Cluckingham Palace, It begins.....

So we've had our chicken's for 10 weeks and their all laying and settling in nicely. At first we weren't sure how we would take to looking after our feathery friends but, we have no regrets and a day hasn't gone by where they haven't kept us amused. So with this in mind and after a long discussion me and hubby decided to move the current coop with our ladies in over onto the lawn and build a newer, bigger chicken coop and run which we've dubbed "Cluckingham or Peckingham Palace".

Now with the bigger build in mind comes the question are we going to have more chickens, well of course we are :D the question is what kind? well we're not really sure yet, however we've got our hearts set on having 3 little chicks and raising them, then when their old enough they can join the other ladies out in the palace. The only drawbacks of chicks? they may all turn out to be roosters, in which case we can't keep them all and I know that my brother would happily solve that problem for me, but the question is, could I stand aside and watch one or two or all three of my hand raised babies go to that big chicken coop in the sky? no probably not!! but then again the chances of them all being girls are the same in which case yaaaay!

I haven't really managed to take many photos as yet but I DID manage to take a photo of the space that we're going to build on (which is where the coop is in the "our new friends have moved in" post stood originally).



I'm really looking forward to posting week by week updates on the build is progressing right through to our current ladies moving in and to whatever we decide to do about their three new potential friends....keep tuned for more Chickeny updates :D

Fleece Washing 101

Ok, I know I've been absent for a really long time. It was mainly due to a horrendous study schedule, exams and whatnot, but now that I've officially finished college I'm BAAAAACK!!!

So I thought I'd kick off the summer in style and cover one of the most mundane jobs that we spinners either love or hate, washing a fleece. A few of my spinny friends sigh at the thought of washing a fleece, and although they want to do it sometimes to put it plainly they just can't be bothered to do it.

Now me on the other hand, I quite like it. it's down to personal preference I suppose, after all not every spinner wants to do the the entire "from sheep to knitted garment...bla bla bla" some of us love the convenience of just buying already scoured fleece or plain tops.

My first fleece washing experience was back in april where I bought a particular lovely fine white Shetland fleece. I'd previously looked up how to wash fleece and figured I was up to the challenge and so after scouting the fleeces I came back with the above mentioned lovely white fleece, and also went halves on a grey Shetland fleece with my travel buddy Snowberrylime.

I then got into a discussion with the lady selling the fleeces who was a wealth of knowledge, she happily went over the do's and don'ts and what you need and don't need.

So without any further blabbing on my part, here is my handy guide on how to get a fleece processed in a matter of hours....enjoy!

Firstly your going to need something to soak your fleece in, and by the way if your thinking "my bathtub or sink will do" HELL NO!!! just think of all the rubbish including poo and pee and god knows what else that's accumulated in your lovely fleece, not to mention the muchos amounts of dirt and lanolin. Now ask yourself, do you really want to use your sink or bathtub?....thought not!

What you need in order to proceed



In this picture I have 3 gorilla buckets or Truggs as their called, Rubber gloves ( are optional, I don't tend to use them as I'm not fussy)
Wool wash, I use Ecover Delicate wool wash, It costs £1.57 from Asda and tends to get my fleece really clean, I don't use fairy liquid as its a degreaser and makes fleece sticky, You need a detergent not a degreaser!
Plastic bag for putting the skirted bits of fleece in to throw away
Hottest tap water, (I have a hose from my sink in the kitchen outside to my buckets for convenience, not to mention its back friendly as I don't want to be lugging around buckets of water.
A pillow case to put the clean fleece in to spin cycle in your washing machine (check that your washer does a plain spin cycle as a rinse and spin cycle will be disasterous!!)


Step 1

so you've layed out your fleece and skirted it accordingly, any really trashy poopy bits and kempy parts of the fleece need to be discarded, this is what the plastic bag is for....

so heres a picture of my skirted fleece, its a Dorset horn cross Texel fleece...yummy!



Next you need to fill 2 of your buckets with hot tap water and a nice big squirt of wool wash detergent, once you've done this plop in your fleece and press it down into the water, then leave it soak for 10 mins

Mmmmm! look at that lovely stinky water....




Here's a close up....



So after about 10 minutes the water should still be hot, It's really important that you don't let the water cool as the lanolin will reform and reattach to the wool taking the dirt with it. You then need to put more soap into the third bucket and fill with hot water again, then you pick up the fleece from the water gently squeezing the water from it and then transferring it to the clean water.


