4.30.2020

[insert all the jokes here]...

somewhere near the end of an otherwise unremarkable dream, i found myself in a theater-like space where a performance of some sort was getting ready to take place. the house-lights dimmed and a group of men walked into the midst of the crowd, dragging behind them a large tarp that resembled a heavy burlap fabric. they stopped moving when the reached the center of the gathering, then they turned and walked away, leaving the mass on the floor.

it was at this point that i noticed what looked like large silkworm cocoons scattered among the folds and ripples of the burlap. each one was wrapped, like a silk cocoon, in heavy ropes that were colored in intense shades of fuchsia. one end of each rope had been left unraveled, leading back into the dark shadows from which the tarp had been dragged. they suddenly went taut, like an unseen hand had gathered them up and started tugging at them from inside the darkness.

slowly, the spiral of colored rope enclosing each of the cocoons began to unravel, just like a long strand of silk being unwound from its cocoon. as each rope came to an end, figures began to emerge from the center of the cocoons. each figure took a nearly-imperceptible bow, like his or her part in the performance had come to an end, before turning and walking off into the dark shadow.

until only one cocoon remained.

it was the largest one, and the spiral of rope that encircled it had been unraveling even slower than the rest. the few lights that had illuminated the makeshift performance space on the mass of burlap faded, and we were left with our collected attention and one remaining half-dimmed spotlight focused on the still-unraveling cocoon.

the last few wraps of the colored rope were slowly pulled away, and the heads of everyone present turned briefly to follow as it too disappeared into the darkness, before turning back to the object that was left behind.

it was a glass-like shell, the same size and shape of the large cocoon, and there was a faint glow on the inside illuminating what appeared at this point to be the body of a child. but the shell broke, and out of it emerged a young woman. she seemed at first to be naked, but she began reaching into the darkness surrounding her, and pulling from it one brightly-colored piece of fabric after another with which she adorned herself.

she was clothed in layer upon layer of rich silks, dyed in the most intense shades of colors like teal, and orange and gold. each new layer was arranged in such a fashion that the ones below it shone through, and the figure of the woman, and the spectacle of her presence there on that stage... in the midst of all that unknowing shadow... increased in majesty until it was a near-otherworldly sight to behold.

then i woke up.
_____________

my two wool fleeces arrived in Monday's mail, and i was super-excited to get my hands on them... after which i washed said hands... twice. i grabbed a quick sample from each bag, and spent some time in a state of deep contemplation.


[pro tip: you can usually tell which end of raw fleece was close to the sheep. it is the cleaner bit with the blunt ends.]


this fiber was purchased from the good people over at Fusilier Sheep Company, a family farm in Saskatchewan. the sample on the left comes from a Blue-Faced Leicester sheep named "Georgia". BFL sheep have relatively-fine (soft) wool which tends to grow in tight coils... she says, stroking her own crown of tight coils. you can almost see why they are my absolute favorite breed. BFL wool is soft enough for next-to-skin wearing (unless you are me, naturally), and the impressive length of the fibers makes for an enjoyable spinning experience.

then there is the other sample. this one comes from a mule named "27". in sheep terms, a "mule" is a cross between a BFL and a hill/mountain sheep breed (North Country Cheviot, in this case). NCC sheep produce more wool than BFL sheep, but the BFL brings a significant amount of softness and length to the mix. you get the best of both worlds with these crossbreeds.

speaking of length...

i selected two fleeces with fibers in the range of four inches (which is pretty impressive for wool on the softer end of the scale), but they were far from the longest ones the farm had on offer. some of their mule fleeces had fibers in the eight-to-nine-inch range. i would not know what to do with such a thing. [insert all the jokes here.]


i wanted to do a quick wash with the two samples, so that i have a sense of how much work will be required to get all that fiber prepped for spinning. this is a scaled down version of what i do when washing a whole fleece, and it is not meant to be any sort of how-to guide on fleece washing, so consider yourselves warned.

