al dente crafting

Finally finished!!

I spun thiiiiis much. 😂

It was a very long day at work, physio, and groceries. But at least I have arepas con queso now. And I can celebrate the last of the purple corriedale/nylon being dry. 250m/100g I really hope this is enough for a pair of socks. Still in love with the colour.

15g today. I need to step up my game if I want to add another $10 to my budget for Sat, but also. Taking it easy is fine actually. I have ~45g left, so I need to spin about 23g per day for the next two days to be able to ply on Friday.

This is the funky BFL/Scottish Blackface 5 year old mule fleece I got.

Since all of it can't come home with me immediately, I've pulled some chunks off of it that would fit in the suitcase so I have some of it to play with at least. I'll also have the whole 7 month old Leicester coming back immediately.

The plan this time is a gimp yarn that I hope leans more toward a flame/spiral

I'll make a set with the blue as the slubby single and the green with the thin, consistant single and vice versa

Had an online class today (voluntarily; trying to keep my skills fresh while working on my dissertation), and I think old monk handwriting goes great with some spinning.

And I already made a good way into single #3.

Isn't it pretty? I love the textures on it! Can't wait to see it plyed, but it's going to rest into tomorrow evening.

Also, just off camera (you can see the shadow in the upper corner):

Tour de Fleece Day 10: Manx Loaghtan

The Manx loghtan is one of my favorites for a very shallow reason - Isle of Man is one of my long term special interests. It's where my blog name comes from, as it was the uniquely medieval Manx name that I picked for my SCA persona 30+ years ago. And with their extra horns and rich caramel color, they are such neat looking sheep. A someday project would be to make a Manx cloak with locks woven in to make a hairy fabric.

The staple length is 5 inches in this sample top, with small hunks of not well blended shorter fibers which I pulled out as I encountered them. The crimp is bold and uniform. The Field Guide of Fleece describes the fleece as having enough grease to protect it, which might be why it has a discernable sheep smell and some remaining lanolin for commercial top. It most reminds me of Shetland, medium staple length, medium softness and great natural colors.

I spun the last few samples finer, so I tried for a fatter yarn this time, though with a lot of twist. I used a short forward draw, but wasn't careful about staying even. Nicely squishy yarn.

I've spun Manx loughtan from both 100% top and as part of blends. The usual sources all carry the natural dark brown Manx loaghtan top. Hipstrings carries a nice line of BFL, Shetland and Manx loaghtan top called Bouy. Forever in Fiber on Etsy has a Manx loaghtan/eri silk blend top that look luscious.

References:

Ekarius, C., & Robson, D. (2013). The Field Guide to Fleece: 100 Sheep Breeds & How to Use Their Fibers. North Adams: Storey Publishing, LLC.

Robson, D., & Ekarius, C. (2011). The Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook: More Than 200 Fibers, from Animal to Spun Yarn. North Adams: Storey Publishing, LLC.

Sheep picture By Chris Bramhall at English Wikipedia - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2253548, rest by me.

heron+fish (18"x12")