The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Food & crafts => Crafts => Topic started by: RUSTYME on August 14, 2014, 02:22:10 pm
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Just read in ' spinning wool , help needed' ? that it can take a couple of hours for someone to spin 100g of wool .
Now different people will spin at different speeds i know , but that would mean 20 hours a week to do 1 kilo ( i don't work in kilos but can't bothered to convert) appx .
So that would seem to fit with a winters worth of evenings , to spin and knit or weave , 5-10 kilos of wool for jumpers fabric etc .
Just have to see how many jumpers i ( and the moths ) go through each year once everything is up and running .
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That calculation doesn't take into consideration the time taken to skirt, pick, wash and dry, card or comb the fleece before you even start to spin, then to ply, wash again and set the yarn, maybe even dye it, then ball it. These things take far longer than the actual spinning time :spin: Also, how long it takes to spin a given weight depends on your skill and the thickness of the yarn you are producing.
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Yep i know fw , that's why i said a winters work . I don't want to tie down to the nearest minute , but just have a rough idea how long it takes to get things done , very rough lol .
I can't remember how long it took me , but i used to spin wool on my mums wheel , and she would knit it up into a jumper .
I was never an expert spinner , but it didn't take too long .
The processing was done here and there , as and when i had time etc .
I doubt i will do too much dying , i will breed pretty coloured sheep .
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I don't know what size you are Russ but my OH is a medium and it took about 1200 grams of wool to make him a jumper.
It's a very rough estimate but should give you a vague idea of how much you need.
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40"-42" chest , 34" waist , 12 1/2 stone , 5'9" tall . I find medium size to be too short in the sleeves , but home knitting would sort that , just knit more rows .
So i usually get large or xlarge , but that may be due to sizes being wrong these days as most fit fine .
Looks like it would be about 1 1/2 weeks to spin a jumper .
Judging by the time it takes me to knit sections of rib and stocking stitch , i should be able to knit a plain ish , thick ish jumper in about the same amount of time .
Not worried about exact times to do these things , just an ish factor, things take as long as they take . Thanks Sally and Fw .
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We made a shawl in a day at Wool on the Wall
Between the carding, spinning, knitting (we used singles, so no plying) and stitching up, we reckon it took 140-150 hours work 'from sheep to shawl'.
That was at max speed, no plying, using large knitting needles so it knitted up fast.
One of the key things will be the kind of fleece you can get. Some need very little prep, some need combing or carding, or more. If you can find some that will spin directly from opened locks you will save a heck of a lot of time.
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I prefer to spin in the grease so that saves a bit of time. Of course it needs washing if you are going to dye it before spinning but you can go for coloured fleeces to save dying time (unless you want colours that sheep don't come in).
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I thought of having pink and lilac sheep , lol , no mainly natural colours and try some dying later when i have time to play . So mainly browns , blackish , greys and white ish . Then when i have a go at dying mainly browns , greens , yellows etc just basics , although i will be growing woad , so blues are on the cards purple would be ok too .
Years ago when i did the spinning , i washed the sheep one day and sheard the sheep the next day a few times . Sheep were nice and dry and the fleece very clean . Seemed to work ok if memory serves me right .
Back then i used fairy washing up liquid .
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it needs washing if you are going to dye it before spinning
You can wash and dye in one process - the stove-top rainbow dyeing process. This uses acid dyes in powder form, however; I don't know if you can do the same with natural dyes.
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Rainbow dyes sound interesting. I thought about spinning and plying some wool then dying it to get different colours or may be different shades of the same colour.
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I wrote the rainbow-dyeing technique (http://www.ravelry.com/projects/castlemilk/stove-top-rainbow-dyeing)up on Ravelry. This method works on unwashed fleece.
If you have washed fleece, or tops, batts, yarn or whatever, then a similar method using dye solutions (http://www.ravelry.com/projects/castlemilk/stove-top-rainbow-dyeing-2)will achieve similar effects and use less dye.
When I do the first version, using powdered dye, I use up excess dye by doing one or even two more dyeing sessions using the same dyebath. Occasionally this is a bit muddy and/or disappointing, but often, particularly if you have chosen colours within a colour range (eg reds and purples, or turquoise, green and yellow), then the exhaust bath colours are a softer version of some of the primary bath colours. You always need to add more vinegar to fix the dyes.
If the water isn't clear after using the dye solutions version, you can equally use up excess dye by using the water again, and again would add more vinegar to aid the colour fixing to the fibre.
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Any dying i do will be from what grows in the herb bed , hedge , veg etc , while only parting with money for absolute unavoidables .
I did do a fair bit using plant material years ago , but mainly my jumpers were the colours of the sheep . I am not really a fashion icon , more a tramp !
