For show notes please see: weavolution.com/group/fiber-speed-life-podcast/episode-33 For early access, please support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/weavolution

Fiber at the Speed of Life Podcast

Ep 33: Finished Objects Galore

Finished objects. Previously, Michelle talked about how her daughter was weaving a rug. Her younger daughter also wants to weave one, but all we had left was white rug yarn. So we dyed it. It's red, fuschia and purple. Works in Progress:   Michelle did some spinning. This was roving dyed back in her Washtenaw Wool dyeing days.  

Ep 32: Camping, Lakes, and Crafting

  Sponsored by Weavolution If you would like to support the show, become a Weavolution Patron and get access to exclusive Patron content from Erica. Where to find us: iTunes, please leave us a review on  Podcast FB Page! E-mail! We have an e-mail account, please feel free to e-mail us! Podcast Instagram: fiberatthespeedoflifepodcast Finished objects Michelle made some "flannel towels" to use in place of paper towels. She was given a serger to use, so she had to figure out how to use it. Eventually, she got it working properly and made a large stack of flannel towels. They have nicer edges than the ones she had only zig zagged.      Michelle also warped her loom and wove a rug with her core spun alpaca rug yarn. It's so soft! She had sent some alpaca fleeces to Rovenko's Windy Acres mill to be spun. They variegated (after asking) the colors in the yarn and it turned out so perfect!   Michelle's daughter (Thing 1) asked to weave a rug, so Michelle taught her how to weave when she finished her rug. Thing 1 is now half way through weaving her rug. There should be enough warp on the loom for one more, which Thing 2 has asked to weave.   Erica finished weaving Oli's scarf from Handpsun yarn, the project page can be found here. This was woven mainly with Wool N Spinning Breed and Color Study yarn, which was formerly known as the mystery wool spin on the podcast. This  yarn was spun while watching Wimbeldon right before Erica's last trip home to the US. 

Episode 31: Surging Into Summer

  Sponsored by Weavolution If you would like to support the show, become a Weavolution Patron and get access to exclusive Patron content from Erica. Where to find us: iTunes, please leave us a review on  Podcast FB Page! E-mail! We have an e-mail account, please feel free to e-mail us! Podcast Instagram: fiberatthespeedoflifepodcast FO's Erica has finished the loooonnnngggg linen band!!! Yeah, on to mangling it (soaking it in hot soapy water then abusing it)!   Michelle has been playing with macrame this month. She made 4 plant hangers to help with her growing plant collection. Three look like this one.     This was the first one she made. There was enough string left over so she decided to make this one a double hanger.     Michelle finished the test knit she was working on. It still needs to be blocked, but it will be a beautiful shawl (as long as her mistakes aren't too obvious).     WIP Erica is still working on the Dueling Fingerless Mitts. The mitts are coming along nicely!   Erica is putting another handspun warp on her Glimakra Ideal loom for Oli. He picked these yarns out of the handspun stash for Yule a few years ago!     Erica is also looking to upgrade some equipment in her studio, more on that in future episodes!

Ep. 30 Two Years and Running

  Sponsored by Weavolution If you would like to support the show, become a Weavolution Patron and get access to exclusive Patron content from Erica. Where to find us: iTunes, please leave us a review on  Podcast FB Page! E-mail! We have an e-mail account, please feel free to e-mail us! Podcast Instagram: fiberatthespeedoflifepodcast Finished Objects Erica has finished one object! This handpun yarn. It was a great project and she is glad to have one FO.   THE BIN         Works in Progress Michelle continues to knit on the test knit she volunteered to do.     Michelle tried making rolags with her blending board.  This is a Shetland fleece she obtained a while back. She planned to blend it with a darker Merino also from a while back.       She opened the locks a bit then ran them though the wool picker her dad made for her. This opened the locks further.   She loaded her blending board with some of the lighter Shetland and darker Merino and started rolling it off into rolags.     The finished rolags.     Erica has started spinning another one-of-a-kind, Once in a Lifetime colourway from Fiber Optic Yarns! It is beautiful!  The Dueling Club Fingerless Mitt for TJ is coming along nicely! Here is the cloth Erica's student is weaving. :) Erica's handspun study warp #2 will be used as photographed below, a 3/1 twill, which really emphasizes the handspun yarn over the structure of anything else.  

