Spinning Hemp Again

I got a new computer and now everything is a do-over.  I hope this posts correctly.  Sigh.

I had previously spun some Rust hemp from Opulent Fibers (posted in this blog).  The yarn turned out nice but my drafting hand was sore for days. Lesson learned:  I need to spin hemp without hurting my hand.  Because I wanted to spin more beautiful hemp fiber from this source, I ordered 2 ounce bundles of a variety of colors.  In the meantime, I purchased Stephenie Gaustad's book on spinning cotton, hemp, and flax.  I read the section on hemp several times, took my Matchless wheel outside, and gave it a go with the color Soft Fruit.  Definitely an improvement but still needed work. 

Note: In her book, Stephenie issues a warning about spinning dyed hemp. But I am stubborn.

I searched the web for suggestions on spinning dyed hemp fiber.  Not much out there, but some information that proved useful.  I determined to use some of my Spring Break from teaching
to get my dyed hemp spinning under control.  Here is what I learned:

1.  Set the pulley on your wheel to an appropriate size for spinning yarn the size of a paper clip.
2.  Adjust tension for light take-up; I had my Matchless on Scotch tension and a tiny bit was enough. As the bobbin filled, I increased it very slightly.
3.  Divide the hank of hemp fiber carefully in half but do not mess with it, pre-draft it, or shuffle it around. I had to divide it because I found the whole hank was too unwieldy to spin from. Make sure you find the correct end to spin from - it really makes a difference.
4.  Treadle slowly and draft quickly. Let the wheel take the yarn as soon as it is sound enough.
5.  Too much twist will snap the yarn.
6.  These fibers are relatively short; some are very short.  I used a short forward draw but I let a tiny bit of twist enter the fiber mass to help pull out the wiry, short fibers.  Otherwise I found the yarn drifted apart. 
7.  I moved my fiber hand across the tip of the fiber mass somewhat like drafting cotton sliver.  I opened up the fiber slightly as I moved across the mass since the dyeing had compressed it. 
8.  As with cotton, hold the fiber mass gently - do not mash it.
9.  Don't let the yarn hump up on the bobbin - move it frequently.
10.  Let the singles sit on the bobbin for at least a day to get used to the twist.
11.  As with all my singles, I rewound onto a plying bobbin to distribute the twist, remove slubs, and let larger pieces of woody hemp fall out.  You see one ounce of rewound singles yarn on my plying bobbin above.

I actually started out moving the wheel by hand, a bit at a time.  Then one treadle, then both but slowly.  After I had one ounce spun, which took me an hour, I was able to speed things up a bit.  The other ounce went in less than half an hour.

I am going to ply today.  My plan is to combine this color with the Rust I spun previously for a woven scarf.  Yes I do think it will be soft enough to wear! 

Red

I want to knit a Shetland style shawl and have been collecting patterns and designs for a few months.  The color will be madder red.  It took me three tries but I finally dyed 2 pounds of Corriedale roving the right colors of red/brown that I wanted.  I have been spinning the red roving in Old Town, and it makes a striking presentation.  Piles and piles of bright red roving, turning into fine yarn.   Having filled up all my spare bobbins, it was time to ply this weekend. 

I keep my Ashford Traveller set up for plying.  You will note that I moved the spring to the right side of the wheel for plying.  This is easy to do and makes a big difference.  You might have to open up the screw eye a little to remove the spring from its normal position on the left side of the wheel, but then you can simply drape the brake band across to the other side.  In this position the spring is able to provide resistance behind the flyer, which is moving counterclockwise (to the left) for plying. 

I used several different colors of Cushing dyes to get the red and warm brown tones I wanted, but I have planted some madder for future projects.  I ordered seeds and had good luck getting two out of three to sprout.  The plants are vigorous and I anticipate harvesting the roots in 2-3 years.  Since they are invasive, I put a barrier in the garden to confine the growth of the plants.  I also added agricultural lime to the garden soil as well as some compost.  Thank you Rita Buchanan for the information on growing and using madder (A Weaver's Garden, Interweave Press).

The first Blue Moon Sock Club project for 2014 is a really great pattern called Lantern Luck.  The yarn is spectacular and the pattern is very interesting to knit, but also easy to memorize.  I quickly finished the pair of socks.

 

No my feet are not super tiny.  The sock fabric is very stretchy and they fit perfectly on my size 9 feet.  There was an error in the foot chart as originally sent out by Blue Moon - they sent out a revised pattern immediately although it was an easy error to spot and fix.

 

 

The previous photo is a little too blue; there is a lot of aqua green in the sock yarn.  The colors in the second photo are better, I think.  Frida decided she had to have her tail and rear end in the picture. 

 

I am still spinning a lot of cotton.  I bought pounds of dark brown and peachy white cotton from Sally Fox.  This fiber is easy to spin and rich in color and texture.  I had been using a very light weight top whorl spindle for my cotton.  I now have two ultra light Akha spindles which I find delightful to use.  I am using the top whorl to ply the cotton singles from a plying ball.  





Fall Colors

Inspired by a couple of hikes in the nearby mountains, and photographs taken by friends who visited the east coast, I dyed some Corriedale roving with fall colors.

Hmm, looks a little like the chili peppers we have growing in the back yard garden.  I am pleased overall with the way the colors turned out.  As I have been doing for the past few months, I dyed this fiber in an enamel pot over a wood fire.  I also dyed some wonderful blue roving, which I will spin in Old Town.  Enjoy the fall colors!