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Russ, last week I dyed with Rosebay willowherb (a mucky pale lemon) and Himalayan balsam ( a camel/ginger). The later was by far the nicest and would look good blended with something else too.
Next week I am going to do some turmeric and might see if I can find something else too.
I would use blackberries but they are too good to eat to use for dyeing ;D
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Was the balsam the whole plant with ?alum mordant.
Something I've been reading up on but not had time to do recently.
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The balsam was about 8 to 12 inches long. I dyed 100 gr fleece and used 8% alum and 6% cream of tartar
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I was at my spinning group today and talking to someone about dying. She showed me something made from wool she'd dyed using a beginners kit. She had already spun and plied it then she laid it on cling film while she drizzled dye on using a pipette, then wrapped the cling film round it and put it in an electric food steamer for 30 minutes. It was beautiful.
I have a steamer that I never use (it was from the days when we were able to go caravanning) so I'm going to dig it out and have a go.
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Also works in a microwave!
I did a workshop in which, amongst other techniques, we did the clingfilm-packet-in-a-steamer dyeing and wrote it up here (http://www.ravelry.com/projects/castlemilk/dyeing-using-acid-dye-solutions)
I absolutely love this technique, dyed this fibre, span it and knitted this hat
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Oops, I realised belatedly you were talking about dyeing yarn this way. I did that first, then moved onto dyeing tops to spin.
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I love :love: the hat Sally - inspired :knit:
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I'm defo going to have a go at this. Just need to spin up some white wool now. :excited: :excited:
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That hat is gorgeous :thumbsup:
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Yes, I fancy one of those now.
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My aunt sent a 'simply knitting' mag from april 2010 , that she got off a boot sale .
In it is a jacket/cardi she thought i could make . Mmmm , not yet me thinks , omg lol . However lots of interesting stuff in it , including a guide on how to knit , can already do what is in that , and a guide on how to crochet .
Thought i might have a go , but no hook . So got a bit of wood , made it roundish , made the hook bit , bingo , a crochet hook . I can now do chain stitch and double crochet , i think ? It looks right anyway .
The hook is about 4mm and the wool dk .
I will have to have a look how to crochet 'into' the double crochet bit i am doing , not very clear in the guide , to say the least . I find it very fast to crochet together .
Will have a look at basic crochet patterns online .
The knitting is still coming along , still doing the practice piece atm , but doing all the stitches as per the kids jumper pattern .
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Is there no end to your talents, Russ? Crochet is great because it is fast. You can use lots of oddments to make granny squares and sew them together to make a blanket or even make a huge one to be a blanket. I still use one I make more years ago than I care to remember and it's just as warm now as it was then. The only problem with a blanket made out of hand-spun is that it will be heavy for hand-washing.
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It does seem to make up fast Lesley , even if mine is a bit wobbly and uneven .
But i have about 6" done in double crochet so far .
Working out how to do this was easy , the instructions on making the turning chain stitch and how to continue are not so easy to work out .
Just read that the main stitch is made by going into the second chain stitch , is that correct ?
I am doing double crochet , i think ! , that goes into the third chain stitch .
When i crochet into the double crochet row i just did , do i count the same way , into the third stitch ?
Should i be doing the plain stitch really ? ( putting hook into the second stitch ) .
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Wow Russ, I am impressed.
Yes, as you have already found it is faster than knitting. What I like about crochet is that you only have on stitch on the hook and therefore it's much easier to pick up and put down than a row of knitting.
There are quite a few stitches in crochet, just as there are in knitting, but you can make most things with the very basic stitches.
I have quite a few Simply Knitting magazines here. What are you looking for, mens jumpers or simple children's? I will look through them and see if I can find some suitable things for you and send them on.
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Thankst Sally , but i am not sure what will survive the move here atm , there will be a huge bonfire as it is .
The stuff in a full 30' caravan isn't going to fit in a 15' tourer as well as me and 3 dogs lol .
Simple kids stuff is mainly what i think would be best for me atm . Easy to knit , not much wool so cheap , if not free to make . But as i say , space will be non existant , 2000 books , 90% of my clothes , in fact anything combustable is likely going on the fire . I can only cram so much in the small sheds i have .
Therefore only 100% essential items will escape the flames .
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Thankst Sally , but i am not sure what will survive the move here atm , there will be a huge bonfire as it is .
The stuff in a full 30' caravan isn't going to fit in a 15' tourer as well as me and 3 dogs lol .
Simple kids stuff is mainly what i think would be best for me atm . Easy to knit , not much wool so cheap , if not free to make . But as i say , space will be non existant , 2000 books , 90% of my clothes , in fact anything combustable is likely going on the fire . I can only cram so much in the small sheds i have .
