To read more posts...leave a comment...and to mark your location:

Posts are in reverse chronological order. To read beyond the visible posts, click on "older posts" at the very bottom of the page or click on specific months/days in the left margin.

Feel free to leave a comment at the end of any of the posts.

I'd love it if you scrolled down to the bottom of the page and marked your location on the map!

Monday, October 6

Catching Up on Stash Posting...

Okay, I'm guilty. I've been neglecting my blog lately! About a month ago I went to the Vt. Sheep and Wool Festival. I got some great stash (in the form of roving), and I meant to post the pics here before I forgot the sources of ones without id tags/business cards. But, then I was caught up in a cleaning frenzy for Kenny's visit--my knit friend from Houston, and another week passed by.

Then he was here--and we spent a week leaf peeping, visiting yarn shops (three) and now I have a ton more of yarn and roving stash--thanks to Kenny's generosity. I'll post some of it here and try to get caught up.

Click on pics to enlarge...

From the Sheep and Wool Festival:
The trio in the top picture: top left--Merino/Bamboo, 8 oz. To spin and dye (and sell as handspun). Top right--Corriedale (to spin and sell some); bottom--Merino/Tussah silk. To spin and maybe sell some.

Colorful balls of "Walk in the Woods" by my friends at Mountain Fiber Folk Co-op in
Montgomery Center. It's a blend of mohair, alpaca and fine wool. I've spun up a couple samples of lace and sock weight. Yummy. I've also spun up 3 oz of heavier worsted weight. Pics later.

Shetland/Alpaca blend. Can't remember the farm. I'll update later. Very silky, super soft. Spun up a little sample--will make wonderful lace garment.

Fourth picture: top is some mystery thing I can't identify. Bottom of the pic is Llama down from West Mountain Farm in Stamford, Vermont.

Very soft. Silky. Divine. Most llama is sold with the down and rough, longer hair mixed in;
in this format it's just okay. But, Gayle from West Mountain told me that this new process is capable of separating the two, and the result is incredible. Like cashmere, but stronger. Ohh Laa Laa!

Fifth picture, 8 oz of BFL (acronym for Blue-faced Leicester, a soft, but strong sheep wool, suitable for sock yarn and wonderful for dyeing). I plan on spinning and dyeing some of this and maybe keeping a bit for myself.

Bottom pic: top two balls are of angora bunny, kid mohair and lambswool--this is from the Mt. Fiber Folk Co-op.

It's really soft. But, when I spun it up, the angora (which is 50% of the total), was too dominant and clumped up--possibly because the three fibers are different and carded differently. I e-mailed Carol (it's her roving) and suggested lowering the percentage of angora to about 24-30%.

Angora rabbit is about 8-10 times warmer than wool. Like alpaca and llama, a good percentage is about 30% in the blend, which lends greater warmth to the yarn, but won't add so much weight to it. (I picked up 4oz of a 33/29/37 blend of angora/kid mohair/lambswool on our leaf peeping trip. This spun up perfectly.)

The two darker balls on the bottom of the pic are Jacob's Wool. This is a natural 3-color fleece, and if you can get it carded with all three colors in parallel stripes in the roving it's really cool! This roving had dark and light grey, which is pretty, and it has great strength but a lot of natural loft/air in-between the fibers, kind of elastic. Will make nice socks.

So, there you go! Fiber stash from the Vt. Sheep and Wool 2008. Next post will update you on the roving and mostly yarn stash I picked up during Kenny's visit to Vermont.

Take care, and happy knitting and spinning!

Chris








7 comments:

Geek Knitter said...

Gah! You aren't making it any easier to not be a spinner!

Joansie said...

Ok, I'm jealous of your stash!

Anonymous said...

I had a wonderful time there! Thanks! Joansie, you haven't seen nothing yet!

Marianne said...

ooooh, I'll be dreaming about llama down now!

Kyle William said...

leaf peeping - I love it!

I miss you, Chris! sounds like you have been having a good time getting fiber :) - if nothing else, you're helping to insulate your house for winter :)

Wish you could come to the West Coast Men's Knitting Retreat... I'm gonna be there (and so is Kenny I think!) - it'd be perfect if you were there too...

xoxo

Kyle

Alpaca Granny said...

I really like only 10% angora to 90% alpaca.
Get to spinning, good buddy.

Chris said...

Nice stash! Re angora percentage - I don't get clumping with my blends of 50 percent angora. I get most of my stuff processed at a local mill and the results are glorious. I've also recently started blending merino and angora on my drum carder in about a 50/50 blend and have not experienced any clumping in the spin. I hope your next angora blend makes you happier!