Jake to Shawl

 I have been spinning bits of Jake.

One of the perks of having such an uncool hobby as spinning is people asking me to come and do spinning demonstrations at vintage fairs and heritage events. So I get paid to sit and spin. Nice. 

As a result I have gotten a fair bit of spinning done. Jake's fleece is spinning up beautifully - I can definitely say it is the best result I have ever gotten from raw fleece. Perhaps the fleeces I have gotten my paws on before have been just poorer quality, or perhaps I am doing a much better job of preparation than I have previously as I just care more about this fleece. Either way I am really pleased with the results. Look how fine that white yarn is!!!! Check out the lack of massive lumps characteristic of my usual spinning!!!!

I originally hoped to make Jake into a jumper, but as his fleece spun so well into such a fine yarn, I think he is going to be a shawl. I whipped up a sample of Annis (from Knitty) last night - and apart from the fact that I HATE knitting nupps, I think it could look nice. (I was experimenting with replacing the nupps with yo, k2tog.)

By blending his dark brown patches with his white fleece I am hoping to get a nice range of greys, though most of the yarn will be white. I never wear white but it seems somehow inconsiderate  to think of dyeing Jake's fleece! Maybe next year!

Sheep shearing

(I'll warn you now it's a picture-heavy post.)

So, we uncovered the sheep one by one and the Amazing K sheared each one. More about that anon. Behold above, the un-coated fleece of dear Jake. As you can see the covered part of his fleece is so much cleaner than the uncovered section (to the left, on his bum.) So we are happy with the coats.

 The Amazing K in action, shearing with the most enormous set of vicious-looking hand-shears ever.

Jake's fleece. 

His wool is soooooo nice and soft, with a staple length of about 5.5" and a beautiful even tight crimp. 

I immediately combed a lock out and spun it up into this lovely 2-ply yarn.

11 wpi for those of you interested and very even and fine, easy to spin. 

I had originally been thinking of making a jumper out of Jake - which I'm not sure I would've had enough usable fleece for after skirting him. But as the wool spun, it was clear something finer, a thinner yarn, would be more suitable. Perhaps a shawl?

Rosebud was the first sheep to be shorn and as a result, there was an awful lot of second cut in her fleece - little annoying bumbles of fleece that have been cut twice and end up forming a little lump in your spun yarn. 

Also her fleece was shorter - due to us being a bit cautious with the shears - staple length of 4" or so. Her fleece is more matted and difficult to comb out so produced a lumpier sample yarn when I spun it up.

 I washed Jake's fleece by placing it in mesh laundry bags and soaking it in hot water with a little detergent. Then I gently rinsed it out after a half an hour or so. I gently squashed the water out of it, and rolled it in a towel to squeeze as much water as I could out. 

Even so, the tips remained dirty. I've been thinking of ways to combat this next year. Firstly, I think we will try putting the coats on earlier - we didn't get them until January so there was a lot of dirt in their fleeces already. Secondly I would consider flick-carding the tips of his fleece either before the coat goes on, or before shearing. Jake is so tame that this would be okay with him. (Not so with the girls....)

I used small combs to prepare the wool for spinning, and also this home-made hackle. (A load of nails stuck through a bit of wood.) I loaded it up with fibre, tips all facing out.

After much trial I decided to just cut the tips off - it was much easier to use the rest of the fleece then, whereas with them on there was way too much combing involved and the fleece still came out dirty in places. If anyone has an interesting advice on dealing with a fleece with dirty tips please pass it on.

I combed it out then and pulled it off the comb and rolled it up ready to spin. Mmmm.... it's like a cloud... all lanolin-smelling and soft and mushy....mmmmm....

After shearing, the sheep were all suspicious of the "new" sheep - they don't recognise each other with  their new haircuts. 

Jake having a snack afterwards.

The girls with their fresh haircuts.

All in all, it was a learning experience. The two tamer sheep weren't too bad, but the two wilder ones were pretty unimpressed with the whole event and hard to manage.

In terms of wool, Jake's wool is by far the best of the herd, the softest and least matted so I think he is where we will focus our efforts on wool protecting in future. 

Now I have bags and bags of fleece to deal with and am wishing for more dry days so I can get it washed!

The Knitted Arsenal

The Arsenal in one place. Click on any of the links for more info on each pattern.

The Knitter's Revolver

Dynamite Bomb

 Ball and Chain Flail

Molotov Cocktail

 CCTV Camera

The Bomb 

Revolver Knitting Pattern

Okay, so the knitted gun is finally here!

Everyone needs a knitted gun. They might not know it yet, but they do. It's the only gun you will ever need in fact. An utterly useless one. Mine was originally made for my father, a big film noir fan and based on one of the guns Phillip Marlowe uses in The Big Sleep - a Colt Offical Police .38 Revolver.

 I entered the weird world of gun enthusiasts to design this. There was a lot of research on terminology as I needed to figure out the names of all the bits of the gun in order to name them in the pattern.

The Colt Official Police originally came with a 4", 5" or 6" barrel so you can choose what size you'd like yours to be. It is worked in pieces. The main body is knitted as one piece and stuffed with a cardboard template and the other pieces are knitted, stuffed and sewn in place. The barrel is stuffed with a pencil and glued to the cardboard template inside the gun.

It is for intermediate knitters - the main body is worked in the round, there are increases and decreases and some simple embroidery.

Gauge is important so that the templates for stuffing the gun fit properly, and is 5 stitches or 7 rows per inch.

Needles: Size 5 US/3.75mm - dpns and straight needles

Materials: DK yarn in grey or black and brown

It is an abbreviated pattern with all abbreviations given, and clear written instructions with accompanying photos are given for making it up.

More info on the pattern page on Ravelry page where you can purchase it for the princely sum of 2.75 Euro.

Coming soon to Etsy also.