The Horsey Hat

The Horsey Hat
The story of this hat starts way back - before 2001 when we moved from Norfolk to Cheshire. So let's say it was 15 years ago. In Norfolk, we were living next door to a farm and the owner offered me Suffolk fleece - if not they would be destroyed. I had just started spinning and took one!  This stayed in the paper sack I was given it in until 2014 when the Association of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers had their National Exhibition in Norwich Cathedral. I offered to spin some local fleece - I had Jacob fleece which I had spun already from a friend in Diss but they already had some of that. I was asked if I had any Suffolk yarn that I could contribute to the wall of wool. The answer was that I had some 15 year old fleece and I would see what I could do. This was coupled with the fact that we were having a big house sort out and had the house on the market in Cheshire as we intended to reallocate back to Norfolk.
The story of washing the fleece like this is described here on 8 Feb 2014 (2 postings) as I used my version of the fermented suint method.

The whole fleece looked like this!

I was delighted that the sad looking lump from the bag produced the most beautiful clean fleece, which was quite unexpected by me. I decided to spin the fleece thick for me ( 9-10 wpi). As my preferred spinning gauge is very fine lace this seemed very thick, but I wanted enough yarn to make a show - I had a time limit on producing it. Mary ( Chair of Diss Guild, who was organising this part of the exhibition said I could dye they yarn - if the dyes were native to Norfolk. So I left a skein undyed and dyed a skein with woad, another with nettle and a third with nettle and iron. We had plenty of nettles growing at the back of our garden, bordering on the farm where the sheep had lived, back in the days when we lived in Roydon. I was pleased with the results and the skeins were duly part of the exhibition.

My skeins are in this part of the large Wall of Wool, to the rightof the vivid yellow one - the colours are not very accurate in this unfortunately.

A friend sent me a lovely photo of Horsey beach for my birthday about this time and I mentally noted the colours were very similar.

Fast forward to September 2015 when we had settled back in Norfolk ; I was looking at doing something with the yarn. I decided I would knit a hat, which would be very much in keeping with Horsey beach as my recollection is that it is always windy there. My plan was to knit a fair isle hat as I just love fair isle patterns. But after much sampling and knitting of trial patterns I couldn't get a design that looked neat enough to me. Fair Isle works brilliantly finer Shetland wool of about 4 ply equivalent! I decided this yarn was just too thick for that and another approach was needed.
Then I remembered my Swaledale and North Ronaldsay hat ( yarn bought in Orkney).

This was a modification of a pattern by Elizabeth Lovick ( from Orkney) - the pattern is textured using purl where one might put another colour in Fair Isle knitting.

I used a draw thread so that the hat would double up as a cowl and be dual purpose.

But for the Horsey hat I decided to take another step and use patterns that might be found on North Norfolk fishermen's Ganseys. So more research on their patterns ensued and this proved difficult as quite rightly some of the fishing families are protective of their patterns. In the end I decided to use Gansey patterns that matched my beach theme and are found on some Ganseys.

So the bottom pattern represents pebbles worked in nettle and iron dyed yarn, the diagonal lines remind me of lines along the windswept Horsey beach , worked in nettle dyed yarn and the blue ( woad dyed) waves speak for themselves, the natural coloured yarn topping representing the clouds. I added the reverse stocking stitch ( also in natural) to separate the colours and thought it would represent the foam on the waves.

Another view using it as a cowl

I am really pleased with the result and thought the story worth telling.

Shetland fleece washed and unwashed

This is a comparison of Shetland fleece washed by my version of the fermented suint method. I am delighted with how it has turned out.

the unwashed version, as  shown ( and discussed) on Sept 1st 2013!

Quite a striking difference!

I used a separate bath for the Shetland and the Jacob fleece and washed sections of each fleece at a time to make the process manageable.

Washing Fleece My Fermented Suint Method

For those that have been following this you will know that I first started writing about this in September when I had got round to washing some fleece. I then got distracted and never actually described what I had done. So here goes – but remember I did do this in September, it was warmer and as it must involve a chemical reaction it will be a lot slower now. However, come late February /early March I am looking forward to setting this up again ( as I have been really lucky to have been given a super Jacob fleece!)

Basically the suint (sweat from the sheep) and the lanolin in the fleece along with rainwater makes ‘soap’ so you will not need to add any soap or detergent. It appears that the fleece gets clean on its own. Having tried this on a fairly fresh Shetland fleece and an older Jacob fleece I can say that the method has worked well for me and I will continue to use it in future.

