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So if you’ve been following along or have read my homepage, you will know I have been working on a Wool of the Week project. I’ve been working on it since October when I processed, spun, and dyed some Suffolk breed sheep wool fiber from its raw state to a beautiful, rich, dark blue. I picked out different breeds from my stash and went through my process, then researched the breed and wrote about it all here. I learned a lot so far. Now, for some reason, I chose to do this project at the end of the year, the ~busy~ end of the year… atop of that, I decided on the perfect end project for the yarn… A sweater! And I never really announced that here as I got caught up in visitors, and schedules, and parties, and the rush of everything all wrapped up in coffee, alcohol, soft drinks, sugar, and illness. I’ve had to recharge, and working on this sweater, quietly, with low documentation, has been like a sponge for all the (noise, noise, noise, noise) ((grinchy, anyone?😉)). I had worked and documented each step, but as it became a rhythm and routine, I just fell forward into the dance.  With this sweater, I’ve been in a whirlwind of colour and a tumbleweed of fluff…  Breed bios went out the window… Dare I commit to trying to go back and track down what’s what? Maybe I’ll just do a write up of alllll the other breeds I included in one go with a picture of it all…  It was so much fluff…  In the end, I used up every bit of white fiber from my collection, and a few of the naturals. (Can anybody say “stash buster!”?) I wanted to do a fun advent calendar with all the communities doing those, but I didnt even have time to do all the things I had planned anyways. And the point was I wanted to spin and knit. And i spun and knitted. Every day of Advent. I spun until the 21st (the day spinners traditionally wrapped up their wheels in Ivy vines for a rest (and I rested the entire time until Distaff day on the 7th); then I knitted until the 24th.  I picked back up knitting in the new year and knitted until I felt like it. 😂 I decided I wanted one more colour shift. I also decided I’m liking it so far! I’ve tried it on at a variety of stages and have been more and more impressed. Anywho, now I have to spin more yarn. I’ve run out of different breeds, but I still have some washed Wensleydale and Tunis breed wools, so I’m going to use up that. We can do these things. It is possible. To have clothes you’ve made, by your own hand, out of your own imagination. Live colorful, my friends. 
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Every year I do a new, themed hat for my immediate family members, and this year we have a new immediate family member. My little sister’s boyfriend, Adam, was here to celebrate the Christmas season with us. In honor of him, I wanted to get to know him better and had asked about his favorite colour combinations. He likes vibrant pastels. While some people see colour as an asinine detail, I see my entire life in colour, hue, texture, and it is my love language. Your favorite colour is a big deal, don’t let others tell you otherwise. Even if your favorite colour changes (by the minute even). He mentioned a rich, vibrant, pillowy lavender shade. In October I began my search. I found this beautiful shade after much searching at the Southeastern animal fiber festival in Asheville, NC. Immediately, I had a vision when I saw it. Pastels… like pastel rainbows… soft atop ivory clouds… The spinning began…    After I spun all my colors (the others than the lavender were from my stash), I spun several different skeins of white for the cloud bases of the hats. I literally went through my whole stash of Naturals, and spun all the white. I processed a lot lot lot of my Tunis and Wensleydale, and spun that. I also spun as I was knitting (not simultaneously) to accurately see how much I needed. (Hint, I always was needing more ☺️). I spun at home, and also took my work with me to the Friendship Spinners annual retreat meeting at the Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill, KY.     And then there were two…  And three…  And four…  And finally five.   And I brought them out and let Adam choose his first, as a part of our Welcoming party/Christmas tree decorating event, to our Christmas celebration.   Hello everybody!! Happy New Year to you all! I’ve been working on some wonderful things to share with you all in the coming days! The wheel of the year has started. The sun has returned! My family gathered close in the center of our Cozy Cottage, round the kitchen table at the crux of the solstice this year on December 21st. So many beautiful, creative, loving souls, that I have loved for so long—and welcome to the New. We decorated my Spinning Wheels, wrapping them in pet-friendly silk Ivy that we already had on hand (okay so some were magnolia, monstera, randomness, and our actual summer wreath—but it looks absolutely gorgeous, still!)  