Ep29: Back in a Groove

Sponsored by Weavolution If you would like to support the show, become a Weavolution Patron and get access to exclusive Patron content from Erica. Where to find us: iTunes, please leave us a review on  Podcast FB Page! E-mail! We have an e-mail account, please feel free to e-mail us! Podcast Instagram: fiberatthespeedoflifepodcast    Michelle is             Ravelry: MichelleTF             Instagram: michelletfcrafts             Facebook: Valdelia Maker     Erica is             Weavolution: Erica J, Jahanara, or Weavolutionary             Ravelry: weavemage             Instagram: weavemage             Facebook: Weavolution Intro and Outro Music: Sundown by Joseph McDade, thank you! Thank you for tuning in, Erica is a bit off her game in the first half, which was recorded the week after her second COVID shot/jab. Erica thanks our listeners for their understanding! Erica Finished threading 800 beads for TJ's first Dueling Club mitt.     Finished knitting the body of her Ginny cardigan. While knitting this cardi (and listening to one of Rick Riordan's books on Audible) it occurred to her that knit stitches are a bit like finger cuffs, if you get them too far apart from each other or too close together they get tighter! :) Thank you Jenny of Jenny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind off!! I don't know who you are or how you figured this out, but yes this is the perfect stretchy bind-off!!!! The bind off took quite a bit of time, but it was definitely worth it! Erica has also picked up and knit the stitches for the shawl collar!! This feature is the reason she chose this pattern. Thankfully two days before she was ready to pick up and knit the stitches, she listened to the most recent Two Ewes Fiber Adventures Podcast. In this Episode Kelly and Marsha talked about 2 tips they had learned for great results when picking up and knitting stitches. Tip 1 use 1 size smaller needle when you are doing the pick up and knit stitches! Tip 2 pick up and knit all stitches, then decrease as needed to get the final amount of stitches that you need for the pattern!     Erica's second pair of socks, sock #1 is going pretty well. Dueling Club fingerless Mitts are underway! :) Now that she has started knitting with beads, she's not sure why she ever thought she did not want to knit with beads! It is very easy! Erica does however recommend finding small children to thread the beads, if you have a large number to thread.      Erica spun singles of Sweet Georgia Yarn's Polwarth Silk blend in the Saltwater colourway. She rewound all the singles onto actual weaving bobbins, so there are small amounts on each bobbin. This will allow her to randomly ply the singles together with each other, in theory, this helps normalize the final yarn and help with consistency in the yarn.   Michelle sewed loops on some bowl buddies made by her sister https://www.facebook.com/mosburgjulie . Now they can hang on the wall and be easy to find.     Michelle made a bunch of flannel towels to use in place of paper towels. They measure 10X12 inches, which is what she saw in store bought ones. The scraps were used to make more tissues as Michelle is loving her reusable tissues and dispenser.     Since Michelle had the sewing machine out, she also converted some hand towels and hot pads into some hanging towels to put on the oven door handle.       Michelle finished another yarn bowl. It is very...bright. The picture doesn't do a good job of showing the pink over the yellow.   A failed yarn bowl that taught Michelle some lessons. Don't curve the sides of the bowl in, or they will slump and fuse the place for the yarn shut. Also, paint the underglaze on more thickly.     Michelle signed up to test knit a shawl. She has made it half way through the charts, which is not half way through the shawl.   The start of Frankenwheel: The original base with the leg glued back on. (Look at all the floor space she found in her craft room!)     The uprights need to be slightly further apart to hold the old flyer from my Ashford Traveler, so Michelle is going to use this piece of 1X2 inch board to put the uprights in.                

Ep 28: The One with the Intermission

    Sponsored by Weavolution If you would like to support the show, become a Weavolution Patron and get access to exclusive Patron content from Erica. Where to find us: iTunes, please leave us a review on  Podcast FB Page! E-mail! We have an e-mail account, please feel free to e-mail us! Podcast Instagram: fiberatthespeedoflifepodcast    Michelle is             Ravelry: MichelleTF             Instagram: michelletfcrafts             Facebook: Valdelia Maker     Erica is             Weavolution: Erica J, Jahanara, or Weavolutionary             Ravelry: weavemage             Instagram: weavemage             Facebook: Weavolution Intro and Outro Music: Sundown by Joseph McDade, thank you! Finished objects Erica's new chair for podcasting. She has been looking at this Ikea chair for a while. She finally purchased it and Oli helped her put it together before the podcast!   Erica has finished her 3 ply Fractured Dawn yarns on Organic Polwarth. She split each braid in 3 and spun one single of each before returning to the first braid. All 3 splits from the same braid were initially plied together then more yarns were made plying singles from different braids together.   Erica also finished her Wool N Spinning Charollais Breed and Color Study! She split the batt in three across the colourway, then rolled each piece and spun it long draw. The plied all three singles together. The final braid is a two ply of the remining singles.   She still needs a name, but Michelle finished her crochet spider that she started almost a year ago. She loves how she turned out! There are 64 "flowers" that make up the spider with little other crochet work. African flower spider pattern     The pattern only calls for two eyes, but a spider should have at least four.   Michelle has one finished yarn bowl. Others are waiting to be glazed. The underglaze needed to be a bit thicker, so the yellow made it a bit green, but she's happy with how it turned out. It's a smaller sized bowl.           Works in progress Michelle made a tissue dispenser for reusable tissues. She has started making tissues to go in it. Store-bought handkerchiefs are just too big and rather thin, so she got some flannel and a hemming foot for her sewing machine. It's working out pretty well.  There are a couple tweaks to implement for the next one I make.     Of course she didn't go for plain white. These are the colors she's made. The two on the very right are purple, but the picture shows them as blue. The lighter blue is also more of a teal.     The large handkerchiefs seemed way too big for single uses. Michelle made hers about 8 inches square, which seem to be a great one-time-then-wash size.     Erica has started spinning singles in two colourways. She is on a spinning roll and will start plying when she runs out of storage bobbins or enthusiasm for spinning singles! One set of singles she has spun is in the Bee Mice Elf Sprout gradient colourway. The second is a Targhee, Silk, Bamboo blend from Fiber Optic Yarns in a Once in a Lifetime colourway.     She has cast on the Ginny Cardigan from Harrisville Designs Nightshades Last Call colourway.    Finally, Erica and TJ are working on threading (correction) 800 beads for Dueling Club Mitts, from the book Harry Potter: Knitting Magic.     

