Margaret Miller

Some of the spinning I've been doing during the Giro live broadcast. Thanks to SBS Australia and the Cycling Central team we're one of only four countries with this privilege. Is anyone else doing this warmup for the Tour de Fleece?

With all the fleeces I've been washing lately it certainly feels like a cottage industry in process if not quite a fully fledged wool scour. I don't have a studio space in this house so most of the washing has to be done in the kitchen sink. While the laundry tub is bigger, the laundry itself is tiny and so it's unsuitable. In the last couple of weeks I've scoured 2 full merino fleeced and half a corriedale, as well as washing 2 full alpaca fleeced. I have a problem with the dust that alpacas dearly love so even these have to be washed before carding or combing. The alpaca fleece in the photo wash the last bucket full - I only just remembered in time to take a picture. It's from Persius and is 23 microns. Yes it's very soft and a gorgeous colour.

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Great excitement as we paused to do some geocaching on the long drive home from NW Tasmania the other day. It was such a glorious day after all the wind we have had we just had to get out of the car and do a short walk near the Table Cape Lighthouse. But not only was the day wonderful – right near the geocache a patch of Weld was growing . This is a dye used by the Romans to make yellow (probably even earlier, but I think the references can be traced at least that far).   I brought some stems home, unfortunately the flowers were only just forming so the plant is a bit young for getting the best colour and definitely no seeds for me to plant some at home. However, into the dye pot it went I brought it up to simmering point then turned off the heat and let it steep until cool (overnight). Strained the dye out the next day and added an unmordanted pre-wetted skein of handspun. I brought this up to simmering and again let it steep overnight. It’s not quite the yellow I imagin...

Three beanies and a cowl are some of my recent finished objects. All handspun using various textual techniques. The cowl is a crepe yarn from hand dyed tops. The mauve and white started life as two normal singles then I added tufts of colour during plying and then I chain plied it all again. The bluish beanie is a chained thick and thin. The sunburned one is s cable yarn. They're all lovely and soft as Australian superfine merino is and they've been wonderful to work with.

The farm where I bought the roving I've used is no longer going to produce any. I can't say I blame them - I find it unbelievable that there are so few opportunities in Australia to get small batch processing done. Even the ones that are left are all closing down. I don't think any of our commercial wool is processed here either - most of that goes to China and then comes back again. Why???? Anyway. There are two colours here and I decided that if I combine them in a 3-ply there will be enough for one last jumper. The lower two bobbins are a mid brown and the top one on the flyer is oatmeal. The tatty looking one on the right is thanks to my cat. I accidentally left it on the floor over night and she had a great deal of fun with it. As it is true roving (not top) I've tried to maintain the fluffy light woollen nature of it although there were more noils than I would normally want. The two brown singles were spun "S" and the oatmeal is "Z...

I love the whole notion of postmodern learning - sometimes described as random and nomadic - so to celebrate I'm sharing with you today's find. It's a very quick beanie/hat and if I end up making it I'll even learn to make bobbles. Finally. Funny thing though, I'm not too sure if I like them here. Any thoughts?

Fine merino on the left is sopping wet and ready for a rinse. There's a slight smell but not as strong as I supposed it might be. Perhaps late autumn impeded the process. It was soaking for about a fortnight I think. The bath water is now ready for the batch of Corriedale. I've had this fleece a while and it's quite sticky so it will be interesting to see what happens. The instructions I'm using are from Wool Ewe. . .

The guild is inviting people to come and try spinning. It's a great idea because people will get to use our equipment instead of having to beg borrow or buy a wheel which may or may not be in working order. To help the day along we've decided that we'll do all the preparation beforehand. Again this means our visitors can try spinning without worrying about extra procedures or paraphernalia. These are the batts I've done so far, more tomorrow. Some of my friends prefer greasy wool so they will flick card some fleece as well. It all benefits the new spinner because they'll get to see two preparations and perhaps respond more to one than the other.

Just add water , a photo by MargieBaa on Flickr. Via Flickr: The first step in the Fermented Suint Method for washing fleece. Superfine merino to get it going. We're using Wool Ewe's instructions mozfiberlife.wordpress.com/fsm/ as closely as possible. +Janet Knoop instigated this little exercise :) Oh and that two tone look - that's actually the dirty tips next to the shorn butts, same fleece.

Corriedale , originally uploaded by MargieBaa . After 1hr this is as far as I got with the Corriedale which my friend flicked for me. It's been a long time since I did any serious spinning in the grease.

Weekend Sweater: the back , originally uploaded by MargieBaa . Weekend Sweater: the back

picplz_upload , originally uploaded by MargieBaa . Wool and bamboo handspun and knit scarf.

Randomly spinning small quantities of tops then Navaho plying them to maintain the colour separations has created a beret with circles. The pattern by Diane Mulholland is freely available on Ravelry and can be used with all types of yarns because it is based on a swatch. It was knitted in the round starting at the brim and working inwards. Approx 12 wpi.