wovember

We're already two days into Wovember, an initiative set up by a group of wonderful wool enthusiasts from native UK. What better way to ease slowly into the dew drenched, misty mornings of November with a whole month dedicated to celebrating the wonder of wool in all it's shapes and forms? Who knows, it might be snowing down here in the village by the weekend!

This next month, I'll be wearing as much pure wool as possible as a way of celebrating the unique qualities of wool as a renewable, natural resource. I'll also be sharing a variety of stories, from the personal to the (possibly!) political, exploring different aspects of wool where I am. Not only from here in my little valley in the Pyrenees, but also further afield in some of the corners of France I've visited this year. Telling tales from yesteryear and today of growing, harvesting, processing and promoting wool, from farm to yarn as it were. 

And finally, I'll be endeavouring to complete two woolly challenges within the next thirty days, as part of the WAL (wool-along). I'm hoping to stretch my fledgling dressmaking skills by attempting to sew my first garment in 100% woollen cloth. And I've also set myself a spinning challenge - to spin as many metres of 2 ply sports weight yarn as possible from a recently shorn local fleece before the month is out.

If you're taking part in Wovemeber, and/or have set yourself a woolly challenge, I'd love to hear about it - please share in the comments below. I'd also love to hear your own personal stories of wool where you are, feel free to drop me a line! 

wool

Since the start of the year, I have been making a conscious, deliberate effort to make more time for making. Rediscovering my creative side has been a revelation to me. Having a variety of absorbing, enjoyable, fulfilling (and manageable!) hobbies have been doing wonders for my physical and mental well-being.

In parallel to my renewed interest in making things with my hands, I'm also becoming increasingly interested in the processes involved in creating the raw-materials that I then enjoy transforming at home...or out on the hillside.
 
I've started with wool. Living in a sheep-farming community, this seems the logical thing to do. Daily life, yearly life in our village still revolves around the handful of sheep farmers who scratch out a living raising livestock.

Perennial, divisive issues such as the expansion of the ski stations, the management of the Pyrénées National Park, electronic tagging of livestock, the reintroduction of the brown bear (...) are all important, very real issues for local farmers.

But despite having lived here for five years and taking an active interest in these thorny issues, I realise that I still know very little about the realities of the traditions and way of life that have shaped our valley over the centuries.

And I know even less about sheep!

Back in February, I listen to some excellent French podcasts about sheep farming and the wool industry here in France. They've really got me thinking. In addition to recycling, re-purposing and re-using yarns, where possible, I'd like my choice of materials to have a real connection to the landscape in which I live and work.

The first step back then was to find a spinning wheel and learn how to use it!

Since then, I've been spinning away at every opportunity and feel like I'm really starting to get the hang of things now.

The next step then is to knit a garment with my own, hand spun yarn. Only a few weeks left before it's time to cast on!

les chemins de la laine

De retour d'un week-end ensoléillé, riche en rencontres, en échanges et en découvertes. 

Un week-end à tisser des liens d'amitié entre tricoteuses, feutrières, teinturières, tisserandes, éléveuses de brébis, fileuses et fileurs... 

...à papoter en trois langues...

 ...à refaire le monde, autour de la laine...

 

...et à peaufiner mes compétences de cardage de la laine, en occitan.

Je reviens ressourcée, inspirée, apaisée, la tête pleine d'idées et l'esprit plein de soleil...

Just back from a magical, sunny weekend: making new friendships and exchanging ideas with a fantastic group of local hand knitters, felters, hand-dyers, weavers, sheep farmers and spinners. 

We've spent the last two days building new friendships...

 ...babbling in three languages...

 ....putting the world to rights, through the medium of wool...

...and (for me!) improving my handcarding skills, in Occitan... 

I'm back home recharged, uplifted and inspired...

black and white yarn (hand-spun)

I had kept behind some white singles from my last project because I wanted to experiment with a two-tone double ply yarn.   

I fell in love with the black fleece the moment I clapped eyes on it. Never mind if the locks seemed a little dry, or were heavily matted with straw and...well, we'll keep that a secret between spinsters.

I had already spun with it back in April, during one of my earlier attempts at the wheel. At the time it had been a real pain to spin, but I put it down to my lack of experience. Coming back to it again this time round, I realise that the difficulty lay in the fleece itself: they were brittle (probably through age) and far too short to spin easily (probably because the fleece had been twice cut).

I struggled to find much pleasure in spinning the black singles, although my mood lifted considerably once I had plied the singles together. And at least I'll have learnt that sometimes even a free fleece is a little two much effort...

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"Black and white yarn"

Ingredients: around 30g of washed and carded wool. The fibre used was white and black Barégeoise from Gèdre.

Spinning: Two singles spun from all rolags in the Z direction, using the woollen technique.  

Plying: two singles plied in the S direction until balanced. 

Finishing: Wound off into a skein, washed and dried weighted to set the ply.

Quantity: 30g giving 59m of finished yarn

homeshore (hand-spun)

Have been feeling a tad homesick of late, longing for the sea and missing the pull of the tide on both sides of the channel. 

I wanted to create a yarn to remind me of the swell of the sea, the salty spray, flotsam and jetsom washed up by the tide...

So I took some pre-dyed carded wool batt that I had rescued a long time ago from the local woollen blanket producer  La Carde here in the valley. The fibres are far too short and jumbled to spin with, but they seemed perfect as "neps" to create a flecked yarn. I pulled apart tufts of the carded blue fibres and blended these neps into my main fibre supply during the carding process. 

The finished rolags were then spun using the woolen-spun method, as this helped to lock the short flecks into the yarn. Plying together normally in the S direction until balanced also helped to further lock the tufts into the yarn. 

I ended up with 29g of 2 ply yarn, which when knitted up into a tension square gave a wonderfully textured, heathered effect.

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"Homeshore"

Ingredients: 25g of prepared natural wool and a small amount of pre-dyed, carded wool, prepared into tufts. 

Quantity: 28g giving around 49m of finished yarn.

proper knitting yarn (hand-spun)

Like proper knitting yarn. 

That was my first thought when I wound off this yarn into a skein. So white, so soft, so uniform and neat.

It was worth taking a break from the wheel, worth taking my time at every stage, if this is what I ended up with. I loved those first nobbly attempts at yarn making. But I love this even more...

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"Proper knitting yarn"

Ingredients: around 70g of washed and carded wool. The fibre used was white Barégeoise from Gèdre. 

Spinning: Two singles spun from all rolags in the 7 direction, using the woollen technique.  

Plying: two singles plied in the S direction until balanced. 

Finishing: Wound off into a skein, washed and dried weighted to set the ply.

Quantity: 68g giving around 220m of finished yarn