It's SHOW TIME

I'll be blogging-off until Monday following today's post. This weekend is the Meaford Apple Harvest Craft Show. I've been going to this venue for 8 years or so and it's always been good to me.




Most of the tubs are packed and ready for loading. Only about three tubs more to go. The tables and backdrop are already loaded in the truck, and I'll load the tubs in when I'm done blogging for the day.

I have a double booth (20 x 10') at this show, hence the heavy load. The truck will be full!

It's only 15 minutes drive to Meaford, and I used to do multi-trips to haul stuff in. But with the number of venues I do now I've developed a protocol that if it won't fit in one load its not going.

Who's P
I've mentioned P a number of times and some are wondering, who is this P.

P is a handspinner, knitter, dyer, recent sock machine owner, and all around crafts person who lives a few hours away from me in Southern Ontario. I first met P as a customer who came to buy fleece from my sheep. For the past few years she has also done custom spinning and knitting for me. She has an intuitive sense of colour and knits many fabulous hats, mitts, scarves and such for me, combining her own pattern designs with my farm dyed yarn.

Currently, P is knitting me some hats and mitts out of this:

This is a 70% Alpaca 30 % wool blend that the mill has done up for me. (Click for larger.)It is mule spun worsted weight, 2 ply, ~ 210 m/ 112 g. All the colours are natural except the black, in which the wool portion was dyed.

And speaking of Dye
The batch I was painting yesterday sort of turned out. I wasn't satisfied with the result - parts were a little too pale. Not white, but so pale as to indicate the dye didn't take up entirely.

I probably could have left it there and knit socks with it, but I decided to give it a pass through the dye pot with a weak avocado dye. I chose avocado as it was the lightest colour of the 7 I used to paint.

The light areas took the avocado fine, but the second bath also greened up the other colours more than I hoped. Here's a picture of one still-wet-skein. (Click for larger.)

I think the reason for the light dye catch in the original work was either spinning to much pre-soak out of the yarn (pitfall noted yesterday) and/or too much twisting of the skeins in the soak may have restricted the mordant from working itself evenly through the fibre - tie dye effect.

Other than the pale spots, I preferred how the colours came out in the original batch, vs the greened up remediation. So I'll give it another kick next week!

And back at the farm

The fall colours are settling in. They are a little late this year, likely because of too much warm weather. I took this shot heading down the lane this morning to check on the flock. Can you see Waldo.... I mean, Jesse, in the shadows?

The coyotes have really been howling at night, so Jesse and I are checking the flock more frequently. The lambs are confined to the barnyard for their safety and the ewes USUALLY can withstand a little pressure from the coyotes. My ewes are big compared to most sheep and a coyote would have to have help from his friends to take one down.

Coyotes typically hunt alone and therefore don't pose a threat to a large ewe who is healthy and quick on her feet. But, in the fall, the coyote parents are teaching the young of the year how to hunt, and so they are in familial packs. This can, of course, stir things up!

FibreFest North

Those of you that are going to FibreFest North - have a great time and be thankful that I am busy at the craft show. Otherwise, you'd be spending ALL your time teaching me how to knit!

Have a nice fall weekend, and I'll blog you again on Monday...

Scratch Sock Yarn

Here's a kick at sock yarn from scratch. (Let's not call it scratchy sock yarn!)

First, feed a sheep for a year, have it shorn, and either spin it into yarn, or send it to a mill to be spun.

For this batch, I'm going to hand paint the yarn, so I'll need to prepare my special pot.

This is a standard canning pot. I take a small square baking rack and attach it to the bottle holder that will get lowered into the pot. I put an inch or so of water in the pot - but little enough that it won't touch the baking rack when the whole outfit is lowered into the pot. The idea will be to steam the yarn (not boil it) to set the dye.

Next I've taken 6 x 110 g skeins ( ~ 1.5 lbs) of sock yarn and set them to soak. The yarn is 75% wool/ 25% nylon; ~ 400 m/ 110 g

The skeins are lightly twisted and are sitting in about 1.5 gal of hot water with 2 tsp synthropol (or mild soap), and 9 TBS citric acid.

This is pre-mordanting the yarn so that the dye will take when applied.

