Fondle this fibre!

[Photo: From top clockwise: Gray alpaca on spindle
and 2ply,  cream alpaca with cashmere and silk,
alpaca with nylon and wool]

At the Olds Fibre Week (last week of June, first few days of July) Alpaca Canada donated sample bags of Alpaca for the spinners to spin and samples of alpaca yarn for the knitters and weavers to use. Ooooooooh what beautiful fibre! This is fondle fibre. You just want to put one of those sample bags in your pocket to carry around all day to fondle ... or, as Jacey Boggs suggests (check out her blog, she is hilarious) .... I think it was Jacey ... if not it could have been Jacey...in any event, someone like Jacey, suggested that there are certain fibres, and alpaca is one of them, that you just want to stuff into your bra and fondle or squeeze a breast or both, all day.

[Photo: See the softness]

I spun some Kensigton Prairie Farm roving which was light fawn coloured 85% Alpaca and 15% Tussah silk. Exquisite! And the samples from Alpaca Farms Koksilah on Vancouver Island (I will be visiting this farm!) and Graycott Alpacas in Ontario were so silky and luxurious to spin. They were so soft and felt so good I did them all on a spindle to stretch out the fondle time.
Twisted Sisters Fibre Mill donated some rovings of an alpaca blend with wool and nylon. See the picture and you will get an idea of how the addition of wool adds loft. Sounds like a perfect sock yarn.

[Photo: The alpaca/wool/nylon blend on the
left and the silky suri alpaca on the right]

My Mother (Mom are you reading this?) offered to knit my niece, a pair of socks and let her pick the yarn. She picked a heathered blue alpaca yarn. Mother was horrified thinking these socks would wear out in weeks being made with such delicate yarn. So I checked out the characteristics of alpaca and was surprised to find it is 10 times stronger than wool, more shrink resistant, softer, smoother and with little or no lanolin it is perfect for those who suffer wool allergies. They should be perfect socks.  
And should they ever wear out, well, they will be good bra stuffing.

Olds Fibre Week

[Photo: Nunu felted peacock dress]

One of the things about being at Fibre Week at Olds, is meeting such interesting and creative folk. Last night I was sitting watching the fashion show (check out the nuno felting peacock dress) and a few seats down there was Syvia Harding knitting another fabulous shawl (check out her lace designs). Down a row was Carol Balogh who has some great knit kits available at her online store Nature's Knit-ch(click here to see some of them) And Barb Brown (one of the guest speakers at Sock Summit 2011), a very gentle soul and well known for knitting knee highs, was there with her book Knitting Knee-Highs, plus the socks in the book! One could findle them. Here's Barb's web site: Wild Geese Fibres.

I also met Caroline Sommerfield, a master of support spindling. If you aren't sure what support spindles are, check her web Ancient Arts Fibre and her book Spinning Exotic Fibres with Russian and Tibetan Spindles. Caroline it turns out also knitted a couple of the socks in Barb's book. It was sandle weather that day, so I did not bother to check out what socks she was wearing on her feet. I took Caroline's advice and bought a Russian spindle or, as Caroline puts it 'I liberated a spindle for the sake of the people'. This woman is persuasive if not downright subversive by converting every passerby into a spindler. The spindle is a walnut one (feels 'right' in my hand and is made by Dick Carney in Kamloops. To go with it, I bought a bowl with an ironwood centre made by Jim Leslie of Calgary. The bowl will fit on my lap.  
With a trip to Scotland, the Orkney and Shetland Islands coming up, and support spindle homework on my list, I justified these purchases as I will have something light and portable to take with me. She also sells fibre and I bought a mixture of Lllamam, mohair and merino but I was sorely tempted to get some mixtures of yak, bison and silk but ran out of cash. I am not too worried, there is always the online store.  

[Photo: Elizabeth aka Zemmie (Ravelry)
with her handknit traditional
Shetland shawl]

[Photo: Putting the shawl through
her grandmother's wedding ring]

Speaking of the Shetland Islands, Elizabeth from North Vancouver, who was in my Level 1 Master Spinners course in Victoria, was there wearing a hand knit shawl she had done in traditional Shetland-style. A true Shetland Island shawl is made from Shetland sheep wool (go figure) and must be spun so fine, that the whole shawl will slip through your wedding ring. I guess maidens are not good enough spinners. It must take years of spinning experience to accomplish yarn that is only a few fibres in diameter.