The next day, as the sun held on a little longer, we decorated our wheel of the year with scraps of colorful paper sun rays, cut with fancy scrapbook scissors we have treasured since our childhood, from my mom’s former small business via Creative Memories. On Advent Sunday, we watched the BSL advent choral service through the Church of England via YouTube. For the start of the calendar year, I zoomed south in the Wool Wagon to one of the magical places my family loves, Cumberland Island National Seashore, to share time with my Dad. We walked around 16 miles under the Live Oaks and Southern Magnolias (and Sweetbay Magnolias). We had the best talks and healthy, well-earned snacks. Shelling on the beach, sitting in the sun, running into a flock of seagulls, oohing and aahing at wild horses, smiling at my Dad. I earned two different Junior Ranger collectible free badges (score!) and got in some great knitting time on my Wool of The Week sweater, as well as finish the last pair of socks I did in 2023 (my Earthies). Back home, I’m adjusting my binoculars. First, you adjust the main adjuster for the sight that doesn’t have one; then, you adjust the sight with its own adjuster. First, I’m looking at my year as a whole, then I’m focusing in to January. This year, my focuses are: my community—through Lou Nimble Thimbles, Friendship Spinners, Flamenco Lou, Over the Next Row Knits, my neighborhood, the KY women farmers and homesteaders, and my community garden. My people; my gardens at home and at the community garden; my diet and cooking; my health and wellness and happiness; and this little business of mine. This year I’m hoping to do a few in-person vending events with my Inkle woven goods, but moreso to focus on the blog and vlog. I’m hoping to go to Peru with the Jillian Eve Fiber Arts community in October. But for now, I’m easing into the year before hitting “go”. Let Visions of sweaters dance in your heads my friends! Up next I’ll be writing about progress on my hand spun breed study sweater (my project I’ve been highlighting since October)— the Wool of the Week Sweater! Blessings, dear friends, in all that you do! And happiest Distaff Day 2024  Today I wanted to do a wrap-up post of my November happenings! As I wrote a few days ago, November has been one of my most productive months! What with all the work for Wool of the Week and the SRA projects, along with Christmas presents for loved ones, I’ve been keeping busy. I worked my last several commissions which were all Inkle weavings, then kept on weave weave weaving as I just get so inspired by colour that I have to start more projects 😅   I finished my first test cardigan. I prefer wearing cardigans over pullovers just because I don’t like having to actually pull a pullover over lol. I made a few pieces of gem stone bead jewelry to go with it, and it went so well with my Christmas Santa hat I had made a few years ago in the same brand of yarn. I made more tallow products—this time a body butter with shea butter, coconut oil, and vitamin E oil. It was so soft after I whipped it.  I made 9 yarns for a Christmas project for my family. Every year I make my immediate loved ones a new hat, and this year I decided to handspin the yarn and hand knit them (I usually loom knit them). The yarn was a task, and unfortunately I will need more white for the other four hats—not that I lost yarn chicken, just, I had enough for the first and so I started that one. And finished it! And look how cute! I made a non-toxic stuffed pillow with discard wool. It needs more stuffing, but I love it!  Then the last thing I finished was this beautiful bitty bitty sweater. How I love it.  Thank you so much for reading my blog today! Much love! —August Lee
Easing back in to wool of the week project, this week’s breed is the Tunis sheep breed. Okay, so this wool was actually washed when I purchased it. It still needed to be picked a little bit since there was some remaining VM in it, but my combs made short work of it. I noted though, how difficult it was, upon first try, to comb it. The wool was dense, and had a relatively long staple. It also felt like it had a little more lanolin in the fibres, so it felt a little sticky with natural oils, it moved slowly on the combs. It almost made me think of something Evie said on the Jillian Eve YouTube fiber show, some people would warm their wool combs by the fireplace to work with the lanolin grease more fluidly. Before, when I had spun this wool on my drop spindle (it wasn’t prepared right) but it