I leave the skeins to soak for 30 - 45 minutes and then



gently squeeze the excess water from the skeins, place them in a lingerie bag and spin them to semi-dry in the washing machine on delicate cycle (gentle spin).

Then I lay the skeins out on the work table.

My work surface is 8 feet long. I have taped on a brown paper length, onto which I have marked reference lines to help guide my painting. On top of the brown paper I have taped a sheet of 6 mil vapour barrier that will protect the brown paper and counter, but let me see the reference lines. And finally, on top of that I lay an 8' length of saran wrap. I bought a commercial roll of this - it is wider than grocery store size and allows me to do more skeins in a batch.

Next, I paint the skeins.

For this project I am using the seven colours from Prochem's Arctic Sky colour theme (colours I dyed worsted weight yarn last month), using their mixing directions to make up the dye. The washfast acid dyes are mixed simply with boiling water and placed in squirt bottles. The yarn has already soaked in the mordant so no additions are necessary.

Wearing rubber gloves, I squirt the colours into the slightly damp yarn and work the dye in with my fingers. I keep a pail of cold water and a rag handy to rinse my gloved hands between colour changes.

When the colouring is complete I flip the skeins over and make sure I haven't left any area undyed. Usually I find some white on the underside, and remediate that with more dye.

When I pick up a skein, if there is dye laying on the saran wrap in pools I know there is too much dye and I'll end up with a muddy coloured batch of yarn. In that event, I use a generous amount of paper towels and pat the yarn to take up as much of the excess as possible.

Lastly I cut the saran wrap in the middle (because I've done two separate batches of 3 skeins each), fold the sides of the wrap over the yarn and roll the batches up.

I place the two rolls onto the pickle pot rack and lower it down over the bath, and put the lid on the pot. Once the pot begins to boil I turn it down and let it simmer for an hour to steam-set the dye.


I haven't done this kind of dye work for a while. I used to do it in the laundry room before the wool shack was built, and it's taken a while to get a work table set up (what with all the sock making going on!).

PITFALLS -

The easiest mistake to make is to use too much dye so that the yarn is over saturated. Even in the saran wrap such excess dye will work its way to the bottom of the roll, muddying the colours on the way and ending with a great black blop at the bottom.

Next possible mistake - to over spin the yarn so that there is not enough citric acid left in it, or it is too dry, to accept the dye. In the laundry room the washing machine has a timer and I would set it for a partial spin - 4 out of 5 minutes. In the shack the washer has no timer so I let it spin through the whole cycle.

I guess we'll find out if I fell into either of these two holes.....

unsocks and un-csm-socks

I finished off the 'toes' on my wine socks.



I'm happy with how these came out, but I do think they present better with the empty bottle.

(Note to self: drink three bottles of wine tonight.)

I think I'll like to make some more of these with unpatterned yarn, and do a few stripes or bands for colour variation.

I was able to get 6 felt liners (one wine sock is still on the machine) out of one sheet of felt, 3' x 4'.

Another Unsock Prototype


I knit this Christmas Stocking on the 72 cylinder with the same tension as for the wine socks (2.5 turns less than usual sock yarn setting). Unwashed/unblocked - its about 5.5 inches wide at the top.

On the heel - I decreased 4 stitches LESS on each side so that the foot would angle more ~45 degrees instead of right angled - so it would hang better (?) and also made a fairly short foot (30 rows) for the same reason.

I'm thinking it should be a little longer or maybe the foot a little longer, or both.

The current prototype took 45 grams of 4 ply sock yarn (This is the Opal Hundertwasser again).

The hem top is a total of 40 rows - so I 'could' cheat back a bit on that dimension and add a little more length and still keep the yarn to half a ball.

More fiddling required....

Some DPN socks

Don't freak out. I have not learned to knit with DPN's yet. But here are some socks knit by P with my farm dyed 2 ply mule spun yarn.



These are 'Embroidered Knee High Socks', pattern by Kristin Nicholas, published in Vogue Knitting last fall, with colour modifications by P.

Aren't they a hoot!

And here is another pair with an adaptation of the pattern by P.


And meanwhile, back at the farm


I took this poor quality pic when I went to do chores yesterday afternoon. Fortunately I arrived at the same time as that dog and was able to corral the lambs to safety.

If you have always wanted a place in the country so your 'dogs can run free', please go to your garage and get a 2x 4 and give yourself a good whack.