The One Where Michelle doesn't Sew

  Sponsored by Weavolution If you would like to support the show, become a Weavolution Patron and get access to exclusive Patron content from Erica. Where to find us: iTunes, please leave us a review on  Podcast FB Page! E-mail! We have an e-mail account, please feel free to e-mail us! Podcast Instagram: fiberatthespeedoflifepodcast    Michelle is             Ravelry: MichelleTF             Instagram: michelletfcrafts             Facebook: Valdelia Maker     Erica is             Weavolution: Erica J, Jahanara, or Weavolutionary             Ravelry: weavemage             Instagram: weavemage             Facebook: Weavolution Intro and Outro Music: Sundown by Joseph McDade, thank you!   Finished Objects Erica Several Weavolution Tutorials. Weasley Jumper to TJ!!! I'm so excited that TJ will have it to open on Christmas day! Duplicate stitch was more difficult than I thought, possibly, because the main color is black./so dark. Two color knitting is quite easy in Portuguese style knitting, so for the next jumper I will knit the initial into the front of the jumper. I've also rewritten the pattern to knit the jumper in the round. I'm not exactly sure how I will deal with the sleeves whether I will still knit sleeves flat or pick up stitches and knit sleeve in the round top down.    I did finish Oli's socks in time for Christmas! Yeah!  Michelle Tawas Point lighthouse. Michelle saw this cutout of Michigan's lower peninsula and knew that it needed a lighthouse. She started this about a year ago, but just put on the finishing touches and glued it on the board. Two gnomes received their beards. Both have locks from the same Icelandic sheep.   Michelle also did a bit of spinning. This is either Polworth or Falkland. It is the last of the fiber she dyed this summer.   This blue wool is of unknown breed. Michelle believes the white in it is mohair.  Works in Progress Erica Oli sock #2 is going along really well, I also hope to have it done by Christmas to be opened as well, we shall see.   Damask Trim I have one entire design woven, hoping to make good progress over break.   Linen lining/tape I think I've got at least a meter woven now, also hope to make good progress over break. Organic Polwarth, picked back up just today, now that the jumper is done I'll be getting back to this spinning project. I took 3 braids and split each in 3 vertically. I have put storage bobbins and the fiber in their own plastic bags to keep this project organized. I am spinning one part of each braid, then a part of the second braid, then the third, and back to the beginning. I am doing this in an attempt to keep them fairly consistent. We shall see if that works! :) I also cast on a hat in some handspun to knit for my dad. Hopefully, it will knit up in time for him to get it this winter. :) Michelle Four gnomes that just need beards.   Crochet spider. 62 of 64 "flowers" made.      Michelle made a few yarn bowls that she added designs to. They're in the WIP because they still need to be fired and glazed. Her new kiln should arrive within a week or two!            

Ep 26: Christmas Presents!!!

