The reason we decided to buy sheep was for me to be able to see and do the whole process from sheep to garment.
I have finally managed to do that process and am very pleased with the results; well satisfied that I know and understand the process, pleased… well that is an ongoing feeling but I am getting there. (Is anybody every truely pleased with finishing something? I know I want to improve my finished product, but still am proud to have achieved the process from beginning to end.
Let me explain:
I started knitting many years ago… as a kid actually… and, of course, bought my yarn. When we lived in Diamond Harbour – (Christchurch, NZ – in the harbour basin) we had sheep living next door and I took up spinning with a drop spindle.
I have been reminded that I did a project on spinning and knitting up an alpaca fleece and I said that I would post the results of this exercise as it was the first time I’d spun this type of fleece.
The fleece was a joy to spin; flowed freely through my fingers and it was soft and easy to get a nice even size.
Unfortunately I was too eager to knit up the fleece before I found out how much I had in that colour and so I didn’t have enough to complete a jacket (started here).
So I unpicked the entire back, two fronts and one and half sleeves.
After smoothing out the yarn I reknitted it into a hat and booties. These turned out well although the hat took some changes to the pattern as the hat was too wide across the brim and was not going to sit on the head of the baby but fall off, so I knitted a further six rows at the base of the hat instead to increase the size of the hat.
I think if I was to knit this again I’d use a rib on the brim to keep in tighter. Not really sure this pattern is the best for baby heads, but since this was my first project in alpaca I will be interested to see how it wears (when the baby arrives – November soon).
Good knitting folks and I will chat about my beautiful Gotland fleece shortly. Bye for now.
Hi everyone, well now that shearing is finished and I have tidied and cleaned up the wool it is now ready for sale.
If anyone would like to visit us in Springfield, Canterbury to talk fleece either in the raw or carded, please contact me and we will arrange a viewing or send samples to you.
The price of the fleece depends on the quantity and whether you want the fleece in the raw (as is) or whether you want it ready for spinning (washed, carded, gilled) in which case the price will vary. You will also be given information on the individual animal as part of my ‘Living flock’ process.
At this point I do not have enough spun wool to offer for sale unfortunately.
The shearing is finished and so I spent the next four days looking over the ten fleece to get rid of vegetable matter and short locks… and of course clean up any ‘dirty’ wool.
Luckily I recently purchased a sorting table which was very useful in laying out the fleece and then sorting for matter. I am not a professional sorter by any means, but it is cleaner and tidier than doing nothing.
The fleeces are dated and individually named from each sheep so we can identify each fleece.
The fleece below is the first that I wanted to trial for spinning in the raw (unwashed). The sheep this is from is Number 3, Bob. You may know him because I have talked about him a lot; he is the throw-back to the Gute. He is much taller than the other sheep, has always had a lighter fleece than any of the others, and did have a shadow of horns for a while.
His fleece is lighter this year than last year, see below for 2019 fleece in comparison to this year.
The difference in the colours from year to year are very interesting as I thought that the wool would get darker as the sheep aged, but this is not the case here.
I will be back with more information on the fleece later….
We are waiting for our first lambs…. which are due any day.
So it seems that we are going to have another little girl added to our family (not me haha). I have decided to spin and knit up some alpaca wool that I swapped for some of my Gotland Pelt sheep wool. The alpaca is great for baby garments as it is soft and calming on baby skin.
The fleece I have started is a cream, which I did think might take a dyeing quite well, but at this point I will just knit it up as a jersey and experiment with dyeing on the next spin I do with this fleece.
The fleece (wool) is very soft but it does not have much elasticity so I did think of blending another ‘sheep’ wool in with the Alpaca but in this instance I have decided to do a straight 100% Alpaca and see how the garment turns out. The next spin I do with the fleece may include some other wool, and I would like to see how the Gotland and Alpaca work together as well.
If you do not know these animals, I have included a photo below (not one of my photos).
Over the next week or so I will post the finished garment…. in the mean time we have our own flock to shear today…so I will also be posting photos on the shear…fleeces…and other interesting events.
The projects I started during the lock-down have been many and varied; the finger-less gloves, the jersey, and the grey cushion for the house.
I have now completed a dark grey cushion cover in a basket weave. This fleece is from one of the foundation ewes, Chocolate. She was the only dark grey sheep at the time and I liked the soft fleece, so had it spun up commercially back in 2018 and recently decided to knit it up into another cushion cover because of its colour and texture. I am very pleased with the results; it compliments the house very well.