Oooh! look at the grundgy water :D



Once you've done this empty the water from the bucket, refill and repeat with the second gorilla bucket full of fleece.

I tend to give my fleece three hot soapy soaks and one plain water rinse.

Check out my fleece in the rinse bucket, see how much cleaner the water is?



after the rinse soak, I then take out the fleece and squeeze out as much water as I can, I then place it into a pillowcase and then put it into my washing machine on a spin cycle.

Que the cheesy washing machine picture....how cool is my pillowcase?



Once the spin cycle has completed, lay out the fibre onto a clean blanket, (or whatever way you like to dry your fleece) and leave it to dry..

Et Voila!!



And a close-up of my lovely clean flufftastic fleece....



Lovely fluffy clean fleece, ready for carding, dyeing, spinning e.t.c.

Hope this helps, feel free to leave comments or questions, happy fleece washing :D

Our new Friends have moved in......

During the last three weeks, hubby has been working hard on building a chicken coop. We're not sure what made us decide that we wanted to keep chickens, maybe its because we're making an effort to grow our own fruit and veg and be a bit more self sufficient...who knows!

Hubby has worked for the last three weeks on designing and creating the perfect coop so that we would have very happy hens, he based his design on a triangular coop that he saw online and sized it up so that our girls would have plenty of room to roam.

Heres a look at the finished coop before our friends moved in....



We went out today after our next door neighbour who keeps an Aviary in his back garden advised us that he had been to a local pet centre where he was getting canaries saw chickens and thought of us. We were going to go to Mr Welshegg in Caerphilly but we decided to check out this pet centre in Glynneath first, without any real intention of getting chickens, just having a look....

Well it was love at first sight when I saw them, hubby knew there was no way of us leaving without chickens. The salesperson who sold the chickens was actually the farmer that raised them on his parents farm and then brought them into the centre, he advised us about lots of various things and advised if we didn't want too many eggs at once Calder Rangers are good because they spread out their laying, and also light Sussex's were good for this also.

So I had to choose the chickens, there were two brown and one white nestled together, how could I separate them? so decision made, we bought some sawdust, layers pellets and mixed corn and we were on our way.

We seat-belted up the birdie boxes and carefully drove home, there were lots of clucks and cackles on the way. I think hubby should drive with chickens in the car at all times as it was a much calmer, smoother ride :D

When we got home we put in the feeder and drinker and then let our babies loose, however Dotty and Betty our calder rangers were happy to be picked up and put in, Mildred our Light Sussex made a bid for freedom and jumped out of the box into hubby's hands....the bigger of the birds she was very nervous, so we then let them get used to their surroundings and settle in, watching from afar.


Heres a few photos of the Girls that I have taken.....their soo cute!!

Heres Dotty, If you look at her lower beak its longer than the top, so this is how I can distinguish her from Betty.




Heres Betty, she's the other Calder Ranger like Dotty.



And lastly but by no means least, here's Mildred our Light Sussex



Oh and what sort of person would I be if I didn't show me having a Dotty snuggle?



I hope our new friends settle in and enjoy being part of the family, I think its safe to say that their definitely NOT going to end up on the dinner table, but they are going to be the most spoilt chickens in South Wales, If I have my way :D

Wonderwool 2011....another success!

Yesterday I ventured out to Wonderwool Wales which is held at the Royal Welsh Show ground. Me and my travel buddy Snowberrylime, took off at 9am to get there in time for it to open at 10am.

I had a plan...well sort of! I decided that I wanted to try my hand at scouring a fleece, but in order to do this I needed to get there asap before all the good fleeces went.

Unfortunately Veronika was on a fleece ban, and previously I had promised to an "Intervention" if it looked like she was going to give in.....The only problem was I was practically rolling in the fleeces at this point so I totally left her unattended, and eventually she bought fleece....heck! I even went halves with her on a particularly lovely grey Shetland fleece. I also bought a 2nd prize white ultra fine shetland fleece, to spoil myself and my Elizabeth wheel, I plan to wash it and spin it super fine and see how much yardage I get and possibly knit a lace wrap with it.

Heres a Picture of my fleece's in the bags, their not the best pictures but when the fleeces are washed I'll take better pictures then.

the Grey Shetland Fleece;


The white Shetland fleece;



The other reason for me to go to Wonderwool this year was to visit my good friend Gypsydancer
as she had a stall there with her fabulous Yarn Bowls and other notions and she kindly offered to display some of my Yarn on her stall.....I kinda felt like a woolly Celebrity, ok well not quite but I was really chuffed to be part of her beautiful stall.