Finished Objects Erica The shawl!!!! Erica was so excited to finish her Half Pi Shawl. In Episode 1 she was swatching for this shawl! Erica has knit a few small shawls, but really wanted a really nice big shawl! She switched between Signature Needle Arts and Chiaogoo circular needles. Erica does love her Signature Needle Arts needles, but found the join on these difficult once the shawl got large and heavy.  Erica would love to hear listeners tips for knitting from center pull balls. Do you knit from the center or the outside? Michelle Michelle has been going through some of her older hand spun yarn and setting the twist in it. She was particularly bad about wet setting a couple years ago and the wash is helping refresh the yarn as well. Some was balled up already so it had to be put back into skeins. She finally got the opportunity to use this beautiful Amish style swift that was made by a friend of her Mom's and gifted to Michelle.       Works in Progress Michelle Michelle skirted and washed the fleeces she got from shearing day at Queso Cabeza farm. They are taking a long time to dry out in her garage in the cold weather.                Erica Erica seems to have taken Michelle's spinning mojo, oops! Erica is back to spinning the Organic Polwarth in the Fractured Dawn colourway from Crafty Jax. Erica purchased 3 braids and decided to spin a 3 ply yarn. Fractured Dawn is a random colourway so each braid starts with a different color. So Erica split each braid into 3 carefully put each split into a ball, then put all 3 balls from the same braid in a bag together. Erica is spinning a single from braid one, then braid two, then braid three and will start over again to make up for not being able to randomize the singles when plying to help distribute any variance in the singles spinning.     Erica is prepping the drawloom for her next warp. This will be a 4" warp sett at 60 epi (2/dent in a 30 epi reed). She is using the last of the Treenway Silks Bordello color yarn from her previous project. This will be woven into trim to use for her husband's garb, and probably some for herself too.     Socks Erica currently has socks on the needle for everyone in her family! She is extending her previous sock study by trying toe up socks again and testing out different short row methods. She has cast on the second sock for Oli's second pair of socks. For this sock she used the toe up Ann Budd short row toe method.     She cast on the first sock for TJ's second pair of socks. For TJ's sock Erica tried out the toe up German short row. Erica thinks TJ, yet again, picked the best color of all of us.     Erica also cast on for her second pair of socks using the toe up wedge toe, which she was the very first type of toe construction she tried and did not initially fall in love with this method. She is enjoying testing out new methods and looking forward to finally settling on a method that she really likes.     Finally, Erica bought the book Knitting Magic and plans to knit a Weasley Jumper for each member of her family. She started with TJ's jumper that is in Harrisville Highland Black and he chose Periwinkle for the contrasting color for his initial.      

Episode 25: Special Guest Stars

  Sponsored by Weavolution If you would like to support the show, become a Weavolution Patron and get access to exclusive Patron content from Erica. Where to find us: iTunes, please leave us a review on Podcast FB Page! E-mail! We have an e-mail account, please feel free to e-mail us! Podcast Instagram: fiberatthespeedoflifepodcast Michelle is Ravelry: MichelleTF Instagram: michelletfcrafts Facebook: Valdelia Maker Erica is Weavolution: Erica J, Jahanara, or Weavolutionary Ravelry: weavemage Instagram: weavemage Facebook: Intro and Outro Music: Sundown by Joseph McDade, thank you!   Shearing day: Michelle and her daughters attended shearing day at Queso Cabeza farm. They go whenever they can to help schlep fleeces, skirt, round up sheep and whatever else they can do to help Laura and Rick on the day...and to play with sheep and fleece, of course. They have about 45 Icelandic sheep in their herd. The weather was good and they had a good time, as always. Michelle learned that Icelandic fleece grows at about an inch a month, so they're plenty warm for the winter despite being sheared in October. The shearer does most of the work along with Rick and Laura.   This may be a fleece that followed Michelle home.   Thing 2 helping skirt. The sheet on her head was used to transfer the fleeces from where the shearer was shearing to the skirting table The shearer is quick, so they didn't get to fully clean any of the fleece before having to roll it up and bag it to start on the next.   Ryder the guard llama.   Thing 2 and Stevie, one of the bottle lambs.   This fleece followed Michelle home after the sheep "undressed".           Finished Objects! Michelle: Michelle finished skirting one of the Icelandic fleeces that followed her home. She plans to try tail spinning this fleece.       Michelle continues to spin down her stash. Here is a selection of what she has dyed and spun. The fibers include Polworth, Falkland, Targhee (she won't be spinning more of that) and Corriedale.         Erica: Erica finished weaving over 4 meters of purple damask with red weft! This warp was wound 1.5 years ago! Erica can hardly believe this cloth is all finally woven. Can you believe she first talked about her warp calculations woahs in Episode 2! She thought she might have a bit more warp on the loom to weave more cloth in another weft. Now she is contemplating whether to use this 4+ meters for a Sasanid Wrap or a Sasanid Robe.     Erica is also super excited that she has finished knitting another sock! This is sock #1 of pair #2 for her husband, Oli! Once she really got going on this sock it really was quite fast, but life, etc. means that this sock was 2 months in the making, definitely at the speed of life!     The magic swatch! Erica swatched for Weasley jumpers and got gauge on the recommended needle size. She actually got gauge on the first swatch. Erica and Michelle did not think that actually happened to people! :)   Works in progress   Michelle: Michelle is currently skirting the second of the Icelandic fleeces that followed her home.         Michelle is also spinning a Cheviot/Dorset cross white fleece. She's decided to use some of these singles for tail spinning the Icelandic. The rest will be plied and possibly dyed.     Erica: Erica continues to work on knitting a shawl for herself. ?This fingering weight semi-circular shawl is very fun to knit. Erica is glad she is back to knitting on it most days. She is using Replenish Rambouillet yarn in Persimmon from Two Ewes Fiber Adventures Shop. Her knitting pattern is: K2, P2 K2, P2 P2, K2 P2, K2 Erica thought this was double seed stitch, but now she thinks she may have not written the pattern down correctly, still, it is quite beautiful and she really loves it. She is excited to finish this knit, so she can compare wearing a shawl with wearing a cardi with a shawl collar.  

