Episode 4: Summer Lovin'

Influence

In this episode we discuss our fiber stories and influences. Erica is very much influenced by history and historical textiles, especially 7th C Persian textiles, such as taquete, samitum and damask.

Taquete photo of pillow (photo above).

Samitum cuffs

Michelle is really influenced by her friends and family. She had a good example of someone who crafts in her mom (Hi Mom!) and enjoys being able to do crafts similar to those around her so she can chat about them with her friends.

FOs:

Erica

Erica's finished all 11 swatches of handspun yarn. These are the knitted sample for her colour management study, overall these samples use only 2 different colourways, but just look at the variety of swatches! Woven swatches to come (probably much much later). The swatches have now been washed and blocked!


Michelle

Michelle bought a summer membership to a local pool. She needed easy projects to work on when the girls were in lessons and at the pool if she doesn't feel like swimming, so gnomes it is! She's finished three. A fourth just needs a beard, but she needs time to find her black locks for that gnome's beard.

Gnome felting by the pool

Michelle's daughter decided she needed to make a gnome too. Here's Thing 2's gnome. It isn't as firmly needle felted as it probably should be, but she's pleased with it. She wants to make a sea serpent next. 

Thing 2 chose some colors for her sea serpent. Michelle was going to blend some colors and Thing 2 wanted to blend her colors as well, so Michelle showed her how to use the cards.

Michelle had a couple Icelandic fleeces from the fall that needed to be skirted and washed. She was able to get those finished. Michelle is trying to understand the genetics of Icelandic sheep. Even as a geneticist, she's not finding it easy. This one is Black Solid unspotted, about as easy as it gets.  The lighting makes it look lighter than it actually is.

It's warm enough that Michelle can dry fleeces on the porch. Her husband always comments about how it looks like a sheep exploded out there.

This is a spotted Icelandic lamb fleece. It's super soft, but the ridge down the middle of the back was very felted. Michelle believes this sheep was black, solid, spotted. See, confusing. Without seeing the sheep, it could be black, mouflon, spotted, but I don't think it is because there is dark all the way to the edge of the unskirted fleece. Mouflon would have a lighter belly. I'm not sure if it would all be removed by the shearer, who removes the belly wool first and discards it because it isn't the best wool.

Now Michelle has this felted partial fleece. It's cool and very soft, but she doesn't know what to do with it. It does look a bit like some sort of creature. Perhaps she should give it some depth and legs.

This is approximately 12 oz of Suffolk 2 ply yarn that Michele spun. She'll add it to the rest that was spun over a year ago and maybe come up with something to knit with it. It has an amazing buttery feel, which she supposes is not surprising in a down breed. She's tempted to dye this for a pair of socks.

This is the above fleece on the hoof.  His name is Henry. He is such a gentile giant.

UFOs/WIPs
Erica:

Erica has an ongoing Karakul spin she works on at Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) events. She works with karakul on her top whorl spindle, because her research indicates Karakul sheep were spun on top whorl spindles by 7th C Sasanian spinners. She has not come across good research on whether men or women were the predominant spinners in Sasanian Persia.

Erica is still knitting on her half-Pi fingering weight shawl. She is knitting it in double moss stitch and has about 100 rows left to knit. We hope you don't get sick of hearing about this WIP! :)

Erica's socks are the same, they are still ongoing and probably will be for some time, we hope you don't get bored hearing about them! Erica realises she tends toward long-term projects or at least has so many projects going on at once, that they all become long term! The top of the foot of these socks is knit in waffle stitch. Her pattern for the top of the foot is as follows, because she is purling in the round and therefore knitting the sock inside out:

K2 P2 (2 rounds)

Purl all (2 rounds)

Drawloom!

The warp is beamed and the first half of the thread by thread cross is transferred behind the reed. 🙂

Erica also has about 130 mallions to put together.

The next step will be to put lingos (weights) on all 350 pattern heddles and get the pattern heddles on a bar at the back of the loom.

Michelle:

Michelle just started spinning this Coopworth fleece that she purchased and carded with the library's drum carder in the fall. It has such a different feel to the Suffolk. It is a courser fiber and has a much longer staple length. She's enjoying spinning it thinly, but it probably won't be great for next to skin use. This is the third Coopworth fleece that she's acquired, but this is very different to the ones purchased from a different farm in that there was much less curl to this one, which may make it more breed-typical.

Michelle has started picking up her other crafts as well. This is leather dye on leather that will become a journal cover for her Hufflepuff daughter who loves all things Harry Potter.