Spindle Love

I have fallen in love with my new Tabachek spindle. I had seen them advertised, and heard them talked about. Then, I saw them at the Olds Fibre week merchant mall. I admired them and then thought 'Do I really need one?' There was a variety to choose from, dark wood, light wood, Russian spindles, supported spindles, top whorl, bottom whorl, all marked with their weight in grams. I lifted one, then another. They all seemed feather light and I was ready to buy one. But then I imagined Priscilla-the-fleeceless-sheep-that-rules-the-guest-room-wool-stash saying something like 'Oh, yeah, right, Another unused item to take up much needed space.' and brushing that image aside,thought 'Would I ever use it?'  
I put the 26gram, rosewood top whorl spindle, back down and went back to class, and that's when I found out my yarn was 'lacking in integrity' (long story, see the blog on it). And I knew I had to have one of those marvellous spindles. It would slow me down and let me learn how to spin consistently, spin thin lace weight yarns, spin yarn WITH integrity and I bought one.
I saw a man that night at a fibre event and he was spinning on a spindle. We chatted and it turned out he was Ed Tabacheck, THE Ed Tabacheck who makes THE Tabechek spindles!
'I used to sell the spindles out of the back of my van' He told me. 'But I had all these women coming with me into the parking lot to the back of my van. It didn't do much for my reputation! So now I sell through stores.'

So I spun on my new spindle all the way home in the car, and I spun and I spun during the dragon boat races between races, and I spun for a week on Cortes Island between kayaking trips and I spun on the BC Ferries between islands, and I am taking it to Salt Spring Island for a Spindle-in. And I am spinning thin, consistent yarn WITH integrity!

Up to my #@$% in Fleece

Last night I found myself bidding on fleece at a silent auction at Olds Alberta.  Blue Faced Leicester, Leicester X Corriedale, Mohair, Llama, Alpaca, and a few more. These fleeces had been judged on Sunday and I was lucky enough to be right there to watch them as they pulled, poked, smelled, twanged, measured the fibres and gave  each fleece a grade.  And I listened to everything they said.  Well, almost.  But in any event, they were kind enough to let me peer over their shoulders and listen to their fibre wisdom.  I watched the wool and the mohair judging and peeked once in a while with the cashmere judging but I couldn't fit in the Llama and Alpaca.


And then I placed my silent auction bids, writing down on a card in front of the bagged fleece, the amount I bid.  On some fleece I was the first bidder, on others I was the second bidder. Future bidders would write their bid below mine. I imagined racing around the hall many times, upping my bid while other bidders did the same.  The auction was open for a day and a half but i would be in class for most of that time.  With so much fleece at stake, it made more sense for me to start placing my bids.  It would be too risky to be coy and wait until the last minute.


I did my first charge around the hall.  One bid for the incredible Leiscter x Corriedale, another bid for the Blue Faced Leiscter, and another for a fine Romney, but, I was careful and stuck to what I had learned.  Yup, quality, show winning fleece!  But what about the other types of stash, the luxury fibres.  Well, I should place a bid on a mohair, maybe two bids to hedge my luck and what about Llama.  What beautiful greys and blacks, better place a bid or two or three, hoping for at least one.  And before I knew it I had bids all over the place until I suddenly stopped and thought "What if no one else bids higher than my bid?  What if everyone else is in class with no time to bid?  What if I had to pay for all my bids? What have I already bid on?"  And then I realized I had been bidding hither and thither and had no idea just how many bids I had placed.  So much for only bidding on those fleeces that had won ribbons.


I walked the aisles again this time looking for my name on the cards and writing down in my notebook what I had bid on so when i did my next mad dash around the hall I could just hit those fleeces I had already bid on and ignore the rest.  I went down the first aisle and realized I hadn't put a bid on the gray BFL x Merino.  I better do it while I was there.  And the Frieson x Suffolk, why it is only at $20, it's worth more than that, why that is less than $2.5/lb, I better put a bid on that.  And so it went.  I was dizzy with bids.  I kept bidding rather than writing down what I had already bid on.  I gave up.  


I am worried, all those bags in the picture will not fit into the car.


... It is a day later.  I find myself the owner of three, 3! three, black lama fleeces.  And 7lbs! of Frieson x Suffolk.  In a sad way, I am relieved that I was not successful on my bids for the Blue Faced Leicester, the Romney, the Icelandic, the Kid Mohair, the Adult mohair, the... well you get the picture.  The trunk is full now anyway.


Priscilla-the fleeceless-sheep-who-rules-my-stash will be happy with this haul.  M-the hubby will not be.