I liked the fact that the rinsed and dried fleece still had some lanolin in it – it did not feel completely dry and lacklustre!

What you need to start:

An outdoor space
Large container with a lid  – I used a large translucent plastic storage box with lid and also a vintage galvanised round bath with lid
Rainwater
Fleece
Container to rinse the fleece in

Desirable:

Watering can for adding the rinse water to the garden
Rubber gloves
Washing machine
Pillowcase
Large net – eg net curtain  eg to go over a triangular washing line / tree for drying the fleece

 How to set the ‘fleece washing bath up’

Add rainwater to the container until it is between half and three quarters full. Add fleece to this , you need to be able to swirl it about so it must not be crammed in too full. I would say to get a good result less rather than more if you are dithering about adding more! The fleece needs to be submerged, so add a bit more water as needed (don’t worry about odd bits that come to the surface). Now you are going to put the lid on and leave it for 7 days. If the sun can get to it so much the better, if it is not sunny but cooler it will take longer than 7 days. You can go and look at it, it will start to smell, the water will go brown and it will get a film on the surface. Look at some of the locks, give them a little rub. You will know when the bath has ‘worked’.

Rinsing

The trick is to keep as much of this wonderful ‘fermented suint bath’ as you can. So I would take out sections of fleece at a time and squeeze them and put them straight away into another container.  YOU ARE GOING TO KEEP THE VERY DIRTY LOOKING WATER TO WASH THE REST OF THE FLEECE. If you have unlimited rainwater use it, however I used tap water for the rinsing and it worked well. I did find that I did 5 /6 rinsings until the rinse water ran clear. I collected all the rinse water and added it to the garden. The plants loved it. So although it seemed arduous at the time it was being as sustainable as possible. At this point I put the fleece in a pillow case and put it in the washing machine for a slow spin ( no rinse just a slow spin). After that I opened up and pegged the net curtain on the washing line and spread the fleece on this – if the weather is not up to that then on a sheet on a spare bit of floor – garage / kitchen ???? will work. It won’t take long to dry but do make sure it is really dry before storing it and again a pillowcase is the ideal storage method- with an accurate label tied on, and the top tied up so no moth can get in.

Back to your ‘Fleece Washing Bath’

You now take the next section of your unwashed fleece and add it to the very dirty and smelly water that you have just taken the fleece out of! Again make sure you have not added so much it is crammed in too tight. Add a bit more rainwater if the level has dropped. I have found that you will only need to leave the fleece in this potent mixture for 48 hours. Then take it out and rinse it as before.  Add more fleece to the even smellier bath and leave that for another 48 hours and so on….

Even though when you take the fleece out of the fermented suint bath it has an odour that you think you won’t be able to get rid of, don’t worry – it will come out in the rinse and the air as it dries and the texture of the washed fleece is, in my opinion, the best I have had from any sort of fleece washing I have done.

When you have finished washing all of the fleece you can put the contents of this washing bath on the garden too – it might be a bit potent – so I would make sure it didn’t go on any plant directly.

Washing Fleece

It’s been a glorious summer when I ought to have been washing my fleeces for the winter but somehow there have been other things to do.

I have a Shetland fleece that is rather special. I chose it myself from the fleece store at Jamieson and Smith in Lerwick. I have spun some of it ‘in the grease’ to obtain a very fine yarn – in both respects ( more later perhaps)

The Shetland fleece – it does have a lot of lanolin etc in it and looks quite yellow!

 

However, I have decided that the fleece now needs washing for the winter. My aim is to maintain the crimp and some of the lanolin if possible. On doing some research I found the FSM (fermented suint method). I have not tried this before and decided, after much thinking, to try it with my Shetland fleece – well some of it. So I set up the bath just over a week ago and it seemed to be working well. I have now done lots of rinsing and spun it in the washing machine on a slow spin (in a pillow case to protect it). I am SO pleased with the result so far. The fleece is so white and there is some lanolin still present which should help the fine spinning considerably. I am amazed as I was very sceptical as to whether this would work.

The added advantages of this method are that only rainwater is used (at normal temperature) & it washes itself so to speak. The big disadvantage is the smell – not something to do inside the house!

‘So far, so good’ as the saying goes. So the next batch has gone in today and that should be done in 2 to 3 days, as I have set up the bath. You use the same water and apparently it gets better.

I’m so impressed that I have set up another bath with some of my lovely Jacob fleece from my friend Rebecca W in Norfolk. The fleece is not so oily so it might take longer to get the bath established.