Sheep are prey animals and will run at the sight of a dog. Dogs, even Fifi, will naturally give chase. Chased lambs lose weight and RARELY gain it back efficiently if they don't die (get run to ground, attacked, or even scared to death).

A sheep farmer can lose an entire year's income with one dog visit.

Pico Boo

PICO

Here's a little sock machine tutorial on how to do a pico hem.

I've set the 54 cylinder up in a 2:1 mock rib, which is to say every third needle has been removed. You can do a pico in almost any configuration - the 2:1 is easier to see the steps.

I knit 10 rows (10 being arbitrary) to begin my hem top.

Next, with my handy little pic tool, I lift the stitch off the first needle in each pair of needles.

Then I place the stitch I lifted off onto the neighbouring needle.

I work my way around the cylinder, moving each first stitch in a pair of needles onto the second needle of the pair.

Then I crank the yarn carrier around. See how the empty needles now have a little 'hat' of yarn. This will become the purl of a stitch after one additional pass.

But see how one needle (at 3 o'clock) didn't catch the yarn, so it has no 'hat' and is still empty.

No Problem. These little hats aren't complete stitches, so they won't run if you miss one.



I simply grasp the missed bar of yarn with my pic and put it up over the needle to make the 'hat'. This is something to check carefully before knitting the subsequent row. In the case of this photo, all the stitches did catch and I just removed one to show you how it would look. For some reason, my 54 cylinder NEVER misses starting the new stitch, but my 72 cylinder misses quite a few that I need to pick up.

Once I'm sure all the new stitches have started, I knit 10 rows.



The reason I knit 10 rows is because that's how many rows I knit BEFORE I did the pico. No rules about this - just do as many rows after as you did before. Because the next step is to hang the hem - which was demonstrated in an earlier blog.

By hanging the last row on the first row the pico row will form the edge of your hem.

BOO

The witch is finished. (click for larger). All she needs now is a name.

Much Ado About Lanolin

Wool naturally contains lanolin. The amount varies greatly by breed, and to a lesser extent within a breed. Finer wool breeds like Merino are on the high end for lanolin content.

Lanolin is grease.

This is a tub of cleaned lanolin.

It is very much like Vaseline or other petroleum jellies. It has water repelling qualities. It also has glue like qualities when it comes to chaff, dust and dirt.

Some mills boast about leaving a high lanolin content in the yarns they spin. IMHO they aren’t washing the wool well.

Lanolin melts in hot wash water. If you soak a raw fleece in hot water, and remove the fleece before the water cools (beyond the melting point of L) then you will leave the lanolin behind. If you let the wash water cool, the lanolin (and much of the dirt) will re-adhere to the fibres.

You can affect some degree of change by using a mild detergent instead of soap. The former will leave more lanolin in tact. This is good to know when washing yarn if you want reduce or preserve lanolin content.

But at the raw wool stage, again IMHO, much of the dirt pretty much goes which ever way the lanolin is going.

Mills use spinning oils as a lubricant when spinning yarn. Much of what you think feels like lanolin in yarns is spinning oil.

You can, of course, add lanolin back to wool with wool wash products like Eucalan.

When my yarns come from the mill, I wash them in the hottest water I can get out of the tap and a little synthrapol or other mild soap, remove the wool before the grease starts to re-congeal, and then give the yarn a soak and spin with Eucalan.

End result - whiter (if wool is undyed), smoother, softer, nicer smelling, self-knitting, need I go on???

Bad grease out. Good grease in.

The photo (click for larger) shows a skein 'as from the mill' on the left, and after my on farm preparation on the right.

Even the bad gease is good if you can separate it from the dirt. Lanolin is a great (and expensive) moisturizing additive to hand soaps and lotions. You need only examine the hands of a sheep shearer to see the marvelous advantages of lanolin on your skin.

You can reclaim lanolin from your raw wool washing water by removing the wool while the water is still hot, then letting the water cool. The lanolin will float to the surface much like the fat in cooling gravy. Or you can even buy it if you don’t have a lot of dirty wool, or A LOT of time your hands.

Hitting the Wall

I hit the wall with blogging this weekend - so no post yesterday and a late one today. Lots of big craft shows just around the corner and hysteria starting to creep in.

