And yes, you did read that correctly, two clubs. Early this year I put together the numbers on something I’d wanted to try for a long time – a sock-specific fibre club. Quite a few people were interested and I decided to trial it for 3 months.

The fibres have been:

February 2012 ‘Acacia’ on ‘shrink resistant’ Alpaca/Superwash Merino/Nylon

March 2012 ‘Sunburn’ on Superwash BFL/Mohair/Silk

April 2012 ‘Sphinx Rock’ on Superwash Cheviot/Nylon

(this fibre has only just been posted out to club members. Click here to see the spoiler picture)

I intend to share the results and reviews of the first 3 fibres in future blog posts.

I’ve been participating in the club as well and have spun up the first and most of the second parcel.

The club has been so well received that I have decided to do it for another 3 months. I’m taking on new subscribers, so if you are interested in playing along for ‘phase two’ of the sock fibre club click here (and scroll down a bit).

I couldn’t be bothered to wash 2kg fleece lock-by-lock, so I asked for some tips on Ravelry and decided to try scouring it in larger batches. I bought myself a net laundry bag and put a few handfulls of fleece in to it. Then I put the washbag in some almost-boiling water along with some cheap laundry liquid. I did a second wash and then a rinse, both in almost-boiling water (as hot as I could get from a tap and then a just-boiled kettle full)

The fleece came out beautifully soft and grease-free.

I then used these combs that I have borrowed from a friend. These are bigger than the Majacraft combs I borrowed from the guild a few months ago. And sharper. They’re really too big to use handheld, but they came with clamps and I have them set up against a bench at a good working height.

They can process a lot more at once than the Majacraft combs too.

When I used the Majacraft mini-combs I followed Sue Macniven’s video. For these larger combs I use a technique more like the one shown in this video.

This time I used a proper diz too! The hand-combed top that I made looks really lovely!

I haven’t actually spun any of it yet!

I think it’s time I invested in a set of combs of my own. I was given a little bit of money for my birthday a few weeks ago so I think I’ll buy combs with it. I’d ideally like something between the size of the Majacraft and these large combs. I have my eye on Valkyrie mini-combs, especially while the Aussie Dollar is so high against the USD and the GBP.

‘Castle Crag’ on grey merino/black bamboo

‘Hollick’ on superwash cheviot/bamboo (this blend would be great for socks)

‘Redgum’ on superwash cheviot/bamboo

‘Lyrebird’ on Tasmanian Cormo. I am mostly custom-dyeing the cormo so please contact me if you would like a particular colourway.

Un-named blue/purple on Falkland

I am trying to build up the stock in the shop, but my new part-time ‘day job’ is cutting in to the time I can spend dyeing. I now work at the local Spotlight craft (and many other things) store. So far it has been good and I have resisted making too many purchases or getting in to new crafts (although the pretty scrapbooking papers are tempting me!).

On new year’s eve we spent the day at my aunt and uncle’s house about an hour’s drive from Hobart. Theirs is the ‘beach house’ that inspired the name of my fibre club’s december fibre.

It was so warm that I was talked in to going for a swim in the sea. It was absolutely freezing, but also great because I haven’t swum in the sea for at least 4 years (probably longer). I lasted 5 minutes in the water before I had to get out.

The weather has been even warmer since then with a heatwave with temps in the high 30′s and even up to 40C on the mainland. Here in Tassie it got to 29C yesterday, but that didn’t stop me from spinning, washing fleece and dyeing.

I’ve been spinning my test dye of the colourway I mentioned earlier – Beach House. I didn’t have a lot of the intended base fibre (Victorian Bond) so I test dyed it on Tasmanian Corriedale.

I then dyed some more tas corrie in a semi-solid dark purple (Hollick colourway)

I plied the two together and I’m quite pleased with the results.

I’ve been dyeing a bit of the cormo top. My test dye was in my ‘Lyrebird’ colourway.

The fibre is so fine I was worried I’d felt it. But it is fine and has taken the dye really nicely. The top has a slight sheen, a little like BFL has. I am still taking custom dye orders for this gorgeous fibre.

I hope your new year has been as woolly as mine has been

On Friday two fleecy presents arrived. First was the Bond fleece I mentioned a few posts ago.

