Ile de France Undulating Scarf

Undulating Scarf

It is actually called: Undulating Scarf by Adriana Schoenberg in Knitting Scarf Patterns from Spin Off.

I made mine using homespun and hand painted the skeins. Turned out quite nicely, though not for anyone to wear right next to their neck.

I should still give it a steaming as the pattern suggests for more flattening. The patterning tends to cause ripples.

Half the yarn was dyed at.2% Depth of Shade (DOS) and the other half was dyed at .5% DOS.

The dividing point is at the half way point. I thought that for a scarf that would be more interesting than making both halves the same or all the same.

A Little Update

I've been practising the Navajo plying technique. I've spun four bobbins of the Ile de France and plyed after finishing each one.

It has been an uphill battle, but by the fourth bobbin, I had the method down. That fourth bobbin was plyed quite well.

Project: Ile de France Sweater

This is the project I have been working on for awhile. It is a work in progress that has evolved from the starting point of the dyed fibres to blended fibres.

Blended in that nature dyed fibres have been blended with acid dyed fibres.
Blended in that Ile de France fibre has been blended with 'other' fibres.

Some of these other fibres are:

• Border Leicester
• Dorset
• Bluefaced Leicester 
• Merino
• Nylon
• and some I've forgotten because I just grabbed some colours
• and some unknown fibres
• all added to contribute less than 1% of the total

The total weight of fibre is 1048 grams.

I dyed the colours, both nature (osage, but very dark) and acid-very dark green and a dark violet.

After looking at the colours for a few days, I started changing the colours by adding in other colours on the drum carder. Finally I finished the batts yesterday.

The plan was to make a heathered yarn by spinning with three colours arranged in the palm of my hand and spinning back and forth.

This has changed to using a blending board and making rolags all in the same colour order, but not in measured amounts of each colour.

The wheel being used is my Canadian Production Wheel. Maker unknown. It has had the flyer repaired and the finish for the most part sanded off and has an oiled finish now. The Pittman has been replaced. It was purchased June 2015 from someone in St. Mary, ON.

It has a 30" wheel and spins like the wind on a blustery day! Double drive and single treadle.

Here is the work space:

Work space.

The batt colours.

Violet, Yellow, Green

Loaded Board

Dowels used to make a rolag

Rolags ready for spinning

Here is the wheel.

Canadian Production Wheel

Here is a bobbin of spun yarn.

Fine singles. Unmeasured.

As of this moment, the singles data has not been documented. I'm spinning it fine with a forward draw, but allowing some air to stay in the fibre as it is drafted. It is semi woollen.

I need practice doing Navajo* plying, so that's the plan. I will keep the colours separate with a little colour blending between the solid colours.

More to come in another post. More data. Plyed yarn. Knitted sample.

*This originally said Andean plying. I meant to say Navajo plying.

Ile de France Sample

This is a three ply sample I dyed the other day left from the skein of 194 g painted yarn.

 

I had spun two bobbins for the two ply and this was leftover so I chain plyed it to get just enough for a two by three sample. 

I used 4.5 mm needles and garter stitch. 

I found out how lovely this simple sample would be for a cardigan. It's not particularly soft, but it sure feels like it would wear forever. I can't see this pilling at all or catching on anything. 

I'm really impressed with this one. I want to make a sweater in this yarn. 

Fine Fleece

A Fine Fleece

I took 100 grams of raw fleece, scoured it, and hand carded it. I then spun it into a 2 ply.
It was sitting close by when I finished dyeing the skein below and I had some dye leftover I was going to discard. I decided to use it on this sample skein. It is a really pretty blue and very soft.

100 g of raw fleece after scouring became 66 g of clean fleece.
66 g of clean fleece became 61 g of plyed yarn, loosing some to second cuts, etc.

Ile de France 194 g

I had to dye a little more. This I prepared a little differently.
I flick carded the scoured locks to remove veggie matter. Then it went through the drum carder.
By now it was looking really nice. But I then hand carded into rolags and spun it using point of contact backward draw.
Before dyeing, I soaked it in hot water and TNA soap (like Synthrapol) and plenty of dirt came out still. I soaked it again and rinsed it, then it was ready to be dyed.

Exciting Package

I had this come in the mail today.

Then I opened it. 

I opened it further yet. 

Can you see the crimp?  Isn't that something special!!

Let's take a closer look...

Let's give a little lock a wash and see what happens. 

Now compared to one that's right from the box. 

Nice fleece. Very nice fleece. I lost count at 16 crimps per inch. 

What breed is it you ask?

I can only say it is from the fine wool category and that's all I know. And that it is Canadian grown.

I'm not going to take the whole thing out to look at until Friday, then I will give it a closer look and start washing it, but I'm very pleased indeed.