Preparing for Tour de Fleece: Skirting, Scouring and Carding Suffolk Wool
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- Hello friends! In a couple of days the Tour de Fleece is starting and I plan to participate. I had too much choices of fleeces this year, but I in the end opted to spin a massive Suffolk fleece. Suffolk is one of the so called Down breeds. They have a short staple length, and a very pronounced spiral crimp. As I am an advocate for local wool, of course the sheep only graze a kilometer away from me. I shall be processing this fleece to be ready for spinning into yarn on June 29th! In this video you will see some skirting, scouring and carding of the fleece, but I want to stress again that this is not a tutorial, just me enjoying and relaxing with fiber arts and crafts!
If you want to join in on the chaos, you can join the patreon via: / mijnwolden
You can also find me on Ravelry and Instagram as @MijnWolden
If you enjoy spinning, yarn, knitting, fiber arts or any other traditional craft then this channel is right up your alley. Maybe you could hit that subscribe button?
#spinning #spinningwheel #tourdefleece #tourdefleece2024 #fiberart #crafting #cottagecore
I love your subtitles! 😂 Thank you for putting so much work into them. Those of us with auditory processing disorders thank you for making an accessibility tool something fun and special!
You're welcome! Thank you for commenting this, it makes it all the more worthwile :D
Ohhhh those fluffy clouds looks lovely! Can't wait for TDF!
Neither can I :D
You are a woman after my own heart. My first fleece experience was 25 Suffolk sheep's worth of wool. I learned later that it was not a choice sheep. I am a sucker for free fleeces noone else wants, they need my love 😁
25??? 😬 That's insane!!
Indeed, no such thing as unloved fleeces in our world :D
@gemmaf_ I know right? There is more to that story too and it was not all good 😅 Let's just say it is amazing I still wanted to learn after all that.
@Tinas_Workshop Now I want to know the whole story 🤣
@gemmaf_ 😅 I have a new spinning video coming up next week, maybe I will have to add it in.
2:42 White sheep, white sheep, have you any wool? Yes ma'am, yes ma'am, three bags full.
Even more than that ;)
Questions: What got you into spinning? Do you have a project in mind for the fleece? What type of knitting projects are your favorite to do? Would you ever want to own and raise your own sheep?
Thank you for the questions!
I would love to hear about moths, have you had any detrimental encounters with them? And how do you stash wool to keep moths away?
such a beautiful fleece! :) this will make a lovely yarn!
-Last year you were reading The Way of King, I was wondering if you kept reading the series? also, besides Harry Potter, what is your favorite fantasy book?
-Do you play any video games?
-what are your thoughts on unspun type yarns like lettlopi?
I hope the yarn will be lovely, I'm looking forward to the end result! :D
I first encountered your channel last year mid TDF, when I was getting interested in spinning. I bought a wheel in January and have been learning! Now I have about a pound of natural Romney all combed into little clouds ready to start the Tour with you this year 🎉 thanks for providing a year of fun inspiration 😊
Happy spinning!
Spectacular batt! I'll look forward to seeing what it turns into.
I'm quite excited for it too :D
I have just dried a suffolk fleece ready for carding/ combing, so comparing notes has been handy! Let the TDF commence! So excited too! ❤
yes, Suffolk buddies!
It's my first Tour the fleece, and l am so exsited❤ love your way of making this , so natural and with a good sens of humor. Sorry for any typo, Norwegian is my mother toung
Have fun on your first TdF!
I prepped several Suffolk fleeces during my Master Spinner's program one summer. I spent afternoons on my covered front porch making tonnes of rolags on my hand cards. I brought my wheel out on the porch too and spun during the evenings. The sun went down at 23:00 so spinning and iced tea made wonderful evening with amazing sunsets. I knit the yarn in long wearing/non felting socks and a nice serviceable shawl. I have positive spinning vibes from Suffolk sheep and I learn a lot from working with their fleeces.
aww man, what an idyllic scene you're setting here...
Yes! I found some combed top in multicolours plus some top wrapped around a door stopper. Plus a doll made of combed too that I deconstructed and spun.
A doll from combed top, that's interesting!
