Wool Study: Tunis

My last post I shared a mini wool study about romney locks I recently purchased and now I can't wait to share my findings about this mostly unheard jewel of a wool: Tunis

I did not take this photo, I just found it on Google Images, but whoever did take it, what a perfect shot! What Cutie Patuties!

 I first have to share how I got it...

 Last January I was blessed by my husband with an amazing birthday gift - driving all the way to The Woolery to purchase my very first raw fleece. Just a few weeks before that my parents blessed me with my very first spinning wheel (Ashford Kiwi 2 from the smoky mountain spinnery) and for the past 3 months before that I discovered how yarn was made (I never even knew as a crocheter! Silly, I know! I just purchased all my yarn from Walmart or Michael's and never really cared how animal or plant fibers were spun into yarn!) and bought a very simply drop spindle for $17. 

Anyways... The birthday gift...

We drove from Knoxville, TN to Frankfurt, KY and I felt like I was going to Disneyland!!!!

When I saw the shop i'm surprised I didn't jump out of the car while it was still moving and ran toward the window and press my face against the glass like the boy in a Christmas Story seeing his dream toy, a Red Rider BB Gun... oh, Ralphie, I know how you felt!

I walked in and I swear I saw Santa Clause and his elves shearing some sheep and bagging it all for sale... maybe it was just my imagination and giddiness, just agree with me I saw them.

Before we arrived I was extremely nervous because i've never handled raw fleece and had NO idea that sheep had different breeds, they were just sheep.

The whole drive there I was searching on my phone what the Woolery had in fleeces and then I began to Google what sheep was what and how their wool will spin and even then I had no idea if I was making the right choice! You see, the only thing I spun was alpaca and roving from the spinnery (Merino). Everything was already done all I had to do was choose a color and spin. But no, I wanted to learn and start from the beginning! I didn't have a sheep and I didn't shear one so buying raw fleece was my beginning.

I decided to choose Tunis because of this bit I read: Thomas Jefferson loved Tunis so much he preferred them over his merino's and George Washington kept them on the lawn of the White House and I just thought, "That's cool and patriotic. Okie Dokie." That was pretty much it.

 My husband bought 4 pounds of it and some other fun tools and I just could not wait to get home and wash it...

The next day I woke up so excited, I grabbed all four bags and dumped them out and then realized they were compacted so perfectly that when they all were released it was... like... a lot... oops.

So I had to separate all of them and began to go through one pound at a time and then I had another realization... this isn't all that easy, it is HARD going through all this and having no idea what I was doing. What was I doing? What am I supposed to look for or throw away? I looked at youtube videos and blogs and thought I was soooooo prepared but now that it came down to it I had no idea what I was doing, but I can pretend I know what i'm doing so what did I do? Just fluffed it all up and panicking in my head.

Right is dirty wool and on the left is clean and it didn't felt! Shocking for a first time fleece cleaner!

 Finally, I just calmed down and had my hubby help me get rid of any nasty stuff and anything that had too much VM to even bother cleaning and the locks were actually really awesome... so AWESOME that I just forgot all about that and guess what I did? I just threw the whole fleece in the washer to soak and used A LOT of Dawn soap even though there was not that much lanolin. Yup! I never separated any gorgeous locks. I just threw them all in there... and just stood there and did nothing... nothing... ::face palm::

Soaking ONLY in a washer.

 But it was really by the grace of God that not only did it NOT felt (I was extremely careful not to agitate it) but there was such a beautiful softness I began to cry that I didn't ruin it! 

What I did all last year was card it in with alpaca and merino and hand dyed it and i've always been given great reviews on it, I loved the elasticity of a Tunis. But I never actually spun a tunis all by itself. Never! I know! That is absurd but it's true!

So finally just a few days ago with the tunis I still had left, I spun singles (wpi 40 which is thread weight) and 2 ply giving it a wpi 36 (thread weight).

and this is what I learned:

The spinning was effortless. So effortless that it was almost silky and felt extremely slippery. Fleece quality: 24 to 30 microns, a staple length of 4 - 6 inches, 56 - 58 spinning count wool and very lustrous!

I really love the natural creme color!


Next wool study I hope to do Wensleydale, but if not then either Border Leicester or Lincoln. Stay tuned!

Some Beach... Somewhere

 

"Some Beach... Somewhere."