Heres a picture of an unsuspecting Tora with her stall :D



and here's a close up of some of my Yarn that was on sale that day, some mixed in with Snowberrylime's yarns too.



And a close up of my Sheepy sign and my favourite Art-yarn...Goldfish Bowl, with two of Snowberrylime's yarns in the background.



and one with a few of my yarns in the foreground,



So this years Wonderwool was that little more special to me this time because my yarn was being displayed and sold, onwards and upwards I always say :D

Creative Spinnig Workshop with Andrew Johnson.

I've been looking forward to attending this workshop since my friend Kirsten told me about it. I've been attending some of the meetings of the Glamorgan Spinners, Weavers and Dyers Guild, and when I was told about this workshop I put my name down Immediately.

Art Yarn is a personal favourite of mine so the idea of spinning crazy yarns from 10-4 was pure bliss. Tora, a friend and also a relatively new spinner also attended, hoping to improve her 3 week old spinning technique and also get some intensive spinning experience.

We started off spinning huge yarn from raw fleece, the idea was just to get it as big as you could and try to resist the urge to draft the fibre too much!! not a problem for me as I adore super bulky yarns. I can't remember the fibre that was used, all I could remember was its rough texture and adoring its lovely mixed brown colour, it was rough, scratchy and dirty.....awesome!!!

The second yarn we had to spin was with raw Wensleydale fleece, still damp and a little sticky, but Both me Tora and Kirsten were ready to get in there!! Sticky fleece was slightly gross, but considering some of my immediate family are from down south...I couldn't let the side down!!

The plan was to ply said scratchy brown yarn with said sticky Wensleydale....job done!!
Although, bummer as I forgot to take a photo...bad Bekka!

Next on the Agenda was Bouclé... now I can't really say that I am a fan of it, however its one yarn I had yet to spin so I was open to suggestions. I used some of the single that I had left over from spinning Buddy the Christmas Elf and used that as the pretty part of the bouclé. The other singles that were used were a mixture of organic merino and milk protein that were spun in advance of Andy's workshop.

We consumed copious amounts of tea and in the afternoon Andy decided to let us loose on some crazy carding, in order to spin up some luuurvely singles which will then be super-coiled into a cute necklace.

Here's a photo of my newly spun single


and here's another look, check out those lovely shreds of fabric, yummy yummy!



All in all, it was a fantastic day, I thoroughly enjoyed meeting the ladies at the Guild and getting to know them a little better, at the end Andy graciously agreed to pose for a picture for me.

p.s I'm wearing my pretty super-coiled necklace :D

A new year and a new wheel!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone.

Well as Christmas's come and go I have to say that this Christmas I think that due to the horrific weather everyone who wasn't able to go out and shop as learned a valuable lesson (no, not go and do it earlier) but that Christmas is NOT about presents. I like to think that for this reason this Christmas was more about the things that are more important...family time :D

Hubby however decided to get me a new spinning wheel for Christmas which was awesome, however due to the crappy weather my new baby didnt turn up until December the 30th which was a lovely post-Christmas surprise.

My new wheel is a .....(drumroll)......an Ashford Country Spinner..WOOOOOOOP!!

So far I've spun up 4 lovely skeins of yarn and am seriously in love with the double treadle, I think a trip to Fiddies in Cardiff is in order soon as I really want to get a wax to finish the wheel (even though I should really have done this before I put it together..oops!)

Also, Hubby was only saying that Christmas isnt the same without having to put something together while someone bounces around over excited...wrong!! that was me when he was doing my wheel :D. Poor hubby was so serious because he didn't want to mess anything up and he had me bouncing around like Tigger in the background asking "Is it done yet?"

Aaaaaanyhow enough of my ramblings heres a photo of my new baby..



I'snt he puuurdy? the two marks on the pedal to the left are where I oiled the hinges, because the wood is so dry its kinda sucked up the moisture...do'h. Thats why I need to get wax and finish him :D

And lastly but not least here are a few shots of my new "yarn babies" that I spun using my new wheel.


Blank Canvas, a bulky spun merino yarn 162yds




Souk Market, Merino and Angelina - Chunky spun yarn 228yds



Caramel - Chunky spun Merino and Firestar - 145yds



And lastly, Zombie - chunky spun Merino with Angelina - 158yds



Stay tuned for more yarny adventures :D