BellaOnline Forums Hobbies and Crafts Spinning I'm de-stashing!

In the interests of better organisation, I decided it was time to sort out the bits and pieces I have stashed away and see which fleece should be used first.Imagine my surprise when I realised that I have spent the last 2 years spinning very productively and that the fleece I thought I still had is actually yarn, and I keep finding more of it!
I realise I now have a really good excuse for re-stocking, , but what do I do with my yarn mountain!
hehe!
Cheers, Caroline, in Australia where lots of sheep are losing their coats before summer!!

Don't let all that yarn sit around with no purpose in life. Start knitting or crocheting.

Destashing. Since we plan to be moving soon, I should be destashing. Moving is the perfect time to do this, right?
Except I have a hard time parting with anything - it might be just what I need the day after it's gone! So how do you decide what to move out of your stash?

Have you got time to knock up a peg loom rug before you move? This just EATS fleece and is so quick to make, saves having to part with any fleece!

Kate

Great idea! Thanks
I do have some rugs planned but hadn't thought of weaving on a peg loom.

I'm not sure if this is available in the States yet, but I have just bought a book on RH weaving called Creative Weaving and that has some terrific ideas for creating fabulous cloth and using up all those bits and pieces of yarn left over from other projects, and too precious to throw out. Its basically all done with plain weave. Some of them can be done on a tapestry loom, and there is at least one project for a cardboard loom, and another for a peg loom. Its just made for destashing, (or else an excuse to increase ones stash?)!

One thing I do not have is a RH loom. I've been eyeballing them lately but I think my DH would have a fit if I came home with yet another loom! He'd have good reason - I have a 10 shaft Glimakra, a 24 shaft dobby, a 4 shaft Le Clerc, and at 10 ground, 30 pattern shaft Glimakra drawloom. Plus an 8 shaft table loom for workshops.

It's not the lack of equipment, it's the lack of time for weaving right now that stops me from using up yarns by weaving something.....all my looms but one have been moved to our new home but since our old home hasn't sold yet my access to the looms is sporadic and most of my time is eaten up by packing, unpacking, and cleaning for lookie-lous these days. One group of lookers got scared off by the pile of fleeces (which I had neatly packed in body bags) in the living room waiting their turn to be hauled to the new place.

Body bags, available at the army surplus stores here, make excellent bags for storing fleeces as they can be hung from the rafters in the garage or in a closet or other odd space. It's also nice to know that they were not needed for their intended purpose.

I can just imagine their faces....... ! I shouldn't laugh really, but its like a chef friend of mine who had an ex-hearse: he had a coffin built to store food and cooking things in when he did catering jobs, and loved parking it in the McDonalds car park!
I have just been to my local library and found a book on embroidery, not the conventional style, but the more very modern arty stuff (similar to the experimental fabric making of the 70s) - and it looks like something I can use on my loom if I adapt the stitches to weaving. It should give a rich tapestry effect and I can have fun at the same time!
I'm trying to be good and not spin, but I have over 2 Kgs of Optim just begging to be played with! This self-control thing sucks!
To add insult to injury, its perfect dyeing weather!
Cheers, Caroline, who is going through withdrawal.

I'm struggling through knitting an afghan in horrible acrylic yarn that I just hate. Promised someone I'd do it so do it I must. It's a very heavily patterned thing too but I'm finally past the halfway point. What I really want to be doing is spinning wool.

There is a book on embroidery weaves, called The Embroidery Weaves.
It's a fairly old book so don't know if it's still available or not. But it does give instructions for manipulating a supplementary to give the appearance of embroidery.

I've heard of it, but haven't seen it around. I parted with most of my weaving books when I parted with my floor loom but I did keep my Mary Black New Key to Weaving, so I must check that out. I have also just picked up on ebay a book on how to use 3 rigid heddles at once; the end result is pretty much like 4 shaft weaving so I'm told. All I have to do is wait for it to arrive!
In the meantime I'm still working on this cushion cover - its testing out my RH loom, which I'm in the process of building. I was hoping to find an alternative to a ratchet and pawl method of tensioning, as from past experience I find these very hard to manipulate, and extremely painful to use; my current system isn't it, but I'm getting there.

Mary Black has some good info on embroidery weaves in her book.

Have you thought of using a warp weighted loom? That would eliminate the breaking system - though you'd have to advance the weights from time to time.