When I first started dyeing my roving or already spun/plied yarn, I didn't care what colors came out, I just wanted to hurry it up and see what it would look like.

 I remember the very first time I threw in my own concoction of dyes and colors... I was in blissful ignorance! I just wanted the dyes to hurry and dry and once it did... I felt like the heavens opened, God on His throne stood up and began a slow clap... the angels sang a gorgeous anthem of: "Ahhh-ahhhh-aaaaaaahhhhh" as if echoing in a cathedral, the sunshine shone down upon my yarn, and I felt like Rafiki (from The Lion King) when he lifted Simba... I lifted my yarn up to the air and shouted, " Look what I have created!!!!!! I... have made yarn!!!!".

Coming back to reality I was in my kitchen with my dog, Sadie Girl, cocking her head to one side sitting there watching me with a somewhat worried look on her face... perhaps thinking her mistress was going off the deep end. 

Anyways... I was going somewhere with this... oh yes.

After some calming down and practicing my spinning and studying more videos and tutorials, I began to take a step back in everything I did and began to take careful thought into my colors, "What color would go with what? What design am I trying to portray?"

 I wanted to create a story behind my yarn!

My first story to back up my yarn was: Inspiration   

When I was working on Inspiration, I began to realize that my yarn should have a story behind it, because behind every great craft is a passion and behind each passion is a story ready to be told... Great or not, there is always a story to everything!

 After I finally finished Inspiration, I began to miss the ocean...

Photo by Elisa Edberg overlooking Downtown San Diego from Coronado Island

 I was born and raised in San Diego, California. I have many memories of going to the beach with my family, and many memories of going to "my beach" (located in La Jolla Shores) and sitting there doing a mini bible study, crocheting or knitting, even some short writing... The ocean inspired me greatly, and calmed me when it felt like my world was about to crumble around me!

 Living in Tennessee, there are rivers and some lakes, but nothing can replace the ocean!   

 

Photo by: Elisa Edberg

 I would like to share with you some memories surrounding the ocean...

I met my beloved on a free Christian dating site... Ya, I was the type that said, " A dating site??? Aren't they for... like... losers?", my brother met his wife on a christian dating site and he told me, "Just try it! If it doesn't work out then you can discontinue using it!", I always gave him a hard time saying, "No one wanted you so you had to go online huh?" Of course, he had a stingin' come back, "Uh, aren't you going on one too? So what does that make you?"... touche, dear brother... touche. Though I wanted to say, "Uh... That was wicked rude." Ha Ha!

 With my mama's encouragement (and my daddy trying to discourage me... he wanted me to be single forever. I was his little girl! Ha Ha!), I decided to go online and try it for just one week... after signing up, within the first hour... this hottie hot hottie who was living in Hawaii messaged me... and so... it began...

One memory surrounding the ocean during my husband and my exciting and often interesting romance was this:

Our very first photo together the day before we began our courtship that lead to getting unofficially engaged 2 weeks later, properly engaged a month later, that lead to our marriage 5 months later! How I love my beloved!

 

We sat on a rock that was on the sandy beach, the gorgeous breeze mixed with warm sun was delicious that made you want to take a nap right there and then! I loved seeing the alcatraz in formation barely touching the water as they flew on by... In the waves you can see some sea lions splashing about and popping their heads out of the water curiously watching the surfers... 

 

Photo by Elisa Edberg, La Jolla Beach

 

Dustin and I sat in silence soaking in the beauty of God's creation, he then turned to me and spoke, "Elisa... will you be my girl?", I turned to him and said, " ... No. ..." Don't yell at me, there is alot to the story, but i'm just giving you the odd yet funny part! 

Let's say that whole day (Dustin was just staying for a 24 hour date. He flew over night from the island and was leaving the following morning all to win my heart...) he wasn't giving up, this was the words he uttered (after I denied him for the 3rd time) that has been our marriage's motto:  "The day is not over yet".

When I walked him to the security line at the airport the next morning, he cupped my face right before passing the line (holding up the line behind him) and very gently brushed my lips with his (not a kiss at all, a very light brush I barely felt that brought shivers all over my body!) and whispered, " I don't want this to end." and crossed the line with me standing there in shock!

That did it, I was head over heels at his constantly chasing me and wouldn't let me go and his character and godliness, and just who he was! I texted him right away and said, "If this is a serious relationship, i'm all in.".

