Oh My Fiber- CMV/Romeldale

I got some unwashed CVM fiber  to play with this week.

washed CVM

So much tiny crimp! I love it!

 I love this fiber it feels bouncy, springy, and next to skin soft. I want to call it sproufty (I know that isn’t a word but it should be).  As you can see it is a bit stained so I want to dye it.

CVM all dyed up.

I dyed this with cushings acid dyes in purple and I love how the color took in the different spots. I’m thinking about handcarding this fiber as my drum carder may be a bit too harsh for that delicate crimp.

It even dyed where it was stained.

I grabbed my cotton carders and started making rolags or rologs depending how you were taught.

Charging the carder.

Carded CVM

 Don’t they look great? Here’s a close up.

Picture courtesy of tentrilandtwine on flickr

When I first heard CVM I wondered what it meant, so you know, I had to look it up. It seems that CVM is a rare sub-species of the Romeldale sheep. CVM has a unique coloring.

Reverse Badger-faced romeldale by morgsarah

Here is a bit of history about the CVM breed. Romeldale was a breeding of Romney sheep and rambouillet sheep. The original breeding was to make a rambouillet breed with a nicer fleece and  better carcass quality. The breed of romeldale sheep was born.

White Romeldale by wsumgdriver on flickr

There are 2 varieties of Romeldales, White and Natural Colored. White Romeldales should have entirely white fleeces. They may have spots on their face, ears, or legs. Natural Colored Romeldales can be solid, reverse badger, and can have spots (which are particularly prevalent on their faces). They may also have darker legs than their body.

Colored Romeldale by morgsarah on flickr

CVM actually stands for California Variegated Mutant. The body standards are the same as for romeldale with the exception of the coloring. They must have badger markings …they can have color and spots everywhere else as well.

CVM Lamb by morgsarah on flickr

Fleece is pretty soft around 20-24 microns and about 3 to 6 inches long. I did pick up some fleece that I am washing , dyeing and spinning for wednesday’s blog post.

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It’s been  cold windy week. The chickens haven’t been making daily trips to the house for bread. They want to stay in the warm barn with the other animals. However, today they came out for a spell.

 I worked up a bit of the cotswald for you to see.

white ram

grey lamb

 A quick note it was interesting to find out what Cotswold means. The word cotswold comes from wolds which means ” hills” and cotes which means ” enclosures” which were housing for the sheep, meaning the wolds of the sheep cotes.

Plied together

Here are a few pictures of the animals enjoying their daily treat.

Francois, Romeo and Gavin

I was able to get my hands on some cotswold ram (white) and cotswold lamb(dark grey).  The fiber didn’t feel really soft(merino soft) but it was soft enough to press to my neck and I had no itches(at least for the few minutes that I did that) but it was crisp and spongy.

I found that the lamb was a bit compacted maybe because it was so much finer.

As you can see it dyes just beautifully. I used cushings acid dyes in wine. The exact same dyebath for them both and I love how they turned out. The darker is still a bit damp so no spinning pics today.

white ram wool

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Beautiful sheep! Courtesy of cotswold wool on flickr

Cotswold sheep are a breed  of sheep originating in the Cotswold hills of the southern midlands of England. It is a dual-use breed. I like the wool part best:)

Cotswold curls, Courtesy of MadKnits on flickr

 Those are some scrumptious locks! I have such itchy fingers. Cotswold is considered a coarse wool, usually between 32 and 40 microns, and has the greatest range of grades (38 to 48) found in the long-wool breeds. Usually the tighter the curls the finer the fiber. Cotswold fleece hangs in locks. The fibers have a lustrous, silky sheen and a slightly golden colored wool. This trait gave them the nickname of the “Golden Fleece Breed,” and the luster of Cotswold wool has also caused it to be called “poor man’s mohair.”(info from the Cotswold Breeders Association).

I wonder how much that fleece weighed. picture courtesy of bad*wolf* on flickr

The sheep have a  heavy forelock falling over the face is a characteristic of the breed. The fleece has an eight to twelve inch staple length and weighs thirteen to fifteen pounds, with ram fleeces weighing more. Hairs or kemp should be absent in the wool. The fleece will mat or become cotted rather easily and unless it is kept clean and in good condition may become somewhat unsightly. Because the wool is so long and naturally parts along the sheep’s spine, hard cold rains can cause health problems, though low temperatures and heavy snows do not trouble them.

I had to look up cotted as it is a term I had never seen used so here is the dictionary definition.

Cotted-said of wool which has become matted or felted while on the sheep, due usually to continuous wetting.

Ewe and her 2 lambs by Cotswold wool on flickr

Until recently, only white sheep were eligible for registration in the Cotswold breed. CBA now registers natural colored Cotswolds as well as whites. These sheep are called black but their colors vary across a beautiful range of silver, bluish gray, and charcoal shades and are much in demand by handspinnners and other fiber artists.

The Cotswold is a large, polled breed, with ewes weighing up to 200 pounds and rams 300 pounds. The ewes are excellent mothers, with few birthing problems and quick to accept lambs. They are a very friendly sheep and there is definitely a queenly quality about the ewes.

Jimmy and the barn cat. Courtesy of Cotswold wool on flickr

Awwww animals are too cute!

Well it’s Friday the 13th, one of 3 this year there will be one in April and one in July. There is bad luck associated with this day. Although no one ever told me why. So I did some research.

Donald Dossey, founder of the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, North Carolina and folklore historian found that fear of Friday the 13th is rooted in ancient, separate bad-luck associations with the number 13 and the day Friday. The two unlucky entities ultimately combined to make one super unlucky day.

