Leicester Longwool Project

Project dates: 3/29/2019 - 5/19/2019

To those who may not have chased that rainbow in education where lies the pot of gold known as a doctorate or PhD., it’s haaarrrrrrd.  It’s teeeeedious.  If you are not in therapy, then you need a distraction or a hobby to keep the vigil lit.  My vigil is Leicester (pronounced Lester) Longwool, or more properly, Leicester Longwool of England by way of Ross Farm, PA.  

I am a fiber enthusiast and junkie, student of all the arcane fiber arts, and master of many attempts, sir trythemall, that’s “try them all.”  I am a perpetual apprentice, the mad mind of an aspiring fiber master. Got my first sniff of glue on mom’s knee at three at the singer sewing machine.  Don’t touch, you’ll get a needle through your finger!  Yeah, well, I said no to both.  First was pushing the cloth, then came Barbie doll clothes for sis.  About that time, meme, (grandma for those non-French-speakers!), came with metal sticks and a bouncy fuzzy ball of yarn.  Miracles came from that wonder of Stonehenge.  I couldn’t get enough.  Born on that day was my addiction, I mean passion, of many decades.

So, Lester.  Thank you to the Livestock Conservancy for directing my passion into a worthy endeavor and cause.  While working late nights on my PhD, trying to stay focused on the same topic day in and out, I needed the occasional distraction to get me through it.  I had to barter with my educated and intelligent lower self, inner child, to help the gray matter, and in exchange we would sip from the coffer of fiber like a drunk at the free booze for all wedding bar.  I signed up for the Shave ‘Em to Save ‘Em right then and there.  After a very thorough search through The Livestock Conservancy website to search for my purveyor of fine endangered wool, I thought why not start local, sort of, and found Lester hanging out at Ross Farm.  So, we ordered our date online, and within a few days a little 4 oz. package of baby roving Lester joined my family.

What to do with it?  Oh, that was a bit of a torturous fugue that sated my fiber passion for a little while.  Of course, it was insufficient to simply find something online to make.  No, no, no.  That would never satisfy the obstinate creative, must design and do it myself, little inner child.  And we couldn’t simply drag out a piece of paper, no.  We had to create an art book for my design ideas in case they came at odd times, and they could be saved all in one place.

I initially targeted a vest.  I would spin Lester up, and then knit a vest, probably with a satin backing.  Then came the color choice.  I definitely had to dye the wool.  No way was I gonna stay a purebred white and be bored to tears.  Give me color, and nothing but!

And the creative beast strikes again, because we are not contented until we get all the equipment, and the measuring jars, and look like the Gilligan’s’ Island professor making a tri-color margarita!  So, that part of the project came next.  I chose three colors, a beautiful sea green, a wonderful lush dark purple, and orange.   The roving was about 5 yards in length, and I split it into two lengths.  My plan was to paint one roving mostly green, the other mostly dark purple, and both with splashes of the other two colors.  I was then going to spin them separately, and then ply them together hoping for a somewhat mottled affect that was complimentary.

 This was my first attempt at using the Pershing dyes.  So, I had my instructions all laid out and typed up, my note pad at the ready, equipment table, and all the rest of my paraphernalia.  The first step was to weigh the wool and measure the powder.  Measure the powder!  Are you kidding me?  Nah, we can guess at this!  Besides I want them dark, deep and rich.  

 I laid out plastic wrap, my prepared roving, my three mixed dye jars, and then set about painting to my heart’s content.  What fun!  Like finger paint, without the mess!  I think I got a bit too exuberant at some points pushing the dye into the fiber.  When I later spun this up, there were areas of roving that were a bit tough to draft, almost felted. 

I decided to try a new to me dying technique.  Off to the department store to get the special only to be used for dying crock pot.  I rolled the painted roving in plastic wrap, laid them on my new racks from the orient inside the crock pot, and set them to steam for the recommended hours.  And low and behold, they came out not as planned, but a beautiful darkly mottled, richly speckled, shade of luscious loam.  The kind you might find magic mushrooms in.

