Bits and Pieces of Life

I found a used car that is the same model as my old one but one year newer that is priced within the payout amount we got from insurance - going to look at that today.

Also selling my floor loom today - recognized that a table loom will be better on my joints.

The car will wait for now - the one I went to see needed a major repair and I'm not taking that on right now.

Loom is sold and honestly not having to work around it while we pack and move was a great choice - it was a bit of a beast.

More Tour de Fleecing!

99 yards of 3-ply, 20 yards of 2-ply. I have some singles left on one bobbin that I plan to wind into a center pull ball and do as another 2 ply.

Toque (pronounced "tuuk" ("oo" sound) or "took" (like the verb*) is a French loanword approximately translatable to "beanie". Toques refer to knitted caps specifically made for winter. This typically excludes smaller beanies used primarily to accessorize; you can still refer to any knitted cap as a toque and be understood, but some may side-eye you. The sincerity of this side-eye is a potential flag for how nationalist a Canadian is.

I've never heard bunnyhug used organically in a sentence, but it rings a bell. As per a 2023 study (Wikipedia), it seems to be a Saskatchewan thing; some Western Canadians may also use kangaroo jacket, referring to the pouch-like front pocket, but at that point I have to wonder if its all the Australian migrants they get in Alberta. "Hoodie" is a more popular synonym.

Indigenous words: canoe, kayak, toboggan, anorak, husky, igloo, malamute, parka, muskeg, mocassin, and mukluk.

How you process it depends a lot of what you like! Personally I like a fair bit on lanolin in my fiber, so for anything that is not out right sticky with lanolin I do a cold wash process

However! Many folks do not like this! To find out try washing a small section in a cold method and the other in a hot scouring and spin them up. Or for some people even just feeling the washed fiber will tell them a lot, especially if they hate the lanolin feeling.

Here is are a few videos of processing with a hot scouring method

And here is a video of someone processing BFL post washing.

How you want to prep the washed fiber is completely up to your preferred spinning methods/what tools you have available.

A lot of carding can be done with inexpensive dog brushes and you can always just open up the locks and spin like from the lock. Personally I find long stable length fiber tricky on carders but that might just be me!

Each preparation method will want to spin in its own way!

I would definitely not stress about finding the perfect method, but rather experiment. Maybe Pull off a section and try a few different prep methods? When I am processing a new fleece type I normally do that and do a handful of test spins to see which is like best. Nothing is more disappointing that putting dozens of hours in the prep that it turns out you hate to spin!

Personally for BFL I like a combed prep, but spinning from a well cut lock can be quite similar as the fibers are all aligned still. Combs are wonderful but if you cant find them used they are quite pricey.

They come with some BFL on either side (probably as a barrier because trying to pull straight southdown off of carding cloth without it ripping to shreds is very difficult), which for all the other colorways I've bought from this shephard is great, but with this one it has kind of a candy cane effect once spun, which isn't what I'm going for.

Luckily it peels right off. There's some stray BFL but not enough to bother me.

I decided to just process all of the batts at once so that I don't have an extra step to cause executive function problems later.

Anyway here was the result. I was kind of worried when I saw how big the BFL pile was (basically the same size as the southdown !), but I weighed both and theres approximately 350 grams/12.5oz of southdown and 80 grams/2.75oz of BFL, so the BFL's volume is almost entirely air.

I'm thinking if I finish the southdown with time to spare (which I ought to), I'll blend something with the BFL and spin that next so that it doesn't take up tons of room in my storage. It has lots of flecks of red in it which should be an interesting effect, just have to figure out what to blend it with.

(And yes, this huge pillow of southdown batts was extremely satisfying to squish)

i’ve been up to a lot but this tea towel i wove today is the most important thing

plain weave on a mixed straight twill & point twill warp, i might post the twill ones but this is honestly my favorite of the bunch lol. i love dense warps i love rep weave & shadow weave & this is…. not really either but those two brain cells are definitely rubbing together.