Episode 24: I've got big bobbins you know that!

Sponsored by Weavolution If you would like to support the show, become a Weavolution Patron and get access to exclusive Patron content from Erica. Where to find us: iTunes, please leave us a review on  Podcast FB Page! E-mail! We have an e-mail account, please feel free to e-mail us! Podcast Instagram: fiberatthespeedoflifepodcast    Michelle is             Ravelry: MichelleTF             Instagram: michelletfcrafts             Facebook: Valdelia Maker     Erica is             Weavolution: Erica J, Jahanara, or Weavolutionary             Ravelry: weavemage             Instagram: weavemage             Facebook:  Intro and Outro Music: Sundown by Joseph McDade, thank you! Finished objects! Erica: Erica completely finished her 7th C Persian Cowl made from her handwoven damask silk! This has been a long term goal. This is one of the things she really wanted to weave when she decided to purchase her drawloom over 10 years ago! I turned out beautiful and she really feels like a Persian Countess when she wears it. :) The campervan arrived, finally!!! Erica and her family have also finished their first camping (or glamping) trip in the van! The top photo shows Erica in her Hogwarts camping pj's and the shawl she wove 8 years ago. She also enjoyed wearing her hand-knit socks on the trip! The second photo is Erica roasting a marshmallow over a camp stove, she really needs to get a small fire pit just for S'mores. ;) You can also see camping with her family includes a lot of art supplies, yarn, knitting, drawing, coloring, etc. :)       Michelle: Michelle did a bunch of spinning and dyeing. She has been having fun dyeing gradient/variegated combed top using one color of dye. Here is a sample of one in the dye pot.   Some of the colors she's dyed:       Michelle has confirmed that she doesn't like spinning Merino wool. Targhee is enough like Merino that she wasn't really enjoying that either, so she's braided up what she dyed with a plan to sell it. She had lots of undyed Targhee top from her Washtenaw Wool days. Most of it is in the picture above. Some of her spinning:     Here's a couple samples of how the gradient yarn spins up when 2-ply. Michelle loved the result of the first few she spun, so she kept up that style of dyeing. Works in Progress: Erica: Erica's glamping trip helped her get some good progress going on the second pair of socks for her husband. She finally feels like a sock knitter. Erica  has set a long, long term goal of knitting about 5 pairs of socks for everyone in her immediate family. She is on round 2 and will keep a pair of socks on the needles until she reaches her goal. These socks are being knit on 2 mm/ size 0 Chiaogoo needles with a 37" cable. The socks are knit in Crafty Jak's Tough and Tender Pine Needle yarn. When the trip started Erica had only knit a few inches, by the end of the weekend trip she had knit over 3" and changed to the main gauge needle! Erica has also picked up knitting on her semi-circular shawl, which she also knit on her camping trip. The shawl was more van driving knitting than hanging around knitting. :) She has made it past the halfway point, in terms of the number of rows. However there is still 1 increase row left, which will double the number of stitches in each row, but we're not going to do the calculations to see if the halfway point in the number of stitches has been reached yet. :)   Erica and TJ are now weaving the hem reinforcement band together! This long thing band of plain weave linen, will be used to finish and reinforce the seams on her handwoven 7th Persian wool jacket/robe. While handing out in the studio with Erica, TJ asked if he could weave on this warp. Erica was happy to show him how to weave this. Can you tell where TJ was weaving and where Erica was weaving? Erica is so please that TJ is interested in weaving on this warp! Erica is still weaving on her damask warp with the red weft. It is coming along and Erica is excited to be nearing the end of this weaving!     Michelle: Michelle is spinning  some purple Corriedale cross that she dyed and playing in her pottery studio.   

Episode 23: The great pile of dyeing!