Therefore only 100% essential items will escape the flames .
OK, once you have moved, and assuming you will have a mailing address or some sort of po box, if you decide then that you want some mags let me know.
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Thanks mate.
Really not sure what i will have , maybe a care of address for essential mail , i just don't know as yet . PO boxes cost £ and you have to get to the place to collfect mail , no money (very little) , no transport etc etc lol .
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Hide a box in the hedge on your nearest lane and make friends with the local postie, ;)
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In the old days that would have been ok . But now the post comes via the local sorting office , all digital and online etc . The local posty isn't one , it is many different ones . I would rather go the 'care of' route really .
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Ours changed to Newtown sorting office a few years ago so can't collect parcels locally anymore but we've still got the same postie who'll sign for parcels and leave them in the barn rather than waste his drive down my track. ;D
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Made a spindle earlier tonight .
Used a piece of 12mm dowel , sanded it from bottom to top , leaving the bottom at 12mm and taking the top down to about 9mm . Cut a notch about 1 3/4" from the top , sanded all smooth then waxed it with beeswax .
I made the whorl out of 2 discs of thick cardboard , all i had here , made holes in the centre then slid them down to about 1 1/2" from the bottom .
Tied on a couple of feet of wool and got some fleece out ready to spin . What a bloody mess lol . The spindle worked , but i didn't .
Kept going and began to get some very variable yarn spun .
It has been many years since i spun this way , and i have completely forgotten everything .
But i am getting yarn , albeit crap yarn .
Will have to get some fleece now , if anyone has any left now . They had plenty earlier , but that was when they had just sheard their sheep .
So , i am up and running at last .
I have sort of sussed the crochet now , and can do chain st , slip st , and double crochet and it looks like the pics in the book . Have been playing with that for a bit , and then the spindle , so will get the knitting going tomorrow again .
Will have the knitting going , the crochet and now the spindle , so can choose which to do depending on mood .
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Having a choice is always good for keeping the interest going.
I could never get on with drop spindles. At least, I could manage the drop part with annoying regularity but the spindling part seemed to pass me by.
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Rustyme - it sounds as if you need a bit more weight in the spindle whorl. Something round the outer edge would be good although I can't think what - a length of wire maybe if you could attach it, perhaps shape it into a circle, then stitch it in place on the cardboard. Worth trying.
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Yes fw , it does work as is but a bit more weight would help keep the momentum going longer .
I just used thick card board , as that was all i had here that i could work . My tools are down the land , bits of wood up here .
I could use a plastic coffee jar lid with a hole in , slide it on the spindle and fill with melted wax until the weight was right .
But the card does work , i got some almost even yarn toward the end
. The card is just a for now thing though , I will make some discs up when i get time when i am down the land .
I think the spindld must have dropped 50 times at the start before i got the hang of it Lesley , and i used to be able to spin with them .
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A drop spindle isn't something I have been interested in before, other than the fact that you can get them in some lovely woods, but I tried a basic one yesterday and much to my surprise I had a half decent yarn almost immediately. :)
I have enough projects on the go at the moment but if yesterday is anything to go by I might try this again.
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I prefer a top whorl spindle, as you can roll it up your leg to get a really long spin. Although I also really love my Turkish spindles which are bottom heavy but spin endlessly.
I think once you know how to draw out the yarn, then spinning works on whatever tool you use, wheel or spindle. I love having spindles (don't ask how many :o) as you can spin as you walk, or stand in a queue, or wait for an interview, sit in the docs waiting room, watch your sheep, all sorts of places where you can't lug a wheel. :spin:
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I can spin on a wheel but have tried and tried with a spindle to no avail. At the most, I get a few yards on very uneven stuff. Now I can't stand up for very long, it's out of the question.
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Lesley, one of the ladies at our group is getting on in age and can no longer use her spinning wheel but her daughter brings her each week and she uses her drop spindle sitting down. Try it.
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I use my drop spindle sitting down, as does one of our most experienced and talented spindlers at my Guild. You just have to wind on more often, is all ;)
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Yep , i have only been playing for an hour so , but was sat down . Also when i spun with one 35 years or so ago , i did it sat down .
I couldn't manage it standing up , too much yarn etc .
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Not so far for it to drop I suppose. :roflanim:
I did wonder about trying one of those spindles that you have in a bowl. I do love my spinning wheel though.
I used to know a couple who went in for the Good Life long before it became fashionable. Zoe used to reckon she could spin and ounce of wool while doing her morning walk round the fields checking the fences. She also dyed it with vegetable dyes and knitted jumpers without ever using a pattern.