Ohh never spun Suffolk but those floofs look so good! So much gets tossed and it’s such a waste ❤ thanks for the video 🎉
It'll be my first time spinning it as well :D
Well I guess it’s time! 🎉🎉🎉
yessssss
Good luck with Tour de Fleece! I may be spinning some, but mostly I'm knitting. Working on a baby dress for a friend right now. ❤
A baby dress, how darling!
Hi Jente, I hope you and Dries are both OK xx hope your ankle has fully healed xx❣️❣️❣️❣️
Thankyou so much for sharing this video podcast.
Love how your Fleece looks after a "Wash and Brush up "🐑🐑🐑.
I have 100 gm of BFL that needs a "Wash and Brush up " too. Also have about 400gm of a Rare Breed, that being a "Black Nose Valais Sheep "
I did have 200gms of BFL but 100gms I've already washed.
I'm thinking of doing some hopefully before the tour starts on Saturday, if not they'll be saved for the Challenge Days and maybe the Rest Days too.
This is my first venture doing Fleece fortunately they've been Skirted.
I'm also thinking about doing some Lock Spun Yarn. 🐑🎡
I Wish you Luck in whatever Challenges you've set for yourself.
Hope you have a Wonderful TDF 🚲
Happy Blending and Spinning Fibre Friend 🎉🎡🐑🥰
Take care and stay safe
Lots of love and Big Hugs to you both Jen xxxx Jen ❤️❤️❤️❤️🫂🫂🫂🫂🫂🐕
BFL sounds lovely!
For what it’s worth, I do a cold soak with some soap and it’s CRAZY how different it is from a plain, cold soak. Literally all the dirt comes out, especially if you do a rinse prior to hot scouring. I realize that not everyone wants/can use that much water but my garden gets all the used wash water anyway so I prefer to rinse.
When I do the hot scour, I only have the lanolin melting out. My water is cloudy with soap and lanolin but no dirt. My fleece comes out immaculately clean.
Yours looks awesome. I’m just adding this in case you want to try a side by side comparison and see if it makes any difference for you.
What kind of soap do you use? I prefer to throw my wash water into the garden as well, but I'm never sure if the soap I use is damaging for the earth and I find it really hard to find any info about it online.
@@raevynwoods9403 I use various types…sometimes I use cheap shampoo for my soak and then Unicorn Power Scour for the actual scour. The soap absolutely won’t hurt your plants. Quite the opposite. Soap tends to make plants grow excessively…that’s why they’ve tried to reduce soap going into the waterways because it causes an excess growth problem. For home scouring, I am not worried and my plants are thrilled.
@@tracybird4547 oh interesting, I didn't know that!
@@raevynwoods9403 🥰 the results are crazy good for me. Soap breaks the surface tension in water and allows much greater penetration through the locks so it actually saves time for me in the hot scouring stage. I love how clean my fleece gets. Try it on a small batch and let me know what you think.
oooh, what great information about the soap. I also didn't knnow it was actually beneficial for plants. I thought my strawberries weren't producing any berries because they get the most of my scouring water...
I am looking forward to spending another tour de fleece with you! With work and everything else you have going on how do you set your goals for TDF? My goal is hopefully an hour and a half minimum a day on a bicycle wheel my husband made for me from an old stationary bike. I have about 2 or so lbs of a corriedale,finn,rambouillet cross I will be working on. I have been predrafting and making little nests to prepare. Your fleece is absolutely gorgeous and deserves all the love!
A bicycle wheel? That sounds amazing!
Wow that looks like a fantastic fleece to work on for the tour. I bet with spinning it longdraw, you will whiz through it!
I was saying to my bf a few days ago, how absolutely crazy it is to me that several pro cyclists who had serious injuries a very short time ago, will be putting themselves through the tour.
Right?! There have been some monstrous accidents in previous races...
@MijnWolden Human bodies can endure so much. Pro athletes are next level though. 🤯
OH MY GOSH!! THOSE BATS ARE SO FLUFFY!!! You are making me so, so jealous. I won't be able to spin for years because of the lack of space. (And don't tell me I have enough. Because it's taken up by sewing and knitting supplies!) And I want to go find sheep and take their fleeces and- UGH!
