Re: [fibernet] Re: What's new?
June, The Pegasus is really beautiful - congrats! ...met someone last night who delivered twins that weighed more than 7 lbs each, so that is my new goal!! ...and sending out good thoughts towards your meeting that goal. Gwen S. -- reply to: gwe...@xmission.com
Re: [fibernet] Re: What's new?
On Jan 12, 2010, at 1:17 PM, Mary Bob Pratt -- Elihu Farm wrote: Ron, The winter weather in UK and Europe has been in the news here in the US. How much snow and cold do you have in Sweden? (Just looked at weather underground, and discovered a wx map for Sweden. http://www.wunderground.com/global/SN.html ( Is the coast of Norway really around +40F? ) Yep, it's true. The Gulf Stream goes by. Not so in Sweden where the temps are unusually cold with below zero F temps. The Northeast has been very cold, but that does happen here. We're supposed to be used to it HA. The people in the South are really freezing, much colder than usual there. I check temps in MN to make me feel warmer here. Chores take forever on these days. Frozen water buckets to empty in the a.m. Eggs to collect often so they don't freeze. Extra grain for the lambs, which are outside with big bale feeders full of baleage. Don't want to give the impression we do all of this ourselves. We were farming full time for quite awhile before we hired 'real' help, instead of limping along with various high school or college kids after school or on weekends. But it's still tough in this cold, especially with nearly all the sheep outside 24 hrs a day. We always lamed starting April Fool's Day. The ewes were out all Winter with no problems. Shearing was in late March, then they had access to an open barn free choice. Now we're heading for a warm up, which will be welcome. Maybe the ewes due to lamb can go out on a neighbor's field with portable fence. Meanwhile, it's time to bring in the dozen or so pregnant ones, for mid-February lambing. I used only one ram for that group, Dickens, a recessive-colored Romney. A good test to find out if we have some girls with recessive color genes. If not, we'll have recessive color carriers. Mary in eastern NY\\ Have fun! Ron rbpar...@swipnet.se
Re: [fibernet] Re: what's new
The other question on chain-plying the llama is how it behaves at the bends. I have found that some fibers are more malleable and chain-ply with barely perceptable bumps (merino, for example), but that more wiry fibers can be very stubborn and not want to bend that radically. I'd be a little concerned that the llama might be one of the stubborn ones. I love chain plying, but I also find that I am not always the most consistent spinner from one end of a bobbin to the other, so plying with separate singles gives me a little more chance to even things out (of course, sometimes all the fat bits pile up too). Jekka -- Jessica Sewell Assistant Professor Director of Undergraduate Studies American and New England Studies Program Boston University 226 Bay State Road Boston MA 02215 tel. 617-353-9913 Office: Room 207 Art History Department Boston University CAS 302 725 Commonwealth Avenue Boston MA 02215 tel. 617-353-1464 fax 617-353-3243 Office: CAS 215B jesew...@bu.edu [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Re: [fibernet] Re: What's New
Jane, when I do granny squares, I don't sew them together (though a whip stitch matching stitch for stitch is pretty fast), I crochet them. I use either slip stitch or single crochet while holding the two squares right sides together. When I get the first two of the row done, then I do the next two without breaking off the yarn - like chain piecing quilt squares, if you're familiar with that process. Eventually I have all the rows crocheted together, then I crochet along the columns, criss-crossing the previous seams whatever way seems to work best for that particular project. Hope that makes it seem less daunting to tackle :) I admit to loving granny squares and I'm glad they're back in fashion, at least for a little while! Holly
Re: [fibernet] Re: What's New
But it's made of teeny little granny squares, and I fear I'll never have the patience to sew them all together. Wonder if it might not be possible to crochet them together? With something similar to the three-needle (knit) bind-off? Gwen S. -- reply to: gwe...@xmission.com
Re: [fibernet] Re: what's new
Grace writes: about the virtues of Navajo plying over regular three-ply? Advantages as I see them: Can ply with just one bobbin or ball of yarn ready. Closely related, lets you do a 3-ply from a relatively small amount of fiber. Don't have to worry about having bits of singles left on two bobbins. Can play with color, if the singles are multi-colored. Fun to chain-ply, once you get the hang of it. Disadvantages: In the beginning, it's very easy to overply until your hands and feet get thoroughly coordinated (helps to put your drive band on a *larger* whorl for a slower flyer, rather than a faster whorl as usual for plying, until you're really comfortable). If the yarn is true-worsted, you'll potentially be slicking fibers up and out of the twist, making the yarn a little less smooth and shiny. The little bumps where the yarn reverses direction add texture (yes, can be either a pro or a con, depending on how much texture you want). Tension may be a little uneven until you get the hang of things - but then, so can traditional three-ply. In your particular situation, the only real advantage to chain-plying is to get knitting before you're finished spinning and plying :) And practicing a new skill probably counts, too. I love chocolate-colored fibers! I have some very nice moorit Shetland roving from the one year we had wool good enough to send to Stonehedge for carding. I think there's only 9 or 10 ounces. I need to think of a really good project for it... Holly