 Sponsored by Weavolution If you would like to support the show, become a Weavolution Patron and get access to exclusive Patron content from Erica. Where to find us: iTunes, please leave us a review on  Podcast FB Page! E-mail! We have an e-mail account, please feel free to e-mail us! Podcast Instagram: fiberatthespeedoflifepodcast    Michelle is             Ravelry: MichelleTF             Instagram: michelletfcrafts             Facebook: Valdelia Maker     Erica is             Weavolution: Erica J, Jahanara, or Weavolutionary             Ravelry: weavemage             Instagram: weavemage             Facebook:  Intro and Outro Music: Sundown by Joseph McDade, thank you! Finished Objects! Michelle Erica TJ's Socks!!! Erica finished knitting the socks for her son, TJ. He loves them and has been dancing and sliding around the living room in them. :) Erica finished weaving off her handspun warp for TJ. It still needs the weft thread ends trimmed and the fringe twisted (if he is going to use it as a scarf). He probably wouldn't use a bag and seems to like it as a quite long scarf! Masks :) Ginny Cardigan swatches Deep Cove Handspun, Saltwater woolen prep 3 ply handspun, Nightshades       Works in Progress Michelle Erica Erica has been weaving away on the damask with the Treeenway Silks Zolo Borello colourway weft. She has done a lot of thinking about how to handle the possibility that there will be variances between the different dyed skeins, it will take about 4 skeins. Erica decided that in the Middle Ages, based on the textiles she has studied, that weavers would keep with one skein until the end of a repeat. This is based on studying partial textiles which do not show any variance in weft color within a single repeat. Here is the damask photo with two different dyes lots. Here is the damask woven using the only one skein.   Do you see a difference? :) Erica has cast on another pair of socks for her husband, Oli. The whole family now has one pair of hand knit socks. Erica is considering. over time, knitting 4-5 pairs of socks for each family member. Stay tuned. :) Erica is also working on finishing the seams on her handwoven robe. In order to finish the hems, she has started warping a narrow, long linen warp to weave a reinforcement for her robe. This decision is based on the The Metropolitian Museum's analysis of a 7th C Persian Riding Coat. Erica took her knitted shawl out of hybernation. This shawl is knit on 5.5 mm Signature Needle Arts needles, in a fingering weight yarn from The Two Ewes!  

Ep 22: A Long Time Coming

Sponsored by  If you would like to support the show, become a Weavolution Patron and get access to exclusive Patron content from Erica. Where to find us: iTunes, please leave us a review on  Podcast FB Page! E-mail! We have an e-mail account, please feel free to e-mail us! Podcast Instagram: fiberatthespeedoflifepodcast    Michelle is             Ravelry: MichelleTF             Instagram: michelletfcrafts             Facebook: Valdelia Maker     Erica is             Weavolution: Erica J, Jahanara, or Weavolutionary             Ravelry: weavemage             Instagram: weavemage             Facebook:  Intro and Outro Music: Sundown by Joseph McDade, thank you!   Finished Objects! Michelle Tour de Fleece! Michelle finished spinning the Coopworth/Shropshire fleece. She ended up with 1329 yards of 3 ply yarn. Michelle set the twist in a few of the Coop/Shrop skeins and dyed some of this yarn blue. Erica Erica has spun one three-ply yarn during the Tour de Fleece and a sample of Sweet Georgia's Saltwater color way to swatch for the Ginny sweater, more on this under WIP's.   Erica finished weaving the first length of her silk damask in the black weft. She only needs one yard for the cowl she is making. The fabric is about 32" wide and 34" long. She is hoping to get her serger working soon. This will be a 7th C Persian cowl and the hems will be hand sewn, however, she does want to serge the cut edges before hemming.   Works in Progress Michelle Michelle has started felting a dwarf hamster for Thing 2's teacher (she'll be getting it late).  Right now it looks like a large pumpkin seed. Erica Erica is swatching for the Ginny. Erica has watched in the original yarn, the Harrisville Designs Nightshades.   Erica fixed a problem with her Glimakra Ideal loom (below). The countermarche jacks on top of the loom were improperly mounted, so the jacks on the left were hitting the frame. That was fun! :) Now the loom is weaving like a dream again! :) Erica I currently weaving a plain weave fabric from several of her handspun yarns. The yarns that are barberpoled (dark and green yarn on the left and blue/purple in the middle of the photo below) create a twill effect in the plain weave cloth!   TJ's sock, is still in progress. She is nearing the heel, which usually builds up momentum in her knitting. Aplogies there are no progress photos at this time.   If anyone else is interested in coding for kids, the box Erica discusses getting for TJ it is here.   