A slight variation on warp weighted would work, but I wonder how it would go with a rigid heddle? Advancing the warp is no problem, after all backstrap weavers do it all the time, and I'm not sure there is a better system than that! I will have to experiment. After all, its what works for me that matters!
That 2 kgs of Optim is singing out sooooo sweetly that it needs to be dyed, do you think it would destroy my stash-busting if I dyed some? I started spinning a little bit last night - its truly amazing! My yarn is so fine, even on a 1.7 oz spindle its virtually laceweight and it feels like silk. Apparently its supposed to be about 14.5 count and it makes cotton feel very sticky and coarse - I will have to go find my tahkli and try it.
Cheers, Caroline who's resolution is getting weaker by the minute!

You're totally right - it's what works for YOU that counts!

Hmmm.....nooo.....I don't think dyeing would destroy your stash-busting at all. After all, dyeing can be a part of processing and therefore it's just one step towards spinning and once it's spun then it's yarn and can be used for a project and making a project gets the fiber out of the stash. So...dyeing is stash-busting

With that logic, I needn't stop spinning at all, hehe! Makes sense!
Seriously, what do you do with your stash? We don't have a winter here like you do, so we don't use wool in the same way its used in the northern hemisphere, or even in the colder parts of Australia. Our spinning traditions come straight from Europe and are very impractical for our climate. And this from a country that produces lots of sheep!
Which sounds like a good excuse to start experimenting with some of the more exotic (and expensive) fibres like soya silk and bamboo! I feel a re-stashing coming on, !

Well.....the area I live in actually has a Mediterainian type climate so our winters are quite mild with very little, if any snow and we seldom see a hard freeze....been only one in the 16 years I've been here. So I'm not the person to ask about this

My spinning friends in colder climes seem to knit sweaters and vests in winter and shawls in summer. Around here the current trend is to socks, slippers, scarves, hats and bags.

Mostly what I do with the stash is.....well...stash it. Unfortunately it's a huge stash since we're planning to move, I sent all the grease fleeces I had off for processing and now am faced with something like 600 lbs of roving. Yikes!!!!

I plan a braided roving rugs or two.
And I do want to spin some yarn for weaving coverlets and blankets. Some of the roving will be sold once we get settled in one place. some will be used for planned blending and dyeing experiments. Some will become cat cozies.

And I thought my stash was bad.....
Its going to be pretty much century heat here for the next couple of days so its scouring and dyeing time. I really should get into solar dyeing and use all the heat and sun we have - has anyone actually done any, and how do you go about it? I usually use food dyes in the microwave and have some fantastic results. Its also very quick and easy and I don't have to worry about the cats getting curious.

Aha - nice warm weather! I love it. Wish we still lived ont he low desert where 100 would be a very cool summer day but my DH can't stand that sort of heat.

I have not tried solar dyeing but recall seeing an article on it in either Handwoven or Spinoff. It was sometime ago so a search of their on-line indexes should show what issue it was in.

How long do you leave the yarn in the microwave?

I zap my yarn/fibres on Medium/High for 10 minutes and this seems to do the trick. I have a very elderly m/w and it has a dial to set the time. In case its dangerous its in my laundry and I don't stay in there with it when its cooking. I lost the temperature control knob ages ago so I can't alter it if I wanted to.
I don't leave the fibres to cool in the dye-bath (the colour is usually all sopped up anyway), they go straight into a rinse of cool water (to stop them cooking any further) then cold, and once the water runs clear, if its yarn, I whack it against a chair to separate the strands, then hang it to dry. I have had no problems with felting, even with Merino, which can take a surprising and substantial amount of abuse and handling while wet( I'm not the worlds most successful felter, grrr!). With fibres/fleece, I separate the locks out to dry on trays lined with fly screen netting on a small greenhouse frame under the pergola. I tend to pick as I go as well, which helps dry things quickly.
Its very rough and ready, but this method works for me and because its quick, I can actually dye a lot of yarn or fibre at once, and by measuring how much dye I use, I can get a consistency of colour with each batch. I do about half a pound per bath.

I've only tried dyeing in the microwave once and only left it in for a total of 3 minutes. It seems to have taken well and didn't fade at all after washing the yarn. It also seems light fast.

I only did a couple of ounces though so I image that more weight would need a longer "cooking" time.

In summer I can put things out to dry and it usually goes fairly fast what with the high temps and low humidity. In winter I dry things inside by the wood stove - no way things would ever dry outside during the rainy season