On Ewa Beach looking toward Honolulu.  Photo by Elisa Edberg

2 weeks after that day, I flew to over to hawaii to visit him (I stayed with a lovely couple from his church), and he took me to the North Shore (on the island of Oahu) and there I saw wild sea turtles surfing the waves! They were a lovely earthy green color and were beautiful! The water there was a gorgeous turquoise, with a hint of green when the sun hit it right... during the sunset there was some orange and reds and purples hitting the water... oh the ocean was so beautiful!!!! 

Photo by Elisa Edberg

When we drove back to Honolulu from the beach, we decided (in his little car) to get married that following September (5 months later)... and I even put it on my calendar!!!! Oh, what funny and wonderful memories!!!!!

Photo by Elisa Edberg

But my favorite memory was when we lived in Hawaii after we got married... We lived in Honolulu just a 10 minute walk to the beach. We would go often to swim during the sunset, but many times we would drive to Pearl Harbor military base when there was a full moon to a parking lot that was right on the ocean and there we could watch the airplanes take off... we would play our wedding song "Give me a Song" played by the Artis Family (who are a family band from the island, and a complete blessing to us) and dance in the night air with the moon shining down and the ocean gently splashing against the wall below... Those are memories that I will never forget when thinking about the ocean!






Now, coming back to the colors I was next to choose for my yarn, I wanted to theme it: Some Beach... Some where.

Remember that song? 

This song makes me giggle, but it's true! Whenever you are going through a bad day, don't you close your eyes and think "Some beach... some where", I know I do! 

I wanted to mimic the colors of the ocean so that whoever makes something to wear out of it or just creates something out of it to decor with, can bring the ocean with them!

My colors are not the typical: light blue with white. 

Photo by Elisa Edberg O'ahu, Hawaii

 No, I wanted a deep blue one would imagine seeing whales and dolphins pop up playfully, and greys that would mimic the turmoils of waves after a storm, the greens reminded me of the sea turtles gracefully swimming, and you would be able to see them under the water through a wave because the water was that clear!

I wanted to add some purple that reminded me of the sun hitting the water just right during a sunset, and the earthy silk blend that reminded me of the sea weeds that was scattered on the sand and drift wood...

Photo by Elisa Edberg

After single plying all this gorgeous colors, I began to navajo ply BUT... I did something different!  I added beads to my yarn! Why? I wanted to learn how to do it, and second, I wanted to add something that would remind me of sea shells and smooth earthy colored rocks you would see at the beach!

Photo by Elisa Edberg

Oh! I had such memories of my big brother, myself, mom and dad and my grandma (my mom's mother) going to the beach and picking up sea shells and rocks! Haha, I remember my brother "saving" my grandma, because she was sinking in the sand with the current of the water, and he helped her out (he was maybe 12 at the time)! Ay yay yay! 

Coronado beach... and i'm being goofy as you can see!

I had amazing fun painting... with my yarn! These are the colors I used: 

It looks like a mess, no doubt... and you're probably wondering, "How are all these colors gonna look like a beach themed yarn?" ... 

The results were beautiful:

When I make my rolags, I feel like i'm painting! And all these painted colors blended together comes up with something beautiful!

    
 In my next post I will explain a bit more how I added beads and add a video! 

Thank you for allowing me to share with anyone reading this my joy in making this special yarn! Making a memory with your yarn... now that is special!     

Some Beach... Somewhere. Click on photo to be redirected to my Etsy Shop

Some beach ... Somewhere (bead edition) click on photo to be redirected to my Etsy Shop

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Ice Storm February 2015, Tennessee

About 3 months ago my beloved husband and I moved from sunny California (I was born and raised there) to Knoxville, so this is my first Ice storm/lots of snow and I honestly thought i'd be panicking more than I thought! I was a bit nervous when it was happening, but other than that, I enjoyed seeing the aftermath in our neighborhood... It's a White Wonderland!

 So what do you think I did during all this cold? Yup, you got it! Made a whole new batch of dyed tunis/alpaca with some merino wool into the mix!

You know, after carding the already dyed wool, I was wondering, "Is there a way I can spin straight from the carder onto the bobbin?", so after some research and learned of different techniques, I decided to give it a "whorl" (HAHAHA! I crack myself up... C'mon... that was a real knee slapper.), and it was amazing!