I've fallen behind with much of my blog reading too, esp the high graphics ones, and you know who you are.

AND big weekend at church with an open air mass presided over by the Bishop for the installation of our new pastor. Did I mention, open air mass. 1000 people. I was the cantor so was a little stressed out: would I remember my music (I did); would it blow away in the wind (it did); can I make 1000 people hear me ( I can ;o)) ; would my fly be open (it wasn't). These things always go fine, but I can whip my self into an anticipative frenzy with amazing ease!

AND I got my invite to Ravelry.

All's well that end's well......

More Unsocks

Here are a few more wine coolers.

The one on the left is Opal from the Rodeo series, and the top one is Opal from the Hundertwasser series. I don't have the colour numbers as these are from the scrap drawer and I no longer have the labels or any full balls of the colours. The one on the right is Fortissima Colori # 2416. All are 4 ply sock yarns.

You can see some green or white separating the coolers - this is the scrap yarn tied on between socks that lets me keep on knitting. It will be removed when I close the 'toes'. (The scrap yarn is the great 22 cents a ball stuff E and Moe got me at a tent sale!)

Besides closing the toes I still have to make the I-cord (corking) to string through the pico holes. AND I still have to make some more of the felt liners - not a long task.

And also on the Unsock theme:



This scarf is made from 4 ply Fortissima Colori # 9044. I call this colour Tony the Tiger. It warrants its own name because I have knit bags and bags and bags of this colourway. It has been a very popular and I've knit hats, scarves, and scads of socks with it. The socks also look great with orangy-brown beads. I've only got a few balls remaining (and a drawer full of ends)and last I heard it was being discontinued. Ack.

And some other scarves:

These are 100% cashmere, fingering weight. I usually insist, as a sheep farmer, that anything I work with is at least big% wool. But, come on, we're talking cashmere here folks!

I've been getting my cashmere from an eBay store in UK (store name ColormartUK) - they deal primarily with ends of small runs custom done for fashion houses. I was lucky enough to find them when they first started and got some GREAT deals. They are fairly well discovered now so the deals aren't as good, but still much cheaper than other sources I've found.

I originally got the cashmere to make socks (what else) but with out time consuming reinforcement I found the fibre too weak to take the stress of heel turning on the machine and so I primarily knit scarves with it.

I make a range of sizes of these scarves - most 5 to 6 feet in length. There is no hem top or toe, so both ends are closed manually once off the machine. Knitting in a mock rib pattern adds an element of texture to the scarves.

And at the farm


The fall colours are becoming apparent, but the warm weather has been giving us dull colours. We need a cold snap to turn on the bright reds and yellows.

And in the barnyard



Here is a good look at two different kinds of lamb rear ends, both female.

The lamb on the left is a Purebred Columbia sheep - the breed I raise. The lamb on the right is a Suffolk cross Columbia lamb (Suffolk Sire used terminally on Columbia dam. 'Terminally' meaning that none of the offspring from the cross will be retained for breeding.)

The Columbia is a good wool sheep. The Suffolk is a superior meat sheep. From these two lambs you can tell that the crossbred lamb has filled out and has a nice looking rear - she could be ready for market in a few weeks. But the Columbia lamb is very lean - not a lot of meat on her yet. Columbias grow BONE first, and then fill out with meat later.

Meat breeds grow fast. Wool breeds grow slow. Suffolk wool is crap. Columbia wool is amazing.

Generally speaking, meat and wool growing traits are mutually exclusive.

The vast majority of sheep in North America are meat sheep. The minority of us that raise wool breeds get a bum rap because of poor quality of wool from sheep that are best, well, a bum wrapped.

Notes to Self

Remember this mistake?

I got to thinking - that misplaced pico row could be used to thread a drawstring through.


This is a little bit more than half a ball of Fortissima Colori that was resting in my Eco-drawer.

"And what is it", says you. "An idiot mitt without a thumb?"

"No", says I.

(Note to self: make idiots mitts without thumbs for next project.)

Rather, it is something to combine with this:


Now this is heavy felt (boot liner weight ++)that I had made at Lindenhof with a fleece that decided it didn't want to be yarn.

Put it all together, and:


Voila.
An insulated wine gift bag - deliver your gift already chilled!

We'll need a name for this.