  Well, they surprisingly ended up very dark.  Certainly darker then the luscious colors I originally planned and expected.  I sat staring at this magical brown fiber with beautiful orange, green, and purple areas in the roving, unplanned, but just as beautiful, deep and rich.  In fact, I am very pleased at this serendipitous result.  Nothing pleases me more than a happy accident!  Not only does my structured self get to plan out to its heart content, but the happy go-lucky artist gets a pleasant surprise!

The dyed roving hung in my closet to drip dry and I started the spinning portion of my project. In between torturous PhD paragraphs where EVERY LINE had to be sourced from a creditable and peer reviewed journal article or tome, I would spin.  I always spin why singles with an s-twist, and pls with a z-twist.  This becomes a no brainer later, and i don't have to guess, in case I can't tell!  In addition, it gives me the luxury of plying odd combinations later without worrying about the twist direction.

The beautiful shades of brown with hints of golden orange, purple, and vague notions of green was a pleasure to spin, sans the occasionally felted clump.  Lester was a pleasure to spin.  I spun him with a short forward draw on my Lendrum, dream machine.  Actually, it’s my only spinning wheel, and no others have I tried, not really.  I did try the hand spinning, but not for me.  Give me the whole-body experience anytime.  I spin both fine and thick, and for this project I attempted to shoot for a 3-ply worsted in the 13 WPI range.  I hadn’t done three-ply before.  So, I got my nifty newly purchased fiber sample size card, hung it by my Lendrum, and occasionally glanced over to see if I was close to the single size needed to end up with a 13 WPI.  Well, best laid plans.  Actually, this came pretty darn close.  Not too lumpy, but I love that effect anyway.  If I wanted perfection off to one of the fake fiber stores I’d go.  NOT.

I zipped through that portion of the project in fine speed.  Jointly working on my dissertation and spinning, it took me no time at all.  Then came plying.  I dreaded it.  I have a habit of trying to walk the borderline of no-twist country.  That is, just enough twist to hold, but just barely.  Don’t know why.  Perhaps it was all those Twister games as  child.  But, low and behold, it only fell apart on me three times in all.  Not bad, Magee.

I then gently wrapped Lester around my new niddy-noddy, yes, the old one was just a bit too loose. Besides, any excuse to peruse a fiber store.  Then we lovingly and gently soaked and again hung to drip dry in my closet awaiting my project.

Yes, the project.  After measuring the wraps around my niddy-noddy, I sadly only ended with not quite enough for the fronts of a vest.  In addition, the worsted could take a bit of handling.  It was lovely to look at with all the subtle highlights from my painstaking dye planning process, ah, serendipitous process!  I had to test it on my new little weaving do-dad to check sett, just in case I decided to go back to that vest idea!

  

  

    

Socks?  No way, I can’t stand circling around  and around tight corners even with the magical butterfly loops.  A hat?  Hmmm.  Simple.  Quick.  Yes, one knits this in the round like socks, but at least the diameter is larger than two toothpicks.  And I have just the topper!

So, I found a pattern I liked, and based it very loosely off of that.  Thank you.  I did my swatch to check the feel of the yarn, and the sizing required. I was very pleased with the feel of the yarn as it traveled through my hand and fingers.  Despite the preparation, washings, dyeing (almost felting), hanging to dry twice, the yarn was amazing.  It retained its almost, but not quite, feeling of lanolin.  The texture was what I expected of a good strong and no-nonsense wool.  I wouldn’t wear it as undergarment, but it makes a strong bold masculine outer garment statement.  This is a day out in nature, not out to the opera yarn.

  

I topped the hat off with one of those fur balls with a snap that I just had to have the last time I went buying stuff I didn’t need in the fiber store.  It was an addiction run, you see. Plus the stash hadn’t grown in the last week, and that just won’t do!

I really thank the Livestock Conservancy for giving my passion a gentle nudge in an artistic direction with a purpose.  Many thanks to all those friends and teachers, my mentor, and my family, for supporting both my fiber addiction and my educational path of torture.  But most of all thank you Lester, Leicester Longwool proper of England by way of PA for a wonderful experience.  Now, off to my next endangered species project, and the next step in my dissertation!