Extracting the good stuff

This red merino is I think the first fleece I ever bought, about 14ish years ago. I always found it difficult to spin and now that I’ve done a lot more spinning, I’m convinced that life is too short spin it as is. Or now, as was is more accurate.

The issue was that much of it was very short staple, requiring a very short draw, which my thumb and arm really don’t like. However, I like the colour and would like to use it in a project I’m spinning for now. So I put the lot through my wool combs and extracted the longer, easier spinning staple fibre, which turns out to be a bit less than half the weight.

Here it is placed on the comb before dizzing.

and after:

Left to right below is the original sliver, the newly combed longish staple top and the short waste fibre.

I’ve only extracted about 30g of spinnable fibre, but at least I get some use out of this stuff. The waste has been put aside for possible future adventures.

As a bonus, when I put the waste away, I found the bit of grey fleece I’ve fruitlessly searched for 3 or 4 times. Hurrah I knew I had it. I’ve recently spun a full bobbin of that fawn, so it will be fun to spin red and grey for a change.

 

Repeatery of the pic I want to be picked up by elsewhere

Yoke wrinkle solved

Long time no post. I’ve been too busy working on the house, struggling through the big brown cardigan, preserving food and worrying about this rotten virus. Finally I’ve pushed all that aside long enough to test this theory.

Many of my shirts end up with an unwelcome wrinkle on one side of the front yoke seam. Always the same side. Like this:

I eventually concluded this was likely to be caused by sewing those two seams in one direction, one interrupted pass. Apparently, sewing outside to in is recommended, and the good side is sewn in that direction in my standard shirt construction method. So of course I needed to test this. I pulled out this length of Irish linen I had happened across for very little money.  It’s so nice I wish I’d bought more, but bright orange and charcoal shot was a bit weird. As it is, I threw this in the last of a dark blue dye bath to take the curse off the orange. Anyway, I cut out a shirt and made it up as a straight forward shirt. Nothing fancy but making sure I did the front yoke seams outside to in. Voila, nice and neat, no nasty wrinkle. Rotten colour accuracy- I would try to take photos in a thunderstorm. By the way, I’m pretty jolly pleased with the collar. I don’t make proper two piece collars very often but this one worked well.

This shot shows the colour best. I forgot again to put the label on the yoke before construction.

and the whole shirt while we are here

So my shirt method has another small improvement. I might have to make another.

 

Last of the First – well almost

This little T top used up the last piece from my first indigo dyeing session. Oh! no it doesn’t, oops. There is another small piece I haven’t cut into yet. That actual last one is in my “probably for patchwork” pile. Well, this uses the last of the ramie voile pieces anyway, augmented by a couple of strips left over from the little kimono jacket I made earlier, and which I don’t seem to have written up here?

Just a little project. One of five with fabric prepped and fairly firm intentions. One more turned into a garment and not just bits of fabric cluttering up the place.

Front

and back, which I now see isn’t hanging evenly.

a detail shot. The darker strips increase interest, make up the desired length and increase the decency factor.

and on. Not shapely but it will be very cool to wear. Yet again I’ve finished a garment when the weather is not appropriate for wearing it.