The 3 skeins

Here are the 3 skeins of 'Little Moreton Hall' yarn which I am pleased to say are consistent in colour 'randomness' (if that makes sense) and diameter. I've loved doing this art yarn design project and have received lots of encouraging comments, so thank you for those. Total length is 85m and mass 70g.

For all those who are asking 'what are you going to do with it', I have some ideas and as I gaze at the yarn I guess I will have more...so keep watching.

My next postings are likely to be about a sewing and design project for a dress.

The first batch of finished yarn

At last the spool – I love it.

The next stage was to form a hank, wash it and then see what it looks like when formed into the final skein. It's everything I hoped it would be!

There’s still about half the batt to spin and that includes the sample that some of you have seen at Little Moreton Hall. Hence the need for careful records to ensure all the yarn is consistent.

Little Moreton Hall yarn sample 2

Sample 2 now completed.

This has been washed, which gives a better idea of the final yarn. It hangs well and is a balanced yarn. It conveys to me the colours of the building and the wood holding it together. Whilst being a contemporary yarn it is not so ‘off the wall’ that it is difficult to find a use for it, other than to look at it and admire it! I am happy with this, so this will be the yarn. In plying the charcoal grey finer yarn is held in the left hand with the decorative slub yarn winding round it. The next stage is to spin a bobbin of this and to see it in a hank.

The Importance of Sampling

I had a picture in my mind of my Little Moreton Hall Yarn -it was to be a singles thick and thin slub. When I spun a sample of this it clearly was not going to be any more than a great yarn to look, to my mind it wasn't going to functional! It was too full of air! On further research I found that this was not uncommon. It has been found that commercial 'tops' has been found to give the best thick and thin slub. That makes sense as the fibres will be more dense in the commercial stuff.

So further thinking was needed. Back at the drawing board -actually in the shower - and thinking back to my building I realised I could make a yarn that was even more suitable for my title of Little Moreton Hall yarn. I would spin one ply as a smallish slub mixed yarn and ply it with finer charcoal /black singles, just as the dark oak is holding the fabric together.
Here is the first attempt – still a little light so another sample is needed. Both slub and the charcoal grey are S spun, and Z plyed.

Preparing the fleece

The fleece is from a local farmer who overwinters the sheep by arrangement with a farmer in the High Peak. The fleece is a Swaledale x Blue faced Leicester cross and it is beautiful. This was washed.
Obtaining the colours
Some of the fleece was mordanted with alum & then dyed to produce the colours for the yarn:

Charcoal grey – this was first dyed with elder and iron as additive which produced a medium olive colour. This was then overdyed with logwood which has produced the colour I am using. (Experimenting went on before this decision!)
Orange – this was obtained by solar dyeing (for a month in my greenhouse) using meadowsweet which I gathered in Cumbria.
Yellow – again this was solar dyed using sorrel seeds from my garden.

Carding
The natural, charcoal grey, orange and yellow fleece was combined on a drum carder by forming a sandwich with the colours as the filling. I estimated the ratio of the colours from my source photo, keeping some of the charcoal grey separate.

The carded batt which I will spin looks like this.

Intial thoughts on the design of the yarn

From the building:
Off white lime(?) plaster
Lots of dark grey oak forming the frame
Orange/yellow lichen catching the sun on the roof
A ‘natural’ building
Traditional / Heritage
A grand building

From the Guild (Alsager Weavers, Spinners and Dyers) strapline
‘promoting our traditional textile crafts with a contemporary twist’

The window in the second photo is of the Long Gallery where the exhibition is being held.

Little Moreton Hall Designer Yarn

Alsager Weavers, Spinners and Dyers are delighted to be at Little Moreton Hall for their exhibition this year ( June 1st - 12th). It is a wonderful Tudor National Trust building and our exhibition will be in the Great Hall and room adjoining.
I love to demonstrate spinning at the exhibition and this year I thought I would spin a yarn designed just for the Hall. I have designed yarns before but not done it publically so to speak so here goes.
It will be a slow yarn! In the context of LMH by that I mean:
• I hope to enjoy the process of making the yarn as much (or more) than the yarn I produce
• I will enjoy talking to to visitors and I hope encourage visitors that they too can master spinning skills as I demonstrate what I am doing
• During the demonstrating I show how my spinning is the same and different from spinning in the past (linking with the history of the hall)
• The fleece will be sourced locally
• The colour will be ‘naturally dyed’ and where possible the plants will be gathered by me
• It will be a unique yarn that I have created