There’s about 300g of this chocolate brown

And also 1.7kg of one that was labelled ‘fawn’ on the web site but when I pulled out a staple of each colour they looked fairly similar.

I washed the first batch this morning – because of course that’s what you do on Christmas day!

I also received several kilos of Tasmanian Cormo top.

It’s as I expect – like a beautifully fine merino top, but with a MUCH longer staple and a gorgeous fine crimp (sorry this isn’t the best photo – it was a bit hard to photograph)

I’m still taking custom-dye orders for the Cormo.

I’m going to wash and comb the bond, and I plan on making a cardigan or jumper from the yarn.

My combed polwarth from a few posts ago became my finest spinning ever.

I got 252m from 12 grams. For longest thread competition purposes, that is 210m, for 10g which is a length I’m quite happy with. I am considering entering it.

Here’s a comparison shot with my previous finest on the left (cormo from fleece) and the Polwarth on the right.

Merry, woolly, fleecy Christmas everyone!

More information on the club sign-up page along with a gallery of recent colourways.

I made a collage of some of my favourites below, and you can see this month’s spoiler picture here.

The club has been going for 2 and a half years now and I still enjoy the challenge of creating new blends, sourcing unusual breeds and developing new colourways. Some of my favourites are former club colourways.

And after this long the most difficult part each month is giving the colourway a name!

Bond fleece/wool is usually finer and longer-stapled than corrie.

The top dyed up beautifully, resulting in these braids, added to the shop over the weekend.

After receiving the top, I found out the supplier also had some beautiful natural-colour fleeces available.

So I decided to order 2 kilos, hopfully enough for a jumper/cardigan. I’m not sure if I will wash lock-by-lock like I did with the Cormo and Polwarth, but I will definitely be combing it.

If it looks fine enough (when it arrives in the post) I may also try a longest-thread practice with it.

For a longest thread entry that would make it around 160 metres for 10 grams. I was initially a bit disappointed because I was hoping to get over at least 200 metres for my entry. But then I realised that if I spun 100g at that thickness that would give me 1600 metres. And it’s still the finest yarn I’ve spun so far.

I lined it up with my other two finest yarns:

L-R: hand-combed Cormo, 11 grams, 181 metres; Tasmanian ‘Ringrove’ top, 35 grams 291 metres; hand-combed fine merino, 7 grams, 82 metres.

I’d still like my entry to be finer (well longer). So I started washing more fleece. As well as more of the cormo, I decided to try this Polwarth. The wool felt a little coarse and stiff in the grease, but I think this was because the lanolin had hardened  a little (I’m guessing it was shorn several years ago).

However once washed it’s soft and gorgeous. It’s almost as fine as the cormo and it has a 15cm / 6 inch staple length.

Once again I followed the combing instructions I learned from this video by Sue Macniven who I believe won the longest thread competition one year.

I hired the Hobart guild’s Majacraft 2-row minicombs again.

I’m still not a big fan of lock-by-lock washing but I’ve started to really enjoy combing, and the finished preparation is gorgeous to spin with. These combs are small enough to handle easily without having to be clamped to a table. I’ve been combing in front of the TV.

I’m hoping the longer staple of the Polwarth will help me get just that little bit finer!

Luckily I still have around 12 months to keep practicing until I’m happy with my entry.

I spun it as fine as I could without trying too hard. I ended up with 290 metres of yarn from my 35g. This equates to just over 800 metres per 100g which is as fine as a millspun heavy laceweight. Until now the finest I’ve ever spun was 363 metres from 50g of laceweight singles.

It compares quite well to my longest thread practices, although this photo was taken before I washed the Ringrove.

My other main projects at the moment are the samples for a new shawl pattern. I love this blue!

I’m writing a large and a small version – hopefully the small one can be done from one skein of Malabrigo Lace.

The blue shawl makes a nice background for my new toy – a Kindle!

I love the Kindle, I seem to be reading so much more since I got it.

Clockwise from top-left: Bilby; Sunburnt Country; Copperhead; First Light (all optim); Wild Dog Creek (merino); Iron Pot Bay (merino). The merino colourways are in in two pieces but they’re all well over 100 grams.