Episode 21: Discoveries in Fiber

Sponsored by Weavolution If you would like to support the show, become a Weavolution Patron and get access to exclusive Patron content from Erica. Where to find us: iTunes, please leave us a review on iTunes. Podcast FB Page! E-mail! We have an e-mail account, please feel free to e-mail us! Podcast Instagram: fiberatthespeedoflifepodcast    Michelle is             Ravelry: MichelleTF             Instagram: michelletfcrafts             Facebook: Valdelia Maker     Erica is             Weavolution: Erica J, Jahanara, or Weavolutionary             Ravelry: weavemage             Instagram: weavemage             Facebook: Weavolution Intro and Outro Music: Sundown by Joseph McDade, thank you!   Finished Objects Michelle Michelle and her Dad built a box to hook her Electric Eel Mini spinning wheel on. It has a space below for her battery and screws in the top to hold the wheel. She's very pleased with how it came out. She spent more time attempting to spin on the Mini and finally figured it out in the end. She needed to find the balance for where to place a brake band. Too tight and it slows the wheel quite a bit. Not tight enough and it won't pull in. She had her doubts about the wheel during the first two bobbins, but was able to figure it out in the end and was able to spin 4 more bobbing relatively quickly and easily.  It will be nice for travel, but won't replace her home wheel.        Erica Erica has plied and wet finished her Ramboullet Gizmo yarn, fiber from Fiber Nest Studios. This was an interesting spin and has apparently resulted in Erica's son, TJ, wanting a gremlin to take care of, he promises not to feed the gremlin after dark.   Erica has also finished and wet finished the following yarns: BFL/Silk Tea leaves from Sweet Georgia Yarns Gotland Falling Leaves from Sweet Georgian Yarns. This fibre had become quite compacted in her stash and the result is that some parts of the final yarn are VERY OVERSPUN. She will have a think about either not using those parts, seeing how it weaves up, or possibly take the twist out of those places. The last is rather unlikely as the overspin did not happen in the plying. Wensleydale Once in a Lifetime yarn finished out at  5-11 wpi. Erica learned a lot from spinning this long wool as well. The longwools really need a much bigger pulley/ratio to spin them rather lightly. It was finally time for Erica to wet finish the yarns in her not yet wet finished bin. Once finished and dried the yarns weighed nearly 1 Kg (2 pounds) of handspun yarn! This was all spun between 30 April and about 15 June 2020 she was rather pleased with how much she had spun in that time period. She always knew her commute to work was taking away too much time from her spinning and weaving, haha! Size doesn't always matter, but Erica and Michele find that the physical size of their stash does significantly decrease with each spin. Below is a braid of unspun fiber compared with a ball of the same amount of spun fiber and a skein of the same amount of fiber. Finally the ball and the skein on top of the unspun fiber, showing that the fiber takes up about half as much space once it is spun! Collaborative Cloth all samples have been finished, mounted, measured and mailed! Erica is very excited for the group to make a final decision on breed for the project and get underway. She knows her fellow conspirators, wait no collabrators are excited to get the project going in earnest as well! Wish us luck! Works in Progress   Michelle Tour de Fleece! Michelle has started spinning the Coopworth/Shropshire cross fleece that she carded.  Some was spun on the Electric Eel mini spinning wheel (bobbin on the left) and some on her Ashford Traveler with the jumbo flyer (bobbin on the right). Erica thought the difference between the two bobbins amusing for some reason.      Michelle has started needle felting a second Appa from Avatar: The Last Airbender. In the image, on top is the first Appa that she's using as a guide for the one she's working on below.     She also has removed some of the twist from some Icelandic Lopi style yarn she's been trying.       Erica Erica has not done much knitting on TJ's second sock.   Erica has started her Organic Polwarth Fractured Dawn singles . She split one braid split in 3 vertically. First single was spun before the Tour de Fleece, remaining continuing to spin for Tour de Fleece.   Erica is sampling Deep Cove Polwarth Silk handspun to possible spin and knit the Genny Sweater by Andrea Mowry, the start of the yarn I have spun is more fingering weight the pattern calls for DK. Should I spin for the sweater or just purchase yarn dyed in this color from Sweet Georgia, cost is about the same. In the discussion with Michele the possibility of just purchasing the original intended yarn also comes up, it is a beautfiul tweed yarn from Harrisville Designs.  Damask Cowl nearly done weaving the black. Erica has accepted that the color variation in the warp is just what comes from using hand dyed yarn, even professionally  hand dyed yarn. Had she realised it was hand dyed in Vats, she would have wound the warp multiple yarns at a time. She has ordered more red from Treeway Silks, it will have to be dyed and mailed, at least 4 weeks. Do I start with the remainder of the Bordello from Treenway I already have or do I wait and start from the new dye lot? This will also be hand dyed, so she is thinking about winding her wefts in very small bouts and switching between skeins.   Handspun warp is fully warped, tied on and treadles tied up! Just need a videographer to film me starting to weave, so I can show Weavolution Patrons how I weave a header in 4 picks! Thank you Laura Fry! :) 

