Dog Hair Yarn

About two weeks ago, my friend Janna from Vancouver Yarn put me in contact with a woman who had collected her dog, Raka's fur over a few years and wanted it spun into yarn. The dog was a German Shepard/Wolf cross, who unfortunately passed away not too long ago.

When we finally coordinated a time to meet up, I was give two small buckets of fur. Who would have known those small buckets would have turned into this:

2.48 lbs of dog fur

2ply Yarn (left 50/50 Dog fur/Shetland sheep, right 100% dog fur)

Knitted samples of both the 50/50 blend and 100% dog fur

The yarn that is 100% dog fur is spun on my drop spindle. Dog fur is a very short staple and is hard to spin. That's why I have also done samples with the fur blended with sheep's wool. The blend helps hold the dog fur in to a yarn. Spinning on a drop spindle is a lot more time consuming, compared to a spinning wheel, but using this method I got a more consistent yarn thickness and I could also use 100% of Raka's fur.

The patron for this yarn is still in decision mode, so I am working on another commission which uses cut off thread from sewing as the base for yarn. This will be my third time spinning thrum yarn.

Trying to fall in love with knitting...

...again.
I love yarn. I love how it looks, I love how it feels, I love to spin my own yarn. For some reason the love stops there. I know how to knit, crochet, weave and even how to do naalbinding. I love how all those things look as finished items, but for some reason I fall out of love with them so easily. I think it's because I don't get the instant gratification like I do with spinning my own yarn, well it most cases. With this love for yarn, you can imagine that my stash would not be a few skeins here and there. In fact, it's growing slightly out of control.



The bottom half of this storage unit is FULL of spinning "fluff". Everything from wool to viscose to possum. And that's not including what's in the living room. So in an attempt to de-stash a bit I have tried to fall in love with knitting again.

"February Lace Scarf"
Debbie Bliss "Pure Silk" yarn

This scarf feels absolutely wonderful so far. The robins egg blue is beautiful and I can't wait until it's finished. The pattern is a 4 row lace repeat which makes it easy to knit, as well.

I've never knitted with silk before, and wow, is it slippery. I could never imagine how people knit with silk on metal needles and not drop a stitches on every row. I find the bamboo needles definitely hold on to the yarn a little more than the metal knitting needles. Now that I have a few inches of scarf knitted up, I find the slippery factor has decreased some what so that's kind of a relief.

Fiber Friday - May 14, 2010

Wow! I can't believe it's been a week already! I'm still on the hunt for a job, but in the mean time I've been spinning lots of yarn. This week I have 3! It would have been 4, but I forgot to get a picture of the finished skein before I lent it to a friend for an art show.

"Summer Marshlands"

Romney/Mohair (from a swap on Craftster)

76 yards

(Untitled, so far)
Crossbreed sheep (I got the fleece for free at a spinning demo I participated in)
43 yards

(Untitled, still thinking of a name)
Romney (hand dyed red and a grey/blue)
68 yards

I hope you enjoy the yarns this week.

Fiber Friday!

Good Morning Bloggers! (and readers!)

I just wanted to start out this beautiful sunny day with a few skeins of yarn!
From Left to Right:
"Coco-chineal" 86 yards, merino, hand dyed with cochineal

(untitled) 32 yards, perendale, local sheep (from Ontario) and merino (?), hand dyed and commercially dyed. This was my attempt at patchwork yarn. I'm still working out the kinks, there were a lot of spots that were just one color.

(untitled) 30 yards, local sheep (from Ontario), drop spindled and then plied on my spinning wheel

I have fallen in love with drop spindling! I've been spinning on my wheel(s) for about 2 years (they are both country wheels) and I've been having a hard time achieving very thin, lace weight yarns. I did a bit of research and found a lot of people saying that it's hard to get thinner yarns on my type of wheel. I was a bit sad, but still determined and I remembered that someone from a craft swap built me a beautiful drop spindle. So, I grabbed some fleece and started spinning. I fell in love!!! I spun the above skein on the right in a day and I'm now working on some natural "black"/dark brown fleece I received from a demo I did a few summers ago at a sheep shearing event. Pictures will be posted soon.

I'm Done!!

I am officially finished my 2 year diploma for Textile Arts!!!! We have a grad show coming up and the opening is May 13th.

Here or There?

One of my favorite places in my hometown is Golden Ears Park. When ever I get stressed out, bummed out, or just want to be out in the sunshine (or in this case liquid sunshine) I drive up to the lake. One of the reasons I love this Provincial park is the fact that it is only a 20min drive from my house. You go from city to country in no time.

For my final 3D project for school I decided I would take a pair of socks that I knitted by hand and take photos of them in places that I long to be in.




I met a nice fisherman on the dock in the above photo, who had no luck. It was his first day on this lake, Mike Lake but he said he had a good time anyways.

Even though I spent the afternoon trekking around the park in the on and off rain, I really enjoyed myself and I felt less stressed out about school. I feel that the photographs really reflect my longing to be in nature, but I always feel tied to the city because of convenience.

Sheep to Shawl - 2010

This will be the second year students from Capilano University - Textile Arts program will be participating in the "Sheep to Shawl". This is a yearly event for the guilds of Greater Vancouver to compete against each one another to make the best shawl, by hand of course.

Blurb:

Cheer on local spinners and weavers as they participate in this traditional competition. Watch as they card, spin, and ply raw sheep’s wool into yarn, then weave a shawl - all in four hours! See demonstrations of sheep shearing, view wool displays, and try weaving on heritage looms or spinning on real spinning wheels. Kids can try weaving, or make sheep crafts and pictures while they watch the show.

Saturday, May 22, 2010
11:00am-4:00pm
All ages
By Donation

Entrance to exhibit gallery by admission fee.

at Surrey Museum
17710 - 56A Avenue
For information, call 604-592-6956

Jacquard Weaving

The jacquard loom was invented in the early 1800's controlled by punch cards. It was used as an example for the first computer. Today's jacquard looms are now controlled by computers. You load an image (which has been edited on photoshop) on to the jacquard software and the loom will weave that picture for you.

One of the tech's at school has a jacquard loom and we were lucky enough to weave on it this semester. I chose to do an anatomical heart. I just have some progress shots so far, but they are still really interesting.


At the top of the picture you can see the heart starting to show in the weaving. All of the threads on the left are controlled individually by the computer. (you can see the heddles, where the threads are attached to the computer, in the next picture)


In the above picture, all of the vertical metal pieces (behind the two girls) are heddles which are about 1/4" thick and are threaded with yarn one by one to control the pattern. As you press the foot peddle the computer tells the jacquard loom which ones to lift up to create the pattern. The operator, ie. the weaver, then "throws" a bobbin of yarn through the lifted yarn to weave the cloth.

(a lot to explain in such a little post, I hope it's coming across alright)

Spinning Saturday - March 13, 2010

"The Little Mermaid"
143 yards
Merino, corriedale, wool, firestar

"Sherbert"
16 yards
Wensleydale

Both these yarns were spun for a swap on Craftster, in exchange for some hand made gifts. I have not yet received them, but they are in the mail on their way here. I'm very excited.

Spinning Saturday?

I made this yarn.. (last week.. shh.. hehe) and I thought I would share it with you. (I've made 2 more but they are for a swap on Craftster, so I can't post just yet)

(no name, yet)
114yards
Llama and Bamboo blend

The llama (brown) was cleaned, carded and spun by yours truly. I must admit, I do enjoy processing fleece right from the animal as opposed to buying roving. It makes it feel MORE hand spun.. hehe