Ply Time

After several weeks of spinning in Old Town, I found that all my bobbins were full and it was time to ply.  I don't ply as part of the interpretive program, despite many questions about the process.  The reason is that it takes a while, is rather boring to watch after a minute, and requires a lot of space behind me which I don't have.  So, I demonstrate mini-plying by pulling some yarn out of the orifice and letting it twist back on itself.

This also addresses questions about why it appears that I am spinning thread or too-fine yarn.  When I double or triple the single, the visitor can see how thick (approximately) the final yarn will be.

On the left is two-ply wool that I dyed in color sections that seemed too pastel to me at first.  I decided to spin it and see what it looked like.  It came out with more attractive blue coloring than I thought it would, and when I plied the two singles together, ignoring color bands, it came out rather nicely.  And the texture is very springy and lively.  So, don't dismiss an unsatisfactory dye job until you spin and ply!

The center three-ply is chain plied.  More bright green than I wanted, although one visitor said it was nice, she liked green.  OH-kay.  The chain plying preserved the contrasting color blocks I made in the dye pot.  The skein on the right, also a three-ply, is more to my liking in terms of coloring.  The contrasting colors are bright, interesting, and not too green.

Despite the cooler fall weather and end of summer vacations, we still have quite a crowd touring Old Town. School groups have replaced tour groups.  We have also attracted some repeat visitors, who come back with visiting family or just to see what we are doing again.  Tonight we are going to do some handspindle spinning at Dia de los Muertos in Old Town while we are hosting an altar.  I made myself a waist distaff from a discarded oak branch and I will try it out tonight with BFL roving wrapped around the top.

Carded and Dyed Locks

I got a few pounds of fleece from a BFL/Lincoln ram (Powell Sheep Ranch), and I have been dyeing the locks.  My objective is to spin a fat single that has color and texture running through it.  I dyed some of the locks in a dye pot that was burnt orange and yellow and one end, and blue at the other end.  The locks came out in varying colors including some interesting pale greens.  Today I carded some into rolags for spinning.

You can see on the left how the colors in the dye pot turned out.  I like this sort of thing, so the color mixing does not bother me.

I will elongate the rolags to spin them.

Tonight I will dye another batch.  Since the weather is still warm, I'll cook outside tonight, then dye the locks in an enamel pan over the coals.  I leave the pan on the coals overnight, then in the morning it's all done.  I think the real challenge will be getting me to spin the fat singles....

The San Diego Yarn Crawl has been happening over the past few days.  Since the last thing in the world I need is yarn, we visited the two alpaca ranches that were participating.  A Simpler Time is located in Crest, and La Dolce Vita is in Ramona.  A Simpler Time also has a working mill, and we were given a tour.  I had never seen a fiber mill in operation, so this was a real treat.  I hope this event grows and continues.

Hemp Spinning

I almost called this post "High on Hemp" but thought better of it.  Who knows where something like that might end up?  Anyway, last summer at Convergence in Long Beach, I bought 2 oz of dyed hemp from Opulent Fibers (color = Rust).  My idea was that I would spin the hemp and also some dyed flax purchased at the same vendor during the hot months of August and September.  Life happened, and my plans were interrupted for the next several months.

Now August and September are with us again.  Temperatures in San Diego have been in the upper 90s (and us without an air conditioner - 88 degrees in the living room for several evenings). I was spinning cotton and thought of the hemp.  I wanted a cap or scarf but 2 ounces was not much to work with.  I needed to be efficient.

I knew it had to be spun fine; the fibers are somewhat short (3-4 inches) and very slippery.  Since it is top, I spun it worsted, smoothing down the fibers as they entered the twist.  I used my Matchless wheel, scotch tension, smallest pulley (15.5:1).  Careful treadling to keep control.  I ended up with a bobbin of somewhat wiry singles, rather on the thin side.  I thought perhaps I could chain ply the singles to improve the hand and make the yarn a little thicker.  This was a mistake; it was very difficult to control the sliding part of the chain plying process.  I produced about 1.5 yards and stopped.  New idea.

Since I had already wasted some yardage of the precious 2 ounces, I did not want to risk dividing what was left based on weight for a 2 ply, and having some left over.  So I used my center pull ball winder to create a ball with two ends and plied from that.  I think it turned out great.

I now just have to finish the yarn, get it dry, and I will be ready to go.  Still not sure if it's going to be a scarf or a cap.

Milkweed, Cotton, and other Projects

The last month has found me very busy.  In addition to an increased schedule of participation in the Fiber Arts Guild in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, I have been catching up with my own projects.

First project: Milkweed Spinning.  We gathered dried milkweed this winter and it has been curing in the garage.  I got some of the stalks out and processed the fibers, practicing the local Native American method of spinning and plying at the same time.  This is done on the thigh and produces a thicker to a very thin thread.

The fiber is on the left, the spun thread on the right.  As with flax, it spins happier when it has been soaked a bit.

Second project: Dyeing cotton.  Using the guidance provided on Joan Ruane's website, I purchased some Cushing direct dye in the primary colors and dyed close to a pound of ginned Pima cotton from Cotton Clouds.  Oh, the colors.

So, what could be more fun than carding the various colors into punis?

Third project: Multnomah Shawl.  I spun about 10 ounces of the dark gray Romney I purchased from Thompson Romneys at the Black Sheep Gathering.  It knitted into the shawl I wanted.  See below, it is blocked and drying on a warm August day.  I can wear this anywhere, Old Town or just in the evening.  I knitted the pattern so that the garter stitch section would cover my back and shoulders, which are always chilly.  The border uses the traditional and superfun Feather and Fan pattern.

I forgot, there is one more project; I made the pelerine for my day dress.  It is indigo linen with white braid.  I will have to save that for the next post.