Episode 20

 Sponsored by Weavolution If you would like to support the show, become a Weavolution Patron and get access to exclusive Patron content from Erica. Where to find us: iTunes, please leave us a review on iTunes. Podcast FB Page! E-mail! We have an e-mail account, please feel free to e-mail us! Podcast Instagram: fiberatthespeedoflifepodcast    Michelle is             Ravelry: MichelleTF             Instagram: michelletfcrafts             Facebook: Valdelia Maker     Erica is             Weavolution: Erica J, Jahanara, or Weavolutionary             Ravelry: weavemage             Instagram: weavemage             Facebook: Weavolution Intro and Outro Music: Sundown by Joseph McDade, thank you!     Tool tip: Michelle ordered a brush cleaner to try on the drum carder she borrowed from the library. She had carded the white Coopworth/Shropshire (Coopshire? Shropworth?) after carding the black llama and then used the usual cleaning brush on the drum before trying this brush cleaner. It was obvious, because the fiber she got on the brush cleaner is gray, that there was still some llama left on the drum.       It did a number on the brush cleaner, but she thinks it will work better with fewer teeth anyway. She thinks the teeth are just prone to turning on this particular one.       Finished objects:   Michelle finished carding the Coopworth/Shropshire fleece. It became very floofy.           British Breeds Study Spun Yarns These were not spun recently, however, Erica came across the breed study yarns she has finished spinning. In the photo below you can see from left to right Jacob, BFL, Suffolk, Shetland. The Weavolution sponsored Breed study includes the following breeds:   Suffolk Jacob Romney Marsh Shetland (moorit, humbug) Black Welsh BFL (oatmeal,  Masham Erica still has a few sample packs left she can send to listeners, if you are interested e-mail her.   Erica also completely finished her Community Cloth Sett Samples, by mounting them on card stock with their records. You can see various details about each sample on Weavolution. Merino Sample,  Merino Sample 2, Merino Sample 3, and Shetland Sample 2. See WIP's for Sheltand Sample 3.           Works in progress:   Since Michelle is traveling this week, she pulled out her Electric Eel mini spinning wheel to start spinning the Coopworth/Shropshire cross. She hopes to talk her Dad into helping her make a box for the battery to add some weight to the very light wheel.   Erica commented on how small the Electric Eel mini spinning wheel is, so Michelle had to get a picture that showed the size of the wheel. Here's a picture with the wheel sitting on the bottom of Michelle's sandal to keep it out of the sand and keep it from moving. Michelle does have big feet, but it may give an idea of the size of the wheel.     Erica Erica has finished spinning the Rambouillet in the colourway Gizmo from Fiber Nest Studio. According to Deb Robson's Fleece and Fiber Source book, Rambouillet began in France in the 1700's. Louis XVI was allowed to import 359 Spanish Merino to his estate in Rambouillet. His breeders bred for different specifications, thus creating the separate Rambouillet breed. When Erica showed her spinning to the Wool N Spinning Community she received several great descriptions pointing out that it is a very grippy and sproingy/springy yarn. Erica had noticed it was Targhee like, the grip is great for spinning, until it isn't. Erica experienced far more times of the fiber separating and pulling into the orifice than she does with other wools. In her post recording investigations, Erica learned that Targhee were bred from Rambouillet rams and a combination of other sheep. So it is no wonder that Rambouillet is more like Targhee than it is like Merino. Erica has also done a bit more sampling on her Damask warp. Since the colors she chose from Halcyon Yarn were out of stock, she ordered a red and black from Treenway Silks to test. Treenway has a variety of reds, fortunately the red they had in stock is so very close to the red from Halcyon that Erica liked. Let us know in the comments what you think of the difference (bottom sample that has been cut off the loom is Halcyon Yarn Gemstone Silk, upper cloth still on the loom is Treenway Silks). In this photo you can also see the area where the sample was mistreadled and inadvertently cause some very long floats. When weaving damask you only tie each thread down once in a 4 pick repeat, so missing a treadle creates a quite long float. After consulting with other drawloom weavers on Weavolution, Erica will be weaving her cowl face up on the loom to prevent this from happening. This is a cowl that was made for Erica when she was Queen. This is included, so listeners can see what she means by a 7th C Persian Cowl, it is a very different shape from what we modernly use the word cowl to describe.   Finally, Erica has finished weaving the third sample for the Collaboartive Cloth project, sett at 24 epi on the loom. She has embarked on this project with 3 other SCA spinners. The other members will spin the yarn and Erica will weave 4 meters of cloth for each member. She is really excited about this project, because she has always wanted to have a very authentic experience where she works with friends who specialize in spinning to make cloth for everyone. This is how communities functioned before the guild system. She finds this project is building even more a sense of community amoung her and her friends. She will also invite all the spinners over to weave a bit of their own cloth, if they chose to do so! She hopes, despite the current pandemic, that everyone will be able to see and touch the samples and the group can make a final decision, between the Merino and the Shetland, so they can embark upon the final project soon.   

Episode 19

Erica & Michelle discuss life and the fiber arts they manage to fit into their busy lives!