the three things you want to get rid of when washing a fleece are dirt/sand, grease (specifically, the lanolin that makes a sheep's wool relatively waterproof), and VM (all the tiny bits of vegetable matter that accumulates in greasy, sticky wool... because sheep will insist on behaving like outdoor animals).

the first two things are easy to get rid of. all it takes is hot water with a bit of soap. they sell all sorts of fancy wool-washes for this sort of thing, but i am a firm believer in Dawn dish detergent. that is the stuff they use to clean animals that foolishly wander into the path of oil spills. for this tiny bit of wool, i put two drops into about two cups of the hottest water my tap produces.


in goes the wool...


and within seconds, a creamy substance forms on the surface. that is the detergent mixing with the lanolin and rising to the top.


while the grease rises to the top, the dirt/sand sinks to the bottom. this was after about a minute of soaking in hot, soapy water with zero agitation of any sort.


i covered the container to keep the water from cooling off too much while the wool soaked. that is a repurposed yogurt container, if you really need to know all the details. it was black cherry flavor... my favorite.


roughly fifteen minutes later, and it was ready for a quick rinse.


just reach under the mass of fiber in the water, and scoop it up (those speckly bits are VM)...


and into the clean water it goes.


all that dirt and grease is left behind. [random aside: the lanolin in skin and hair care products is recovered from the commercial wool washing process.]


all that sand came from those tiny samples, so imagine how much there must be in two sheep worth of wool.


if you look closer, you can see all the bits of plant material still mixed in with the (now) cleaned fiber. that stuff does not dissolve in soapy water, and it is too light to sink to the bottom of the wash container, so it will be dealt with later when the fiber is being prepped for spinning.


the fiber is still wet at this point, but it is so clean. this part always makes me smile.


i usually let the fiber soak in the rinse water for a bit  and follow it up with a second rinse when washing large amounts of fleece, but a quick dip in the rinse water was more than enough for such a tiny sample.


i left it to dry for an hour or two.


those lovely coils in the BFL sprang to life.


him: it looks like a doll's hair.

then i spent the next few minutes explaining to him that curly wool of this kind is frequently used for things like doll's hair (like this totally creepy selection of doll's wigs) or for making the beard (and hair) for Santa Claus figurines. yes... he is a very lucky man to be constantly subjected to this caliber of totally useless information.

as for the last problem... the bits of VM... most of that will fall out as the fiber is combed or run through a drum carder prior to spinning. even just opening up the fibers a bit can allow most of that debris to fall out, as was the case for the mule fiber sample.


this fiber is free of tangles and second cuts (short bits from a second pass of the shears). i could take this to my spinning wheel without any further prep necessary.


even the tight coils of the BFL fiber opened right up with very little effort. i have encountered BFL fiber in the past that was so tightly coiled, i had to sit down with a fiber brush, and carefully detangle the whole mess... she says, once again stroking her mane of many tangles.


i had originally planned on only purchasing one fleece this Spring, as i was hoping to get some more fiber for spinning at this summer's Twist Fibre Festival. however, said event has been (understandably) cancelled, so i decided to do my part and support a small business by getting a second fleece. when you think about it, that was actually rather altruistic and selfless of me.

that's my story, and i'm sticking to it.

4.21.2020

happy little lunatic...

i have a couple-few calls that i have been putting off making because i am genuinely sick of talking about the elephant in everyone's room. in fact, i sincerely wish that someone would design a bit of software so that when you place a call, instead of the usual sound of a phone ringing on the other end, you would be greeted with the following message:
the number you have dialed cannot be reached, because it will only add to this person's stress. please hang up your phone and try again when you want to talk about... anything else!
welcome to my life.

i spent part of the weekend stalking the Facebook page of a farm on the other side of Canada, and i purchased a couple fleeces from this year's clip. so there is a box somewhere with my name on it, full of right-off-the-sheep wool. you have no idea how happy this makes me.

in other news, the never-ending quest for distraction carries on.

