Fat Cats Corner

  Knitting.  So much yarn, so little time.   I have a significant S.A.B.L.E...Stash Available Beyond Life Expectancy.  It's a real struggle to divide my time between my hobbies: Reading, Knitting, Beading, Painting.  Then there are the mundane chores like cooking, cleaning, laundry, dishes. Sigh.  I'm not a compulsive 'starter'.  I only have one major project and one TV/Social Knitting project (wash cloth, garter stitch blanket/scarf etc.) on the needles at any given time.  A great deal of my SABLE was purchased with no project in mind at all.  But sometimes I buy for a specific purpose. I took a Fiber Road Trip in April 2019 to attend a spinning class given by Kate Larson at  The Fiber Event  at the Putnam County Fairgrounds, Greencastle, IN.  Kate was so informative and patient with the small class.  We weren't overwhelmed with statistics or extraneous details.  I learned a lot.   While I was the...

  Photo Credit The Lincoln is one of the four English longwool breeds: Cotswold, Leicester Longwool, Lincoln and Wensleydale. The Lincoln has had a globally significant genetic impact on sheep breeding but today, like most other longwool breeds, the Lincoln is globally rare and facing an uncertain future.  The Lincoln became globally rare during the 1900's.  By 1980 there were fewer than 1,000 purebred Lincoln ewes remaining in Britain.  Since then, numbers in the breed have increased due to a revival of interest in the breed's wool. The wool can grow between 8 and 15 inches per year, which means that Lincolns are often sheared twice a year to keep the staple a manageable 5 inches or so for spinning. With a micron count between 36 - 40, Lincoln wool is a heavier wool that tends to be best suited for outerwear, rugs and pillows. It is very long, sleek, shiny and has very low crimp. The long staple made it very easy to spin and the high micron count makes it great ...

Photo rights  bib.ge Just look at those long  Teeswater  locks!! Here is an introduction from The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook (Robson, Ekarius, 2011) "It is named for the River Tees, the river meanders about 85 miles from Cross Fell (the highest   summit in the Pennines) to the North Sea. "Long, lustrous, shiny wool: That's what its all about with the Teeswater. The locks hang individually   and don't clump together. There is no Kemp or dark fibres, and the wool is uniform throughout the fleece. Because of the length (6-15 inches) yarns with a low twist work out well. It is a reluctant felting wool, at best."  Page 116. The wool has a micron count of 30-35. I keep mentioning micron count but I don't think I ever explained it. (Not that anyone interested couldn't have just Googled it.)  Microns are a measure of fiber diameter. The smaller the micron count a particular wool has, the softer it is to the touch. The larger the micron count, the more h...

  " Herdwick   are a breed of domestic sheep native to the Lake District in North West England. (I'd love to visit there.) Though low in lambing capacity and perceived wool quality when compared to more common commercial breeds, Herdwicks are prized for their robust health, their ability to live solely on forage, and their tendency to be territorial and not stray over the difficult upland terrain of the Lake District. They are a dual purpose breed, producing strongly flavored lamb (meat from a sheep younger than a year) and mutton (meat from a sheep older than one year, up to three  years) and a coarse, grey wool not easily dyed and is best suited for carpet wool."    Weavers use Herdwick for warp and weft. At first appearance Herdwick looks more hair-like than wool. It is a very coarse , hard wearing wool, between 30 and 40 microns and a staple length of 3 to 3.5 inches. I love the natural color variations but found the kemp  hairs annoying.  Could...

Well, the Tour 2.0 is over and I came in dead last.  Actually I'm not anywhere near the finish line.  But I'm going to continue to Ride.  My lack of progress not with standing, I'm enjoying reading about and documenting these breeds. Eider wool comes from the German Whiteheaded Mutton.  They were specifically developed in the mid-1800's as a dual breed wool and meat sheep that would be well suited to the wet and windy conditions of the Wilstermarsch in Germany.  The sheep need to be rugged and to protect them against the weather, they have a rough fleece with a 2 inch staple length.  The white wool has a good crimp which is unusual for such a rough wool. Eider was originally the name of a sea duck known for its expensive and soft down that can be found in the famously warm and toasty eiderdown blankets. Short Forward Draw 2-Ply (L)     Short Forward Draw Navajo Chain Ply (R) Eider wool is categorized as a medium wool of 27 to 40 microns. I f...

  Zwartbles , (Zwart-Black, Bles-Blaze) is the 6th breed in my 30 Breed Sample from   Woolgatherings.com .  The breed originated in North East Holland and was imported to the UK in the 1990's.  They are a dual purpose sheep kept for meat and milk with the addition of a very thick fleece with plenty of crimp. The fleece is medium to fine with a 4 to 5 inch staple.  It ranges from dense black to chocolate brown. I enjoyed this wool.  Very easy to spin and a really lovely natural brown color.   Lesson Two over at SheepSpot was Drafting Methods. I learned that my default is a Short Forward Draw (SFD).  I had to concentrate in order to use a Short Backward Draw (SBD) and I didn't seem to get the consistency SBD. I don't know if that's just because I need practice or if it's the nature of the method.  I'll keep trying and see if my results change.  The phot doesn't show it as much as the naked eye but the Short Backward D...