Spinning straight from the carder onto the bobbin next to our fireplace in this cold weather... Heavenly!

I will admit, I was quite excited to have found the right technique for me that I asked my husband to record it...

But other than learning this new technique I had the most wonderful time spinning one bobbin (filled it all up!) and now working on my second bobbin in order to ply! The colors are more on the purple hue side with some tinsel to add sparkle! 

I just remember a dream I had not too long ago that I was sitting in a clear field with trees surrounding the field. There was only one tree trunk in the shape of a chair that I was sitting on, it was summer time because I could see I was wearing a summer skirt and top, and I was spinning at my wheel, but there was absolutely no fleece surrounding me, so in my dream I looked closer at what I was so intently spinning and what I saw had me in awe...


 I was spinning the sky! I looked up and saw vivid colors of the sunset on the clouds and I was spinning the clouds onto my bobbin and then the sky grew dark but I kept spinning, and the stars came out and I was spinning the stars onto my bobbin the stars looked like fire and diamonds mixed into the soft yarn made of clouds and the sky!

Twilight (50 yards) click on photo to be redirected to my Etsy Shop

I remembered that dream that the Lord gave me, and I was inspired by it and wanted to make something like what I saw in my dream... of course there is no stars, fire, or diamonds on this yarn... but there is sparkly tinsel! Close enough, eh? 

But beside all that I loved having fun in this cold wonderland! But I will admit one thing... Goodness I can't wait for spring!!!!!

While many are drinking hot coffee or hot chocolate, I drink an ice cold slushy during this ice storm... I too like to live dangerously!

I must brag about my beloved! He is so creative!!!! He is really interested in wood art/carving and this is what he made:

He burnt our last name into the wood a few months ago, but just recently he found what he wanted to burn above our name! Our home state and under the star he burnt it says "Home".

                                       and,

He made the shape of Tennessee from a wood pallet and burnt the words on it!

These two AWESOME items he created looks beautiful on our mantle!

No better way to end a cold day than cuddle on the couch with the fire on, snow falling from the sky outside, and our sadie girl snoring peacefully inbetween us on the couch as we have our family devotions! 

The joys of blending in!

Cleaned alpaca (left) and tunis (right) wool with hand carders in the center.

I can't tell you the relief and giddiness I felt when I took the above picture! I was DONE with cleaning and picking out the VM and waiting for the wool to dry, now, I can begin the next process which is: blending both wool together.

 If it wasn't for youtube and other blogs and articles I would have no idea what I was doing! But now, it was my turn to do the deed! So... I began!

When I first started blending by putting alpaca wool on the bottom edge of one carder and lay tunis wool on the top, it was a mess. Cos the alpaca was much stronger than the tunis, the tunis just slid off but wasn't grabbing the alpaca to slide with it onto the next carder. It was like trying to blend water and oil, they were still separating! 

So recognizing that, I decided to switch how I was placing the wool on the hand carder:

 On the above photo you see that I placed the alpaca wool at the edge of the carder.

On the photo above you will see that I placed the tunis wool behind the alpaca, as tunis is the more weaker of the two.

After gently carding the wool, as you see in the above photo, look how absolutely beautiful and well blended the wools are together! Yes, I shall wait until the applause has died down to move on! No, please... continue! Hee Hee!

After carding I rolled them into loose rolags to later blend even more!

loosely rolled rolag

bundle of rolags ready for the next process!

Another step, Elisa? Why not just start spinning straight from the rolags? Because even though it looks well blended, there was still some separation I could notice up close! And because my goal is to sell the yarn I spin from this wool, I want an amazing quality, and I want to make it as perfect as possible, even if it means putting in another step that is "unnecessary", but i'd rather be safe than sorry!

My next step? Blending hackle!

 My darling husband made this blending hackle for me for under $20 (with the help of my daddy who was here with my mama!), to buy a good blending hackle would cost up too $200!!! So, he made one for me instead! 

I put the rolags on the hackle for dizzing...

For a dizzer I used to use a small hole washer you can get at home depot for around a $1. But I would get frustrated with it, because the smallest hole they had wasn't small enough, yes, the wool would clump together but right when they went through the washer they would just loosen up so I wasn't getting a strong "true top" roving!