The yellow yarn tie was just for the photo - I think some corking would be more in order.

(Further note to self: you need to get out more!)

Sore Arms

Is my arm getting sore!



This is a serious amount of cranking, as I continue my unsocks week.

The foreground is, again, Opal Hundertwasser 637A, of which I still have lots. The rear left is Fortissima National Farben USA; the rear right is Opal Brazil 5001 - one of their best sock yarns ever; and the rear middle is unknown either Regia or Fortissima.

The Hundertwasser scarf is knit with only two pieces, but the other three were made with dozens, and dozens of bits and pieces from my left over drawer. That will tell you I made a LOT of socks with those colours!

And another HAT - a little different from what I showed you yesterday:



This made my other arm sore! (I crank with my right and jab with my left.)



The witch is coming along. I still need to tidy up a few spots and make a few accessories. She should be finished on the weekend.

And totally unrelated to anything:

Hats Off

Here are some hats I knit:

The hat on the left is leftover Opal Hunderwasser 637A from yesterday. The other two hats are leftovers from Schaefer Anne.

These would be for infant to 1 yr. They are all knit on the 72 cylinder with all needles in (no rib or mock rib). I adjust my tension dial a full 2.5 turns LESS than my setting for this same yarn knitting as socks.

Its a very simple pattern: 20 rows, pico (hang every other stitch on its neighbour to the right), 20 rows, hang hem; then: 20 rows, increase tension one full turn; 20 more rows, increase tension one more turn; 10 rows, increase tension 1/2 turn (so now we're at the tension used for socks of the same yarn) and 10 more rows for good measure. Leave a long tail and tie on scrap yarn.

To finish, simply weave the tail in and out all the final stitches, pull it tight, and weave in the end.

This pattern used a little less than 25 grams per hat.

Here are a few more:

These aren't finished yet - I still have to close the tops and remove the scrap.

The two on the right are same pattern as above, unknown leftover sock yarn - probably Regia or Fortissima.

The hat on the left is Schaefer Anne. The pattern change: I reduced my tension 4.5 turns LESS than sock yarn (instead of 2.5 as above). This was as open/loose as the knob would go. I did a total of 80 rows after the hem, instead of 60.

The circumference of the hat is almost 3" more than the other hats - so should suit up to a juvie or maybe even a small lady. This is just an experiment - I think I should either make it longer or shorter. I'm concluding that I would need my 84 or 100 cylinder to get a fit for a large ladies or mens.

And here is why it is dangerous to do too many similar things in a row:



You can see I forgot I had already done my pico and hem, and started to do it again! I decided to finish the hat and see if I could rescue it - maybe feed a ribbon through the pico holes. But now that its off the machine - the boo boo row lines up with the real pico edge once the hem is folded up. I guess this will be a rip it!

Meanwhile at the barn

Any livestock farmer who tells you he doesn't have any duds in his herd is probably a liar. Every year there is always at least one poor doer who defies logic by simply being alive.

This little guy has something wrong with his hips and/or hind legs. The legs are like rubber and he really wobbles when he walks.

A lot of guys I know would knock this one on the head and call it a day, especially as the 'weakness' is in the hind end (the higher value part of a carcass).

I'm not so inclined. These critters provide for me and I, in my turn, am obliged to husband them as best I can so they will have a quality life, however short that may be.

It is, in its own way, serendipitous.

Opal Hundertwasser

Here's a pair of Large socks knit in the Opal Hundertwasser 637A:

There are several things I like about this yarn. The purple/red/yellow/orange combination is really lively. The bands of colour have some variation in width; and there's even a little jacquard and quick change colouring for further variation (and interest).

I've knit quite a few socks with this colourway and I must say that my favourite result is when the yellow band is either in the hem top, or at least higher up the leg than in this example. (Although I've got a reversible hem top here, and the yellow is on the other side; so, folded down you would get it showing). The socks seem brighter when the yellow is higher up.

I hit a few knots in these two balls, but happily none resulted in an interruption or change in direction of pattern (on which you've heard me rant in other posts).

The Opal yarns, like the Regias and most commercial sock yarns and 'soft enough' and very sturdy with the 25% nylon content. But - still not as soft as Lorna's Laces - ah - there would be a marriage!