Photo from here . First, I've joined Sasha Torres  SheepSpot's  The Flock, 'Bust Your Spinning Rut Challenge' (like I don't have enough going on with Tour de Fleece, knitting  4-Ever in Blue Jeans , keeping my newly retired husband in chores and life). But I joined because, I don't know how to make the yarn I want. I don't know why I would use Combed Top vs Roving, the different results when Drafting Short Forward Draw, Short Back Draw, or Long Draw.  Not to mention different plying methods.  These are things I need to know and learn before I can make a yarn I can actually spend the money to buy enough fiber to make a garment from.  Second. This 30 Breed Sample has been sitting in my stash for over a year.  And by that I mean in a plastic bag stuffed into a plastic tote with the rest of my fiber stash.  That Crazy Sheep Lady  recently posted a video (which I cannot currently find) on how she uses her kettle to steam prepped fiber she has had...

OK, so I'm a little behind the guys racing, sue me, LOL!  Masham, pronounced massam is a cross of Teeswater or Wensleydale ram with  Dalesbred or Swaledale ewes.  The fleece is very long and lustrous and the breed is found mainly in the north of England.  The fleece is suited to combing due to its length and is used in speciality products due to its limited availability.  The fineness varies from approx 38 - 44 microns and length approx. 150 - 380 mm. The Masham is a hardy sheep, with a lustrous soft fleece and a staple length of between 4 and 9 inches.   Masham wool  is a good for those who want to get started spinning their own yarn due to its good staple length.  Despite this, Masham isn't the softest wool around, so you'll usually find it used in a blend with softer fibers, or used in carpets. I liked this wool, it was easy to draft and would make a great outer-layer sweater. I signed up for a Virtual Spinning Seminar hosted by Sash...

  This Tour and this 30 Breed Sample is teaching me patience.  In the past I have mostly spun Merino or Alpaca or a blend of these and pretty much spun the same technique. Because I only have one ounce of each breed, I have to adjust my technique, tension, drafting method, treadle speed all the time.  It is certainly a learning experience and makes me think. Today's fiber is  Manx Loaghtan  (pronounced loch-tan).   I thought Jacob sheep were the only ones with more than two horns!   This fiber is a bit shorter than the Cheviot or Devon and took a little adjustment. It has some nice crimp so 'stuck' together nicely and fluffed up nicely after it's bath. I've been making a Spinning Diary with these samples.                     I was spinning while visiting a friend who is recovering from hip surgery and she suggested I knit a swatch with some of my sample.  Brilliant!  Why di...

  Day Two - I reached into my 30 Breed Sampler from Wool Gatherings and came up with Cheviot. " The Cheviot is a breed of white-faced sheep which gets its name from a range of hills in north Northumberland and the Scottish Borders."   Wikipedia Google Image Fine Fleeces Cheviots produce generous fleeces of white wool which is preferred by mills because its fineness, crimp, and length of staple give it superior spinning and combing qualities, and its low grease content causes less shrinkage in scouring.  The fleece is usually grades 1/4 to 3/8 blood combing and is usually from four to five inches in length.  Rams will normally shear 9 to 13 lbs., and the ewe will produce fleeces of 8 to 10 lbs. This fiber felt like silk compared to yesterdays Devon but it is a medium-coarse wool suitable for outerwear, rugs and blankets. The Cheviot has more 'grip' (crimp?) and was easier to control the draft and twist. Sample on far left is unwashed Again, the From the Fold method l...

    Here we go again, well sort of.  Due to COVID-19 the actual bike race in France did not run as scheduled.  We Fiber Spinners 'rode' the TdF2020 anyway.  And we are 'riding' again this time "with" the guys on bikes :)  I have a tendency to purchase Polwarth, Merino, Bluefaced Leicester or Alpaca and I tend to spin them all in the same way/method. Hence this Tour Challenge. I started with the 1 ounce sample of Devon from my 30 Breed Sample from Wool Gatherings . As the sample doesn't say, I am assuming it is from a longwoolled (left) sheep and not a closewoolled (right).    " The Devon Longwoolled is a breed of domestic sheep from the United Kingdom. The breed is raised for meat and its long wool. They were developed by crossing Leicester Longwool with Southam Nott and Bampton Nott."   Wikipedia " This wool is attractive to spinners for weaving rugs . It can also be used for dolls hair, needle felting and to create a variety of home furn...