Whoops!! Clun Forest Mittens

Whoops...I forgot to take a photo of the mittens and now they are in the hands of the walnut supplier.
Oh well.

The cuffs were knit with my blend of Canadian merino and Clun Forest. Drun carded, but a tweedy blend which gave the dark walnut colour a little bit of a taupe cast to the colour. Interesting.

The body of the mitt was knit in a slightly lighter walnut shade and the finger tips area was a very dark brown. The thumbs were the very dark brown.

Turned out very nice with the shade variations making it more interesting.

The pattern was made by myself from the measurement of my hands which I believe to be average.

Update on Clun Forest Mittens

In the little time off work, I managed to spin a little for the mittens - enough to get started knitting until I spin more in between spinning for my class work.
Pictures show the progress:

Plying in progress.

Making a skein on the niddy.

 

 

Washed, set, and dried.

When the skein came off the niddy, it looked overtwisted. Before I plied it, I let it ply back on itself to see how it should be plied. Information told me to ply at 4 tpi (twists per inch), so that is just what I did. On the niddy it was definitely overtwisted, but after washing it I had a balanced skein.

Clun Forest Walnut Dye

This past fall I was given a bag of walnuts from a tree that was felled in Brantford.  I used some & left others soak for a few months. They froze into a solid mass in a 5 gallon pail on my deck. When my hubby decided to get rid of them I decided it might be time to carry through with the project I began those many weeks ago.

I have Clun Forest roving that is very white that would suit the mittens I would like to make as a thank you gift for the walnuts received for the last couple of years to the lady that had the tree.

I have a young walnut tree on the property that only this past season has yielded any walnuts. I was very pleased to have gathered 8 this past fall.

Here it is in pictures.

White Clun Forest roving from ' fibregarden.ca '.

Roving added to dyepot in netting for easy handling.

Starting to take the colour. Temperature being raised to 180F then turned off to soak.

Time to remove the wool.

Draining in sink; ready for rinsing.

Rinsed, spun, ready to hang for drying.

 When this is dry I will show the spinning part of the project.

Last Woad of the 2010 Season #6

Scoured Clun Forest Fleece, wet.

Alkaline frothed & aerated.

After 20 minute woad dip.

Changing colour 1.

Changing colour 2.

Changing colour 3.

Fleece the next day air drying.