Weaving the waffles...

This was an experiment using a waffle draft and Bernat Handicrafter cotton medium 4 at

epi 6

It does work great and I did get tons of dust bunnies under the loom ...

Once off loom and washed it really fluffed

On this one I have only done half waffle.

I like both resulting bath towels.

Nothing like  handmade over size thirsty bath towels...

Spring refused to sprung

I was in need of a blanket with the cold weather sticking around.

There was some *bouclé yarn, mill ends from Made in America Yarns: https://www.madeinamericayarns.com/product/loopy-wool-yarn/   there is still some but no more natural. I was lucky as this yarn was natural not even scoured, I could smell the sheep, of course there was some waste as 2 of 5 skeins were having knots and a lot of defects.  I scoured it, then dressed the loom and weaved away a double width blanket, as my loom can weave up to 32" I made this 64" but of course there is shrinkage when wet finishing.

I like how it turns out... so soft and squishy.

It is 52" wide and 108" long after washing/fulling.... so it could be used as a regular blanket or a large throw, never ending up with cold toes anymore.

Happy dance.

It's Spring... but really doesn't feel like it at -16c this morning.

More snow last night and a balmy  -16c this morning.

This week I finally dyed the Pickwick cotswolds locks.

 I love how they turned out.

I finished weaving 3 scarves but 2 got kidnapped before I could take good pictures.

My sister couldn't resist...

 and ran away with both... lol

Only the experimental one left.

Now back to the loom... 

A full pound...

I just finished spinning a full pound of Tussah silk.

Quite a nice pile.

I don't know yet what this pile will become yet. Each of the 4 skeins average  100 grams and 400 yards each.

Silky as silk

100% pure Tussah silk

This is how the fibers are looking right off the bag, nice and soft sliver.

This is how it looks while spinning.

It's really not looking much like silk with all that fuzz, so I was a little nervous at this point.

Then I plied it, washed it.

I got this result.

The skein is very soft with a nice shine still a little fuzzy to my taste, about 100 grams, 400 yards.

Still it is very nice, I will spin what I got but I guess I'll have to go with bombyx/mulberry to get the results I really want.  Anyways it was a fun experiment I will probably dye some later when the weather will warm up, I can't open any windows at the moment.

Great photographer

If you like wool then you might love these.

photos by Ian Lawson

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cumbria-31129807

The first, the fourth and the last are my favorites.

Tell me your favorites.

Even more Merino/silk

Dawson from Ashford.

I like this colour blend it gives a heathery denim yarn.

This is how the sliver looks like.

This is the 2 ply yarn resulting from that sliver.

First skein, 250 grams/662 yards.

Skein #2 250 grams/642 yards.

Skein #3 250 grams/400 yards

Skein #4 250 grams/586 yards

Here they are all together.

A beautiful pile of very soft yarn.  It's been keeping me busy, it's really worth the resulting yarn I think this is absolutely lovely.