Dossey traces the fear of 13 to a Norse myth about 12 gods having a dinner party at Valhalla, their heaven. In walked the uninvited 13th guest, the mischievous Loki. Once there, Loki arranged for Hoder, the blind god of darkness, to shoot Balder the Beautiful, the god of joy and gladness, with a mistletoe-tipped arrow.

Balder died and the whole Earth got dark. The whole Earth mourned. It was a bad, unlucky day,” said Dossey. From that moment on, the number 13 has been considered ominous and foreboding.

I guess if I was Norse I might consider it unlucky then.

However this Friday the 13th, I have cool knitterly and fibery things to share with you.

How about some thick and thin yarn wrapped with sewing thread. Or maybe my first try at corespinning.

Remember how I said I was on a headband /neckwarmer bender(the lower yarn is already one as of right now).

The neckwarmers and headbands above are a small portion of the ones I’ve been making. Most of them I gave away.

Here is some great new yarn that will be going into the shop. This is the fiber from the natural dyes I did a few months ago. You can check out that post here.

This a new pattern that will be available soon.

Maude looks lovely doesn’t she?

While your checking out the goodies remember to sign up with the rss feed and check out the weekly newsletter.

What a cute Christmas display!

 I wanted to let you know I did have some knitterly fun while I was in PA. There wasn’t many places to go beside the box store like. Joann, A.C. Moore, or Micheals.  That is similar to Maine(chuckle).

The lovey and talent Glenda (she enabled the heck outta me).

Anyway I found the cutest LYS in Muncy, PA (close enough to mom’s that you didn’t have to drive an hour like you used to here).  I met Glenda and some of her knitters. What a lovely time and what lovely people.

Can you tell what the curtain rod is?

The curtain rods were hand made by one of the ladies in the shop. 

I love these felted handbags.

Bearcreek in blackberry tart colorway

Berroco flicker 2 skeins lt. blue

louisa harrding grace hand dyed #7

 I ganked the last photo from thumbelina on Rav. I fell down the steps monday evening and hurt all over trying to make my trips up and down as little as possible. I also bought my mother a skein of yarn. I’m trying to have her try other yarns than red heart. So she got a nice skein of brown wool. I think she was hit by sticker shock and wouldn’t pick one out so I picked on out for her.

Oh and one last thing if your fellow blogger reading this and like to do contests check out the cool tool that does it for you.

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Don’t worry I’m not tossing out the Hubs, he’s a keeper being stash and animal friendly. I don’t make new years resolutions. I think it’s asking for failure.  I make lifestyle changes. Sometimes they are temporary sometimes they are permanent. I did try to exercise. It didn’t work for 2 reasons. Number 1, I hate exercise, Number 2 I have a bum hip. I decide to jump on a mini trampoline while listening to my favorite knitting podcasts. It was lovely it, took care of Number 1. However Number 2 didn’t do so well. My hip is worse than ever I need to see my osteopath again. So maybe some power yoga? or pilates? Ideas?

I also have doing alot of cleaning up and clearing out. My work room has changed significantly. Here it is all neat and tidy for me to work.

Nice and Organized!

I’ve  also found something was wrong with the coding for my last contest so I will try again in a few weeks. So what good is tweeting and facebooking and telling everyone about your contest if they can’t enter… I was bummed.

Except for the dirty little secret , 37 fleeces that need to be washed.

I’ve started on a new venture to find some test knitters. We will see how this turns out. I went to skillpages and put out a call so far 18 people have applied. This will be interesting.

And just to show some eye candy…….

Pretty Batts

and pics of cute fuzzy animals….

Ms. Fluffy sleeps wherever she wants!

pics of yarny goodness….

natural handspun

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Now for the gift to you. In the spirit of season I’ve been designing and I was so enamored with this crochet stitch. I made several crochet mobius headbands and quick neckwarmers.

Supplies: Super bulky yarn, I’ve used moda dea swerve, bear creek by kraemer yarns, and Malabrigo rasta, on split stitch marker, and one size q crochet hook

need to know abbreviations: ch=chain, hdc=half-double crochet, st=stitch

Pattern:

Ch 27 for small head 30 for larger head if you need to go larger you can just add a multiple of 3 stitches.

Row one: hdc in the 3rd chain from hook, ch1, hdc in the same stitch, *skip 2 ch stitches, hdc,ch1,hdc in the same st* to last 3 stitches skip 2, end with hdc.

Now to make it moebius lay the crochet flat and put the ends together.

Now flip one end and attach with a slip stitch. I also weave the starting strand into the the end so as not to get confused later.

Round 1: ch2, add stitch marker into chain 2, find the first stitch were you see 2 sts in the beginning chain. hdc,ch1,hdc in this stitch, continue in this manner until you come to to the end where you see your ch2 and marker. put 1 hdc in the stitch before the ch2 and slip stitch into chain 2, cut yarn , weave in ends. Pretty simple eh?

I made a bunch of these for me and found it you repeated round 1 a second time you could get a very pretty neckwarmer. The fact that I could make one  in 20 minutes was gratifying. I ended up crocheting them everywhere I went, even giving one to the dental hygenist (I had enough time to crochet one while waiting at the dentist).

I just wanted to share some of the goodies some yarny some not that my family and friends gifted me with this year and I wanted to share a gift with you a new pattern that will be available in the next post.

Dwayne and the kids got me a lovely santa, a new set of headphones for my computer and the freedom flyer I had been wanting for my Ashford joy.

I also recieved a beautiful yarn bowl from my dear friend Medora.

I had also received the coolest gift ever. The last gift my grandfather ever gave me. He wanted me to get my teeth fixed. He wanted to pay the entire co-pay amount.  I’ve been having something done about every week. I will have to go in for major oral surgery soon(not looking forward to that but the results will be worth it). So soon I can show my new camera ready smile. Thanks Grandad.