Freelance Fibres -

2009 Year of the Natural Fibres!

Preparing Specialty Fibres for Creative Spinners, Weavers and Felters

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CAROLINE’S JANUARY

Spinning& Knitting:

I have been spinning 100% white Alpaca, purchased from Lesley Maxwell, (email: kurralea @pacific.net.au) and superbly carded by Freelance Fibres for several months now, and the aim is to make myself an extra warm jacket. The skeins have been dyed in the microwave with Landscapes Red Ochre+Desert Pea, Kelp, Daintree+Sage, Apollo Bay, Waratah+ Desert Pea, Barossa, Wild Raspberry+Marine, Night Blue, Sage, Tarragon, Marine and Plum.

100% Alpaca spun and dyed for a jacket.

Two years ago, I knitted a continuous square 100% cria alpaca rug, and it hasn’t dropped, and with this experience in mind, I have started knitting some single squares to form the base of the jacket. Looking at the squares, I’m tempted to change my mind, and knit another pattern from Horst Schultz’s Exciting New Patchwork Knitting, (Diamond Variations, p.20) but I’m not sure how stable the fibre would remain when knitted. There’s only one way to find out!

Trial knitted squares for jacket.

Blending for spinning: I’ve been going through books and magazines in my possession looking at fibre blends, ratios of fibres in commercial blends offered, to generally get together a set of notes and exercises for Dubbo Spinners and Weavers when I visit in September for a teaching day. Blending of fibres is so personal and unique, and offers spinners a real ‘niche’; many possible blends to hand spinners would not be commercially viable, so let’s go for it!

Crochet

Being at Monmartre, a suburb of Paris, happened when I won a trip to Amsterdam for two, as a reward for teaching children at school about recycling. At the bottom of the church steps were endless vendors, but one especially caught my eye, with scarves similar to this in very different colour ways. I love my Monmatre Scarf and wear it often; this pattern is the closest I’ve seen to the scarf I purchased at Monmartre.

The Corriedale wool was purchased at Lake Keepit weekend, and blended 70% wool/30% alpaca and carded at Freelance Fibres. The colour way was a control experiment for overdyeing a grey Polwarth fleece: the colours were Landscapes Desert Pea, Tarragon, Grevillea, Ice, Galah and Sage.

Monmartre Scarf

Monmartre Scarf

Please use a crochet hook to suit your yarn.

Changing or alternating yarn colours works well with this scarf.

ch chain

dc double crochet

tr treble crochet

sl st slip stitch

Foundation row: Loosely ch 271, turn. Starting in second ch from hook, work I dc in each ch (270 dc) 6 ch, turn.

Row 1: Starting in second ch from the hook, work one sl st in each of next 5 chain, work 1 sl st in first dc, ch 3 (counts as 1 tr), work one tr in each of next 5 dc *ch 6, skip next 6 dc, work 1 tr in each of next 6 dc, repeat from * to end of row, 6 ch, turn.

Row 2: Starting in second ch from the hook, work one sl st in each of next 5 ch, work 1 sl st in first tr, ch 3 (counts as 1 tr) work 1 tr in each of next 5 tr, *ch 6, skip over ch from previous row, work 1 tr in each of next 6 tr; repeat from * to end of row, ch 6, turn.

Repeat Row 2 for the desired width of the scarf.

Final row: Starting in second ch from hook, work 1 sl st in each of next 5 ch, work 1 sl st in 1^st tr, the work 1 dc in same tr, work 1 dc in each of next 5 tr * work 1 dc in each of next 6 ch, work 1 dc in each of the next 6 tr; repeat from * to end of row, fasten off.

Monmartre Scarf

Monmartre Scarf, alternating colour rows.

Knitted Felted Clogs

At Camp Wolstoncroft I spun some drum carded ‘left over and waste yarns’ from my projects, into a Twisted Yarn for knitting into clogs (Fibre Trends pattern). These clogs are an excellent quick project, and friends and relatives love them as gifts, and rave about them; seven pairs have found happy homes so far!

Knitted Clogs in Twisted Yarn

Fibre trends knitted clog in Twisted Yarn.

Weaving

The Eight Shaft Loom

Freelance Fibres blended and carded 75% white alpaca, 25% angora rabbit for me and I have spun and dyed (Lanasol cold pad ..light navy) this gorgeous fibre to weave. Initially it was spun for weft only, and this is what this scarf is, the warp being a colour co-ordinated commercial two ply.

Trudy Newman's Felted Scarf Pattern

Trudy Newman's felted scarf pattern

When this scarf comes off the loom, I am going to repeat it with the same homespun warp and weft, and compare and evaluate the differences.

The Four Shaft Loom

I have a variegated silk warp, and I am experimenting with alternating cashmere and homespun silk single wefts. I think that I should be beating more threads to the inch.

Silk & Cashmere Experiment