Cotswold

Whoops, it's been a wee while hasn't it? Time seems to be slipping by faster than I realised :( So what have we been up to since we last spoke? Well, things have been rather quiet at work (here we go again...) so I started crocheting some squares:



It's amazing how much you can get done while you're waiting for a scanner to chew through 40 double-sided pages. This is all lovely squeaky acrylic ☺ apart from the green which is a blend. It was taking up good stash space, what can I say?

We went to Bristol, but it was so busy we didn't stop to look round other than a visit to Brislington, to nowhere other than Get Knitted ☺ Really nice shop, though it's in a totally random place. I behaved myself mightily well and came out with two Rowan magazines, a free (!) Debbie Bliss mag, ordered some blocking wires and got a ball of Zauberball Lace:



I went for a restrained colourway, though I did consider the lurid rainbow one. The blocking wires came in the post this week, they're very nice and come packed in a handy strong cardboard tube with T-pins and a yardstick. Shame the wires don't interlock together somehow to make long runs but it's not really necessary, I'd recommend them anyway.

We saw the Clifton Bridge, drove past the SS Great Britain (smaller than I thought) and ended up in the Cotswolds, because we like random on our days out ☺ I think Steve may have been plotting though, because we ended up at the Motor Museum in Bourton-on-the-Water:



James Hunt's car



Hillman Imp - my Mum had one of these!



Fab advertising signs



A fantastic very early caravan, from the 20's I think - check those leaded windows!



I think I need some of this stuff. I'm definitely suffering brain-fag.

Fleeces

I've been faffing with the fleeces I bought. I started carding the Shropshire, but triggered my tennis elbow so I've laid off on that for the moment. I had a look at the Cotswold, and realised just how deeply dirty it is, even the batches that went through the washer. I've started going over them again, focussing on the tips. This is a problem with locky longwool fleeces - the grot gets ground in to the long locks and getting it out is a bloody nightmare. I've resorted to soak in washing soda / soap flakes mix (the water here is horribly hard) then washing-up liquid, then clean water rinse, finishing up with a vinegar soak. Some parts are still mucky :( I think the worst bits will have to be dyed. It seems to have a yellow stain in certain areas, from what I can gather this isn't unusual for Cotswold. It might be yolk, I'm not sure, but it certainly isn't coming out!

And that's about it, I'm up to my eyes in paperwork, tax stuff :( and general Things That Need Doing, I still haven't got any chests of drawers (too skinted), the dust bunnies have started roaming the floors like herds of wildebeest across the veldt and the ironing basket went critical yesterday. Fairly normal then ☺

♥

Woolfest 2011

I went, I shopped, I drank a lot of coffee, missed my man and did a lot of driving - 650 miles (ouch)

Worth it? Naturally ☺ So what did I get? Well, some hand-dyed tops from Freyalyn and FSUK, silk brick from Oliver Twist, carding stuffs from Wingham, some yarn from Texere, an Andean plyer from the Mulberry Dyer, a spindle from IST, some tops from P&M Woolcraft (I think) a Kucha Kucha scarf kit and some books. Result.

When I can get some decent daylight I'll take some proper pictures.

Some musings on Woolfest
They really need a bigger venue. I was queuing on the A66 to get in, at 10.30 on Friday...and it was packed inside all morning, you couldn't get near some of the stands.
They also need more places to get a drink and something to eat. The café is very good but simply can't cope with weight of numbers. Their veggie lasagne was darn tasty mind, but they were two hours late with the sausage supper :(

There seemed to be a bit more weaving this year, but no pin looms (Hazel Rose type, shame cause I wanted one), and there seemed to be less hand-dyed yarn and crazy carding / art yarn stuff. I think this is more of a change of emphasis on the part of the organisers rather than a shift in customer taste. The focus seemed to be more on sustainability, pure British wool and natural dyes. Which is all good, but a bigger venue would allow for both camps...

ANYWAY. I wanted to tell you about the book I got - The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook by Deborah Robson and Carol Ekarius.

If you have any interest in wool, sheep, other fibre animals, spinning, weaving, felting or breed history, you need this book ☺ You don't need to be a spinner to find it interesting and informative, though it might turn you into a devoted "from-raw-fleece" spinner! Although it is American (what gave it away??) it covers the British breeds in great detail and explains the differences (where they exist) between American and British varieties of the same breeds. Handily, for most breeds, it shows a lock, one or more spun samples, a knitted swatch and a "weavie" square. For some breeds it shows a colour range too, and has a general description of each type of fibre, e.g. longwools.