So, I improvised for free! I went to my cooking cabinet and took out the top of a lemon and pepper container and used the center hole as my diz!

My new diz!

 When dizzing you must be very careful... it's not about strength (or else you'll rip apart your wool and also pull down the nails in your homemade hackle!), it's about technique in pulling your wool into the diz to make it into roving!

dizzing

Look how strong and smooth that roving looks! The lemon and pepper container top really improved the results of my work! I had to have a "feel" for it to get the right results!

After dizzing from the hackle

The results of the aftermath of picking VM, washing, drying, carding, blending and dizzing is the most satisfying feeling ever! Here is the results of all that work! a rolled up true top roving!

Next post will focus on the spinning and dyeing! Stay tune!!!

Sadie thought she wouldn't get caught sniffing too close to the wool! She looks a bit confused and shocked she got caught and is given a lecture. As you can see, we knew what she was doing cos of the evidence on her snout! She's giving me that look that says, "Well, you see... what had happened was..."

" Ma... before I get in big trouble I really want you to know... I really love you... ok? "

We all got to start sometime... Processing raw wool for the first time!

Used my new hand carders purchased from The Woolery to make rolags from washed tunis wool!

 For my 29th birthday, my beloved husband blessed me by driving us to the Capitol of Kentucky (3 hour drive from us) to visit an amazing shop for my spinning passion, The Woolery!

 This lovely shop had everything a spinner/crocheter/knitter/felter would desire! The people there were so immensely helpful and full of joy that I wanted to purchase everything there! 
 
 I walked out of the shop with 4 pounds of Tunis raw fleece, some acid dyes, color wheel for these type of acid dyes and a measuring card so when I spin, I can keep consistent to the size of my yarn!

Had an awesome time shopping at the Woolery!

had lunch/coffee at a library setting cafe! It was yummy and a lot of fun to visit which was just around the corner from the Woolery!

 My hubby and I are researching on what kind of dual sheep we desire to have on our future homestead/farm when the time comes (dual = meat/wool), and I have been curious on Tunis sheep, upon researching (for wool),Tunis wool is a lustrous 24 to 30 microns, long-stapled 4 to 6 inches that has found favor with spinners. Ewes typically shear a fleece weighing 6 to 9 pounds of this 3/8th's blood, 56 to 58 spinning count wool.

 We've been looking at Romney's and Tunis sheep, and the Woolery had Tunis raw fleece so why not give it a chance, right?

 The next morning after our trip was a nice warm enough day (for Tennessee in January!), so he and I went outside to sort out the already skirted fleece with Sadie at our heels sniffing curiously the fleece that were in the plastic bags.

My hottie hot hottie of a husband helping me try and take out the VM that was clinging to the wool before washing it!

 Right when we opened the bags, an aroma that would probably gross out most people came out, but it didn't gross me out one bit! Instead it made me smile! It smelled like we had our sheep farm and all I needed was the "Baaaaa" of them running around! It made me ache for our own sheep so badly! But alas, this was as close to having sheep as we can get... for now!

 Touching the fleece was greasy and yet soft. We tried to get us much leftover vegetable matter (VM) and poop out of it (and into our compost pile it went) before moving onto washing it.  Getting off the VM was near to impossible! Because the lanolin (wool grease) was just too much and VM was not  coming off the wool without a fight!

 So I put the wool in our washing machine filled with hot water and a large amount of Dawn dish soap (enough that when you touched the water it was slippery with the soap) and very gently (as not to agitate the wool so it would felt) submerged the wool and left it there for about 20 minutes. When I checked on it I made sure it was clean by seeing if I the water was "see through". 

Raw tunis wool soaking in hot soapy water

Can you see the difference between clean and dirty wool? What a difference!

After making sure the water was "clear", I put it on spin cycle and then rinse. After that I took it out and put it on a towel to dry. Because of how cold it is outdoors, I have to dry it indoors which take quite a while! It dried within 2 days (after gently separating the wool to get some air in it).

Our Sadie was so interested in the wool she settled herself down and watched the fleece for quite a while. Perhaps she thinks she's guarding sheep!

After it dried there is still so much VM in it, I have to comb through it gently again before I dye and spin it... when i'm all done i'll be sharing that as well! This is quite a long process but it's so fun to learn and to know that I am doing this from scratch!