Having as much space as I do is a privilege, I am aware of it.
Your subtitles are always funny. "The force used is gravity."
I try my best :D
? A vid with you talking about your exp working with various kinds of fleece and your thoughts on the differences?
We are proud of our local breeds! The sheep is part of the Suffolk trinity as we like to call them. For some reason all of our local animals are short, tubby, but oddly pretty - I could make reference to their similarity rest of the local population 😄
Maybe I'd fit in with the local population too, I'm not very tall either
Oooh yesss! Grabs me a cuppa and settles down for fibre fun and shenanigans 🎉❤
Yeeehaaah!! Let's goooooo!
It's go time! (almost)
How did you get started spinning and Knitting?
I'm a historian and I'd love to hear what you have to say on preserving the history of sheep breeds and their fleeces! What things would you love to see?
Q for tour answering: how long were you spinning for before you made your first video?
Also how did you get started with spinning, did someone teach you or did you learn online/from a book/from a spinning kit or course?
11:58 I've got batt envy.
I don't blame you ;)
Suffolk and other down breeds make great all purpose yarn because of fleece structure. In general (there are always exceptions) down breed fibre will not felt; therefore, the garments made with them do not need careful handling. On the other hand, some breeds like Romney will felt if you look at it wrong, breath on, or sneeze in wrong direction.
ha, this goes against my instinct of thinking that this crimpier fiber must felt more easily
This doesn't have to do with Tour de Fleece, but I've often wondered if I put raw alpaca fleece in a net style bag if I could do the initial rinse, to get the worst of the dust and dirt out, in a creek or river. Have you ever heard of doing something like? If done gently, and kept out of fast currents, it seems like it might have been something done years ago to cut down on carrying buckets of water to and from the house. Thoughts?
the fiber looks great , look farward to watching to spin for the tour
Lucky for you there's already 3 Tour vlogs and a 4th tonight 😁
Question, resting your bobbins after spinning, thoughts?.
Oh my those batts look lovely. I want to squish it so badly! I just started spinning some spotted sheep that I scoured myself and it's weird, it feels like your hair feels when you wash it too often. Kinda dry, like I scoured it too much or something. Not unpleasant to spin, just... weird.
My question for tour the fleece: If I recall correctly you studied Medieval history. So I'm curious if you could talk a bit about the things you studied. Like, any cool stories, cool facts, medieval fibre arts, etc!
Spotted sheep I find can differ tremendously in quality. I used to have 4 bags of it, but gave most of it away last autumn. Some parts were really nice, but others indeed felt a bit like hair.
@@MijnWolden oh interesting, maybe that's why. There's also huge length differences, some parts are about 10 cm and have way less knots, and some parts are maybe 6 cm and have many little knots and things in it.
Are you sure the sheep is still not under all that wool!!
I didn't hear any bàààhs, so I'm quite positive there wasn't any sheep hiding in there :D
@@MijnWolden Mmmm! Be careful when yu take delivery next time. You are not a very big lady and it would not be good for us if you were buried, lovely though wool is !🐑
? From my husband for TDF. My husband sees yours has practice area for band. What is his band's name? What do they play? Do they have CDs for sale?
My husband is very appreciative of this question!
Those batts are wonderful! Question (that begins with a statement): My understanding is that when you have a fleece that’s so full of VM, the only way to get rid of that is through combing - that carding will just break up the VM and make it part of the fleece. Your batts look pretty clean. What’s happening to all the VM? I love your process.
hohoho I love this question! Many thoughts will be said about this!
don't know if it is relevant (since many of the viewers under TDF probably already spin) but what and how should you do/get when wanting to start to spin, then what are some nice/need to haves when you have started and been spinning for a short time and what are some more lets say advanced tools that you can/should invest in when you are an advanced spinner or what you might call it. Hope it at least made sense even though I don't know how relevant it is.
It made sense, thank you :)
Do you have any experience with spinning dog fur? 😊
Okay, I have two questions:
1) How come you speak English so well?
2) What is your day job? Please tell us about it.
Hi Jente! when you scour your wool, does it also come out still being a little waxy? even though i wash it multiple times it never gets rid of all the lanonlin... I dont know if its a good or bad thing to have some left in the yarn when spinning? What are your thoughts on this?