was significantly hard to draft the fibers. This time however, the fibers were organized and it made it easier to draft, and the yarn came together more evenly and consistently. I was tempted to make the yarn weight a little smaller, a thinner yarn, but I do have an end-goal for this project and I want all of my yarns to be close to the same weight. Next week I will be announcing the end-goal for this project, which I will put at the end of that WOTW blog. Although I didn’t work with this wool from raw raw, the Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook has photo references to show what it looks like. True to the information in the book, my Tunis wool was creamier than white, and lustrous, Robson and Ekarius note, from genetics of Leicester mixed in. Reading that this breed is a dual purpose breed that does well in heat and humidity caught my eye… Do I like this wool better than Shetland wool?… the more I read about different sheep breeds and work with different wools, the more open I feel towards my options with what I’ll chose for my own sheep. I combed for one ply, spun it, and then combed for my second ply. I tried on my second combing, to be more intentional about combing from the outside in. It did prepare much easier that way. After the yarn was spun, I did my regular dye routine. Not all the dye absorbed, though I let it go for over two hours on the stove, and the end color wasn’t as saturated as I was going for, but it ended up beautiful! I’m really thrilled to go ahead and get knitting with it! Thank you for following along this week! Blessings!   Another month has almost flown by, and we are, as my mom said, at the avalanche of days! November has been one of my busiest months. I took some time to look back through my list (the list of every completed crafting project I’ve done this year.) Last year I worked very hard and completed 96 projects. I felt so accomplished and thrilled to see what I could complete in the coming year, this year. I remember in March, feeling defeated and underwhelmed with how I was progressing and the amount of completed projects on my list. Well, girl, have faith. I looked at my list today and wrote #196 down. I still have a lot on my To-Do List, and you know, I do not really care how many items I put on my list anymore. I know I’m productive, it’s not a contest of numbers, it’s a practice, a ritual of creation, a passion I must satiate with work. Yesterday we put up our Christmas tree, and have been turning our workshop merry (though every day is merry in the Cozy Cottage). I have, yes been keeping busy, and do have time built in to the schedule to relax. But that time is not now, back to work!     Enjoy the video documenting my sweater-making journey! A slouchy, luxurious wrap-sweater, with belled puff sleeves in Lion Brand Homespun acrylic yarn.    Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone! Back to regularly scheduled programming next week ☺️   For the first week of the Southern Roots Alpaca Project, I blended up some of my washed alpaca and gulf coast native breed sheep wool. A wool blended with the alpaca gives the best of both worlds between the two: the silky richness of alpaca mixed with the spongy bouncyness of the wool. Alpaca alone is luscious, but it doesn’t have the springy rebound and elasticity that wool gives it when blended. For this project, I’m going to spin all my blends and make hats and fingerless gloves with them, but I think I will spin first, then choose which ones to use for hats and which are more suitable for hands based on next-to-skin softness. Currently, my studio is a wreck with all my projects strewn out across it for the holidays. I cleaned up everything for the Thanksgiving Holiday, and am putting all my efforts into getting a sweater done by Thursday. So this might be a break week for the SRA but we will be back next week. I also want to thank you for staying with me along my Wool of the Week Project as I took my midway break after the big video post from last week! Blessings!  If you have enjoyed reading about my Wool of the Week series, then I know you’ll enjoy watching my video compilation of my work with all the wools I have covered in the blog so far: GCN, Suffolk, Merino, Romney, Targhee. Please take a moment to share this with your fiber friends to help my project grow! This Saturday I’ll be back at it with this week’s installment of the series, and may even get to upload some shorts onto my YouTube! So please, give my page a view, and thank you for your support! |
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AuthorA sustainability major at U of L, beginning farmer, crafter, and writer. Archives
April 2024
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