after many years of neglect, i was already anxious about sitting down in front of my sewing machine, so this did not seem like a good time to get back to that particular craft. having once had a sewing machine needle break in my finger (i kid you not), i know far too well how dangerous that beast can be when approached with the wrong mindset, so i kept on looking.

i have been amassing a collection of bare (natural-colored) cotton-based yarn for dyeing, so this seemed as good a time as any to give it a try. my first victim sample was a cotton-acrylic yarn that i am already working on turning into a top to wear this Summer... if Summer ever happens, she says, staring at the snow presently drifting past the window.


this yarn was put up in one large hank, which is a massive tangled knot waiting to happen...


so i added a few extra ties to try to keep things organized. i may have also crossed my fingers at this point and hoped for the best.


i soaked the bundle of yarn for about two days in a soda ash solution, and arranged it in the bottom of a laundry basket, before sprinkling dry dye powder directly onto the surface of the wet fiber. i used Dharma Fiber Reactive Procion Dyes in the colors Robin's Egg Blue, Peacock Blue, and Watermelon, and i mixed a bit of each dye powder with kosher salt for more control when sprinkling it onto the fiber.


i wanted to keep the background relatively light, with little pops of color to break up the monotony. basically, i was trying to achieve something similar to all the lovely speckled wool yarns that are so popular in the knitting world. however, the dye i used for this is designed for cellulose (plant-based) fibers, so i knew that the color would not show up quite as intensely on this 50-50 cotton-acrylic yarn as it would on something with a higher cellulose content, but i persisted.


if you look closely, you can see the tiny specks of dye/salt, before they dissolve into the water in the yarn.


then i shoved the  basket inside a couple recycling bags (which were re-used for their intended purpose) to prevent the yarn from drying out. the next morning, i gave the mass of fiber a flip, and repeated the sprinkle-and-plastic-wrap process.


it looked AMAZING, but i knew that a lot of that dye would end up being washed down the drain, so the end color would not be as intense on the finished yarn. still, i was super-pleased with the result at this point.


you can see how all those specks of dye have dissolved into something resembling a watercolor on the fiber.


unlike most wool dyes, this stuff does not require the addition of heat. all that was needed here was a bit of patience to allow the pigments to bond to the fiber. i was very tempted to wash it out after an hour or two after applying the color to the second side, but i knew i would have been disappointed if very little of it stuck to the yarn, so i ended up waiting until the following day to give it a wash.


it took a couple days to dry completely, which makes sense as it is a garment's worth of yarn in a single skein. finally it was done. look at it!!!


 do you see all those lovely little blips of color? i was such a happy little lunatic at this point.


dye often "breaks" (separates), especially the ones that consist of a blend of different base pigments. as a result, you often find interesting colors popping up on fiber that has been dyed in this sprinkled-on fashion. i used two shades of blue and a watermelon color, so i was surprised to find little pops of yellow on the yarn. that is part of the joy/magic of hand-dying.


there is just enough color play to add a bit of interest to the knitted fabric without venturing into the realm of 'gaudy display'.


so now i have a garment's worth of yarn (that i can actually wear).


 and it is already on its way to becoming the newest part of my summer wardrobe. yay!


4.12.2020

hate is a welcomed distraction...

(half of the photos from this post disappeared for some odd reason, so i had to re-upload them.)

it is roughly six-thirty in the morning, and i am beginning the day with the odd combination of a cup of coffee and a bowl of corn. this is the contents of a can of Green Giant Niblets, to be precise. i mention this only as this is the sole exception i make to my strict rule of only ever eating  fresh corn (i.e., before it is dried and turned into popcorn or cornmeal/flour) as Nature intended it... right off the cob, and only during the month or two when it is in peak season.


i blame the existence of this rule entirely on my mom's sister, who is fond of turning up at family gatherings with mountains of previously-frozen cobs of corn. i made the immense mistake of giving it a try once, which led to me politely passing on all such future offerings. i love my aunt, but those mushy kernels are a crime against humanity. then i discovered Niblets, so now i can satisfy my longing for corn-season by opening a can every couple-few months. no, it really does not take much to keep me satisfied.