For particular favourite breeds they go into more detail. They even touch on the interesting, and not very well-known, fact about commercial "Shetland" yarns - the term only means the wool has all been SOURCED on the Isles, NOT that it is all from Shetland breed sheep. So in theory it can be a mixture of breeds. Not a lot of people know that, and funnily enough, the wool brokers don't make a major point of it ☺

There's some interesting thoughts in the book on Down type breeds, so I thought I'd share my limited experience ☺ I have a Shropshire fleece I'm working with at the moment, and I've also had Oxford Down and Texel, which is not strictly a Down breed but is damn close. I think they're underrated as spinners' fleeces. They have good elasticity and crimp, they wash up easily as they don't seem inclined to felt and they spin up nicely into a bouncy, passably hard-wearing yarn. The downside is finding a decent one - Down sheep are mainly meat breeds, so the shearing is often decidedly utilitarian - second cuts and disorganised shearing are the norm it would appear. They're also often filthy and marked with shepherd's paint. They don't hold onto the yuk as badly as a locky longwool, but they do seem to act like Velcro for bits of the landscape. However once you get it clean, they're easy to process with cards or a drum carder, but you might want to use Viking or mini-combs on one if it has a lot of second cuts. I've even English combed some Texel and it made a lovely, floofy, crimpy top with lots of bounce and airiness. Massive amount of waste though as you'd expect.

So in short, don't ignore the Down breeds! Just don't buy all the good ones before I get there ☺

And now I'll finish off with some more pictures from Woolfest:


Breakfast


Wensleydales


Teeny Ouessant sheep


Pitiful-looking alpacas


Some of the Clyde Coast Guild on tour


Innes trying out her new Mayan spinner


Spinning in the Travelodge bar

~♥~

Musings on Wool

As we're now into full swing on the "Campaign for Wool" and all that, (Did you all see Lesley and her Bowmont flock and the others in Savile Row? Fabulous.) I've been thinking about the current position of British wool. Now, I'm no expert. I live on a sheep farm, but it's not mine. I use wool, a LOT, and I feel I know a reasonable amount about the end product. I'm not so up on the actual production side, so I've been reading up and giving it some thought.

Something I hadn't really realised. Most British wool is considered a by-product of the meat trade. This means that most farmers are focused on issues such as carcase size and fat content of the meat, rather than wool quality or quantity. Completely understandable - the poor price of wool means the wool cheque is virtually meaningless when compared to the value of some nice fat lambs for the dinner table. Keeping this in mind, it makes the British Wool Marketing Board a bit more sensible - it's a clearing house for all that meat by-product, most of which is decidedly average quality and is sold for carpet manufacture or industrial use.

However farmers who are working towards finer quality wools, realising there is a demand there, have to de-register from the BWMB and "go it alone" - the BWMB really doesn't seem to be geared towards single-breed batches or provide a special service for the fine or unusual wools, of interest to people like me, or perhaps to companies like Rowan. They are simply a middle-man, batching up wool and flogging it to the big wool buyers. This must be hard for the farmer looking to focus more on his or her clip - they're used to having a ready-made market, and it's just not there.

Strikes me as something of a shame. We're moving toward a situation where sheep are being bred to (once more) naturally shed their fleeces to save the cost and trouble of shearing. We import tonnes of merino and other wools, either as finished product or as yarn or fibre. Something about this situation strikes me as a bit "off." Surely there's an opportunity for British growers to take a bite out of the "merino market"? Okay, British merino is always going to be a rarity, I think the Merino breed isn't suited to British conditions, but breeds such as the Bowmont or Blue-Faced Leicester can rival Merino easily. After all, there are grades in Merino, and I bet we don't see the very best stuff over here.

Of course, companies like the Natural Fibre Company, Devon Fine Fibres, Wensleydale Sheep Shop and Garthenor are pushing into this market, with single-breed and organic options now available. Even Rowan have dipped their toe in, which is great (shame they got rid of their spinning capability, hmmm?)
So why isn't the Campaign getting involved with these smaller craft producers?

Good question. They're focusing on big people like Marks and Spencer, and posh names like Gieves and Hawkes, which is understandable, but there's a whole grass-roots movement out there which could really use the help and morale boost.

Something else I have realised - most sheep farmers have no idea what a handspinner is looking for in a fleece. Not a clue. Maybe this is something we can do - if you buy direct from a farmer, get into a dialogue, if they're open to the idea. What would you like to see in a fleece? What do you hate? Most important, how much would you pay for it?

Because, if all this works, and the Campaign can get wool back where it should be, and we can get British wool into a much more viable position, and finer fleeces available...

you're going to have to pay for it. Personally, I think that's well worth it if the product is right.

(My thanks to Lesley at Devon Fine Fibres for educating me about the BWMB, and her thoughtful posts on life as a fine wool farmer are well worth reading.)