And a pet peeve to all the commercial yarn producers - when doing these beautiful colourways that have long repeats in the pattern, why not set your printing machinery so that ALL the balls start in the same place. Am I missing something, or should this be simple mathmatics!

More on Beads:
I use a crochet hook - 1.25 (I had the decimal in the wrong place in an earlier post)- to put the beads on. I place a bead on the crochet hook, then lift a stitch off its needle with the ‘bead-loaded’ crochet hook.


Pull the yarn through the bead with the hook.


Then rehang the stitch.





To buy beads in smaller quantities, try your LYS of craft centre. Or there are lots of wholesalers: just google to find one nearest you; and you can even buy on eBay if your volume is more than a few but not enough to warrant wholesale. Sometimes the LYS is cheaper in the long run, once you consider postage.

My own LYS is Purrsonally Yours in Meaford. They have an extensive selection of beads, including my favoured size.

The trick with the beads - they have to be small enough to ‘work’ on the machine, and have a hole that is big enough for your yarn and crochet hook to pass through. The vast majority of beads have either tiny wee holes for jewelry making, or humongous holes for passing heavy gauge jute. By trial and error I’ve found the 6 mm beads with ‘smaller’ hole work best for me ( with 4 ply sock yarn). As always, this will vary according to your own tastes and experience.

Sunday Bits and Pieces

In the Dye Room

I'm always running out of blue. Especially this blue - its Prochem's washfast acid dye colour Colonial Blue. This batch is done at half strength. I'll be doing another batch at full strength and a third batch at 1/8 strength - both of which I find I've run out of again.

On Deck for the Sock Machine

This is Opal Hundertwasser series, colour # 637A. It is possibly my most favouritest colourway EVER. It is standard sock yarn: 75% wool/ 25% nylon, ~ 425 m/ 100 g.

This is a series that came out last year, where Opal (slightly ahead of Regia in this regard) commissioned artists to come up with new colourways.

I had quite a stack of this particular colour and it all went very quickly. Fortunately Astrid was able to scour the continent and scrounge me up another load - which I've been sitting on for almost a year. With the fall sales upon me, it is time to dip in to said stash and I'll crank out some socks, scarves, baby hats and such.

Now I wasn't going to do ANY socks for the next two weeks, focusing instead on un-socks. But of the first 6 balls of Hundertwasser I wound up, four are identically lined up in the pattern.

I take this to be a Divine sign that this yarn wants to be socks....

And at the NZAK

You may recall that D visited with her New Zealand Auto Knitter, new manufacture, and left it here for me to fiddle with. I haven't spent a lot of time with it yet, but here are some features I want to show you:

This is the Yarn Topper - the device through which the yarn feeds from cone or ball to machine. Tension is established here. Two things I really like about this topper:

There are no 'holes' to feed the yarn through - everything is slots or offsets - so no nasty feeding the fat yarn through the skinny hole!.

And second - there are no springs. The springs on the mast of the Legare et al which attach to the 'take up arm' will eventually break and have to be reset. This always happens when you finish one sock in the pair, and you NEVER get the new spring adjustment exact, with the result that the second sock in the pair is ALWAYS a different gauge after this repair.

In place of a spring an adjustable counter-weight is used.

And here's a novel idea:

This is an automatic row counter. The upgrade version of attaching pedometers, baler counters and the like to the old machines. While this is a neat invention, I'm not sure yet it I would make use of it. I would have to stop cranking to see if I had the right number of rows. And then stop again - it would like going on a car ride with the kids: "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" Still, I think it would at the very least be a good back up for if I lost count or got interrupted.

Visible in the same picture is the handle of the crank. I think this handle is too short, especially for a large pair of mitts such as are attached to my wrists. I understand the manufacturer is modifying the design to incorporate a larger (and by that I mean longer) handle.

And lastly:

This is the yarn carrier - the device that feeds the yarn into the knitting cylinder after it passes through the yarn topper (above).

The attributes I most like - again, you don't have to feed the yarn through a tiny hole - just place it around the coil and into the slot.

Feeding yarn through a hole may not seem a large chore, but over the course of many pairs of socks it uses up a LOT of time that could otherwise be spent knitting. And even moreso if you are doing frequent colour changes.

More on the NZAK in future blogs.

Meantime, enjoy your Sunday....