oh, and i should add a special note regarding creamed corn. just... NO! should anyone ever offer you some of that stuff, start running like your very existence depends on it, because it just might.

it is shaping up to be a potentially sunny day here in Montreal, although that is subject to change with very little notice. we actually had snow... yes snow... one day last week, so i hesitate to get too excited as to how this day might play out. as for the day itself, i am fairly certain that it is Easter, but i really cannot be bothered to take two or three seconds to verify said fact. we are not religious, and we have no children for whom we need to maintain the facade of holiday cheer, so these days tend to be spent like all others. it is a Sunday (i think), and we are healthy and alive, which seems like more than enough to be cheerful about at this point.

i had lofty plans to spend some of this social-distancing time doing a bit of the long-overdue reorganizing we keep talking about, but that was quickly abandoned for what i like to think of as 'tag-team distraction'. basically, i start one activity, and continue with it for as long as it manages to keep my thoughts from wandering into frightening places. once a given distraction starts to fall apart, i abandon it for some other thing, then rinse-and-repeat as many times as is necessary during the course of a day.

that is where you will find me most days, in the midst of about a dozen incomplete things, while desperately seeking even-greater levels of distraction.

i took my spinning wheel down from its usual storage spot atop the chest of drawers that is referred to by members of our household—all both of us—simply as the unit. that is a story unto itself... which i will get around to telling one of these days.

this is the start of turning that charcoal-grey merino wool from last year's Twist Fibre Festival into yarn that will (hopefully) be soft enough to be worn by an allergic-to-all-the-things snowflake like me.


and i am housing the waiting-to-be-spun bundles of wool in the lovely bag i also purchased at said festival. however, i have to keep the bag stashed atop my crafting bookcase when not in use, as my littlest kitty is far too eager to destroy the thing.


while i absolutely love my spinning wheel and all the distraction it has afforded me over the years, i have to admit that my eyes keep wandering to the Schacht Matchless. one of these days!

so i toiled away at my spinning, until that too started to wane in its ability to distract me, so i had to call in the big guns. turns out that doing something you really despise can be a highly effective way of keeping your head (and hands) occupied.

that is correct... i knit a pair of socks for a certain animator. they are seen here, draped across the storage bag that was intended to contain his new hand saw, but i have claimed said vessel for my own use. he and his saw will get over it.


my regular readers—all both of you—might recall me mentioning that making such things usually qualifies as torture in my universe. however, this seemed like a good time to try something new. spoiler alert: i still hate knitting socks, but that hate is a welcomed distraction at the moment.

these socks began life as a hundred-gram ball of self-striping yarn i purchased from the yarn store around the corner (which seems to have shut abruptly, long before the apocalypse hit). i wound it into two fifty-gram balls, then i started knitting the socks from wherever each ball was within the stripe sequence.

him: i didn't know you could do something like that. how are you going to cope with the unevenness?
me: the world is in complete chaos, so this seems like a good time to forget about OCD.

so i made (non-matching) socks...


then i grabbed some of my own precious hand-dyed yarn, and cast on for another pair. i call this colorway 'koi pond'. pretty, no?


i was afraid that the pretty cable pattern would be lost in all that color, but it seems to be working out just fine. not gonna lie... i was a little tempted at this point to add a thumb and turn them into pretty mittens for myself, but i promised him koi pond socks, so koi pond socks he will get.


him: it takes a pandemic for you to finally knit socks?
me: apparently.

then i proceeded to hurt my wrist from a combination of how tightly a loose knitter like me has to hold the needles to achieve such tiny stitches, and all the extra tension i have been experiencing of late. so i had to abandon all knitting for a while and turn my attention elsewhere in the unending search from sanity-saving distraction.

what could possibly go wrong... right?