolutely repugnant.  It reeked of urine.  Now I understand that I am dealing with raw wool – I have no problems with “sheepy” smells or even poo smells… it comes with the sheep.  but the smell of this fiber nearly knocked me over.  As soon as I got it out of the bag and photographed it, in it went into the hot water/Dawn dishliquid combo. When it was clean and dry, here’s what I had:

60 Grams of Raw Fiber

This fiber is long, hairy, and had very little lanolin in it.  It almost felt dry to the touch.  It feels smooth and hair-like.  There are a number of different fiber length and types in this little bit:

6"

??

The little dark and light bits in the near above photo were weird.  Totally unlike the rest of the feece; these bits had no outercoat, were a different color and had different crimp and feel.  I wonder if they are from another breed that accidentally got in the bag or if they were near an area of the sheep’s body that had a different need (the belly or elb, for instance).  I took the weird bits out and tossed them.  I wanted to deal with the traditional N-C fleece only.  The majority of the locks has a small amount of curly crimp and changed color from medium gray at the base to a bleached tan at the tips.  The tips were narrower than the base.

It smelled much better once it was clean and dry.  Thank heavens!

The fiber mass

In Part 2, I will process the fiber for spinning.  Stay Tuned!

Resources:

• The Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook, by Deborah Robson & Carol Ekarius
• The Knitter’s Book of Wool, by Clara Parkes
• In Sheep’s Clothing, by Nola Fournier & Jane Fournier