My projects continue to grow – no pun intended – as I have many more 2019 fleece to either sell or knit up into items. Soon it will be time (July 2020) to shear the flock again, pre-lambing, so I need to keep going with the fleece I have in storage.
I intend to try my hand at felting and also dyeing soon, but that will have to wait until I can return to the Spinning and Weaving club in Christchurch.
The other fleece I have started to spin is Bob #3, he has the lightest coloured fleece of all the flock, he is also the largest of the sheep, but a real sweetheart to be around.
As the spinning gets underway I will post a photo of the wool, and the results of the knitting project (as yet not sure what I will do with this wool).
Cheers for now and look forward to chatting with you all again soon….
I started knitting a Guernsey jersey for Leigh back in February and this week managed to finish it off (not quite in time for the birthday celebrations).
I’m very pleased with the result, it quite a heavy jersey but will be good for our cold winters. The wool was professionally carded and spun, but the wool was from one of our foundation ewes, Chocolate.
My other project – which was a very quick one – was to knit myself some fingerless gloves from the wool I spun up myself and dyed.
These only took a couple of hours and here is the pattern if anyone wants to use it.
Fingerless gloves :Double knit wool, I used number 4 needles, and the yellow is my own dying and the grey is Suzie’s wool.
Cast on 40 stitches and rib in 2 x 2 (knit 2 and purl 2 – repeat) for 4cms. Change to knit row/purl row (stocking stitch) and if you wish, change colour at this point. Knit for approximately 8.5 cms Change back to original colour (if wish) and rib (2×2) again for 4cm. Cast off in rib. Turn over into half lengthways and stitch together the top rib and the bottom rib, then stitch half way up the stocking stitch to close the part of the thumb. See picture for completed gloves.
Yes I know I said that I was knitting another jersey, this time for Leigh, but I have had a thought about the ‘moth cape’ I knitted as a first piece and now I want to try something.
I was happy enough when I first completed this piece as it was my first garment from growing, spinning and knitting from our girl, Salt. But I have not been very happy with the finished edges around this cape, and also the knit plain has an uneven and mottled look about it. (Great for my historical group though).
So I have decided to knit this pattern again, this time I will try using a garter stitch and bigger needles, in order to: 1) fix the ragged edges that knit produces and 2) give the garment a bit more texture and 3) create more ‘air’ in the garment.
This is the first part of the cape.
I am quite happy with how this is starting out and I will keep adding to this post as it is a bit of an adventure into knitting without a pattern and my own version of the cape.
Oh by the way, this is ‘Suzie’s wool which was spun by a commercial company and the wool which made the ‘Guernsey’ jersey I have just completed.
This is not the first piece of knitting to be completed but it is the first major piece of work that I have done. The wool was carded and spun by a small commercial spinning company but I am very happy with the results at this point.
It took approximately 7 weeks and about 2 hours per day to complete the garment.
The next piece of knitting will be the same pattern but with a dark grey wool, seen here in the middle of these two hanks.
Summer took a long time to get off the ground, weather wise, but now it is hot and dry, no pleasing some especially the sheep ‘ we’z hot and where’z lunch’; the grass is all brown and tasteless.
This is the view we came back to after we finished our holiday in Waipara for a week.
As you know I am breeding Gotland Pelt sheep, for their fleece and I am also interested in their history. The photos below are of our resident Gute-like sheep, Bob.
The reason I am telling you about this is because I also have another hobby related to the history of these sheep, namely the Gute. They are a Swedish breed left on the island of Gotland during the Viking period (circa 800-1100 AD).
My interest in the Gotland/Gute sheep has been expanded because of a group called the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism). If you wish to know more about the SCA, please click on the link above.
This group looks and history from 600 AD to 1600 AD and tries to recreate some of the things that were done in history, for example, medieval fighting, archery, rapier (modern fencing) and the arts (i.e.: crafts such as spinning, weaving, fibre, wool, to name a few). My interest with the Gute is primarily researching their fleece, temperament, genetics and relationship to modern sheep.
The SCA enables me to pursue certain aspects of ‘medieval life’ that I am interested in and having sheep producing wool which I can then process by period spinning (drop-spindle) or modern techniques (spinning wheel) means I can use my hobby in my every day life as well.
Our holiday in Waipara was an event that happens annually where a group of people who are also interested in medieval history get together to talk, play and make things as in the medieval period.
I enjoy spinning, as well as dressing up in the Viking/Swedish clothes of that period.
silva kurls 