As a general rule, yes, you do want a little lanolin left in the fleece when spinning. It helps the fibres to stick together. (I think that's why you need a little water for spinning things like linen, that little bit of moisture helps it to form into a thread.) Some people do spin straight from the fleece, unscoured. You need a fairly fresh fleece to do that, otherwise the lanolin hardens.
I laughed so hard when you said “Gawd damn right I wanna try it!” 😂
But like, goddamnright I want to try it!
I just adore watching you. That Suffolk wool looked so squishy, I would have never thought to spin the wool on a sheep raised for meat. I am anxious to see what you make out of it for the Tour de Fleece.
If you're in areas like mine where sheep aren't raised for wool anymore, spinning meat sheep wool is kind of the default :)
This fleece looks a bit like my Siberian Husky hair.
Love your enthusiasm. And how organised you are for someone calling herself a chaos goblin. I have not decided what to spin during the tour but it will be much smaller amounts
The organisation is but an illusion :D
I am sure you've been asked this, but:
How did you make the square spiral blanket background? Is it knit? (Well, it must be knit, you are a knitter, demonstrably.) It is beautiful!
What is your favorite color? Favorite food to eat, to cook? Hmhmhm, what is your favorite plant to see when you go walking?
I'm going to let you in on a secret: it's not knit ;)
Your fleece looks amazing. Look forward to watching your progress with it. ❤
me too :D
I have a question - In some of your videos you're in a room with a open staircase. There is no hand rail on the outside. Is it a functional staircase? Or decorative? And if it's real, where does it lead? To a loft bedroom? To a room with your eccentric Aunt Helen and her paints? To a room with shelves and shelves of yarn and books?
It is functional and it leads to the second floor, with among others shelves of books, our bedroom, bathroom and a sewing space
Looking forward to see you spin those batts 😍 (with even more interest as usual, as there's some Hampshire Down coming my way 😁)
(I also have some Hampshire Down somewhere in my stash!)
Ooooohhh… exciting!
It is!
I don't have a working calendar and i also don't know how to read one T_T
Ohno!
Beautiful! Just beautiful!
Thank you!
There aren't many sleeps left until the start of the tour! Although my fibre prep was all done during the warm weather, I might not be able to spin a whole lot. I'm just recovering from a herniated disk in my lower back and can't sit for very long. I have a kg of English Leicester X Bond lamb wool prepped and dyed in a rainbow and about 0.5kg of adult English Leicester in natural greys, black and silver. As we say here - All pigs primed and ready to fly.
oooffff, I had a lumbago a couple of weeks ago, and I feel your pain (in a less intense manner).
@@MijnWolden Lower back pain sucks, I hope you are feeling better too. One of the problems of being retired, if my brain gets into a groove doing something (this time it was sewing quilts), I can spend way too many hours doing it until my body nopes out.
Yay, tour de fleece! I would love to hear your recommendations for other youtubers who are also participating. Another topic could be how you got started spinning (if you haven't talked about that before). 😊
Because it would be unfair of me to make you wait for the first TdF video to answer your first question: Stitches and Starlight, Flannel and Purls, Yarn 'n Yarns, The Sip and Spin, and my good friend Etienne (@Etienne6916)
In one of your tour videos I think it would be interesting to tell us about Suffolk Sheep. Like a fibre study 😊
I actually have a few bags of Suffolk that I haven't even cleaned yet. I am betting I will want to get them washed and prepped ready for next year.
I am betting you will want to indeed :D
So excited to follow along! My first fleece was gifted to me a few weeks ago from a neighbor who raises traditional English Southdowns. He saved his one "rare" fleece for me before sending the rest to the mill. It was what he called the "golden" fleece, which is fitting, considering he is also the pastor of the Old Dutch Church nearby. So, it's a cute first fleece story. Admittedly, it's not a great fleece. The staple length is at most 2 inches! It will be be a welcome challenge for my first Tour de Fleece and I'm excited to see you're doing a similar fleece and prep. Happy spinning! Can't wait to see what you wind up making.
A pastor with actual sheep is the best thing ever.