Tour De Fleece 2025
07.18.2025
I didn't really set any Tour De Fleece goals, though I'm slowly approaching the end of my first year spinning and I'm mostly just reflecting on my growth. Wish I kept more pics of my early yarn but here's what I've been working on:
Here's all the yarn I got from the first pass of combing Quintana's fleece. About 1150 yards of 2-ply fingering weight yarn.
I didn't take any pics of the final yarn, but here are the singles for the 484 yards of 2-ply light fingering weight from Sugar's first pass of combing.
This is from a braid of BFL and silk I got from Lair of the Llama. It's pretty and soft and I'm hoping to eventually use it for colorwork. About 500ish yards as well of 2-ply fingering weight
Another Lair of the Llama braid, this time a rainbow tweed. I think it's over 400 yards of an almost worsted weight? Was a little tedious to spin, but well worth it. Next time I'd be more particular about how I spin it so the colors don't muddy up.
And the last of my spins, some cotton singles from my Bosworth Charkha. Hopefully it's spun well enough that I can weave it as just singles. Also photo courtesy of my flip phone. Recently switched to a cuuute Kyocera Digno 4 bc I can't stand smartphones rn, and I'm enjoying it lots.
xoxo gospel girl
Wool Combing
06.07.2025
My combs came in!! They're from Bam Fiber Works and I cannot recommend them enough. It took me a day to actually figure out how to use them.
And dizzing it off was a whole other issue, but once I got that down I was producing beautiful combed top!!
It was so quick to spin too, and I'm surprised how fine I was able to get. I know warping my loom will be a pain because of the amount of threads I'm going to need. Now I have to spin every bit of white and light grey in the fleece so I can make my wool cloth to embroider.
I wish I washed the whole fleece earlier because now I have to wait for it to dry for a day or two before I can get back to combing!! I also had a bad habit of combing and immediately spinning it instead of doing all of the combing first. I enjoy both processes though so it's been a super exciting thing to add to my practice.
xoxo gospel girl
Fiber Art Tests
05.24.2025
So I did some spinning of Quintana's fleece. Washing was... something. I left some of the lanolin in the fleece, and I like it tbh, keeps my hands soft. Hopefully it doesn't gunk up my wheel long term
Here's what I have right now on the bobbin, its relatively thin and will be 2-ply. Gonna weave it into some evenweave fabric so that I can do drawn/pulled thread embroidery for the lace veil. I've just given up on knit lace because it doesn't have the rhythm I love. Have to read a chart for each row and you can't really get into a flow state.
I did some teeny tiny tests of drawn thread embroidery on linen using what wool thread I have right now. Even with these small samples I know I MUCH prefer working this way over the knit lace. I also like the stitches more than what can be achieved with knits. The pattern in the top left (when done properly) looks a bit like confessional dividers and I looooove it. I'm still working on the overall design, but I believe it'll be fruitful!! The veil will not be abandoned, just a new technique.
Also I caved and ordered some wool combs bc I also cannot stand spinning from the cloud and I want some combed top!!! I also think a worsted spun yarn would be good for this project.
Still early in my summer vacation, so I'll share more as it comes. Been playing a lot of Marvel Rivals instead of working on this tbh.
xoxo gospel girl
First Fleeces!!
05.02.2025
I just ordered some Shetland fleeces on Ebay and these are the girls:
Sugar
Quintana
I'm super excited to do my first wool processing project!! I will be making a comb out of some scrap wood and nails so I can do a true worsted yarn.
Quintana is gonna be cleaned and spun first, hopefully to make a Shetland lace veil as part of my thesis. I'm combining wool processing, mortification, and Shetland traditions I think.
Currently trying to research lace patterns so I can draft my own chart. Not 100% sure what sort of motifs I want but the fleece got delayed in transit so... i have more time
xoxo gospel girl
Needlejuice, Needlejuice, Needlejuice
04.21.2025
They're multiplying!!! I'm loving the intersection between functional objects/craft/vampire stakes that's beginning to happen
So far I've made some in walnut, redheart, aromatic cedar, and maple(?). Most of it is scrap from the woodshop, tho I did buy a few turning blanks.
These are some simple, quick tools but there is an immense satisfaction in making something that I can use. And the fact that these have been made for how many thousands of years makes me feel like I'm participating in something bigger than myself.
also they're just fun to make teehee
xoxo gospel girl
More Carved Needles
04.13.2025
I rapid fired these darning needles. They were so fun to carve, especially the wool needles!! I used my own handspun cotton as the loop, and set it in place with a sterling silver rivet. Much better than those aluminum needles that are just crimped down onto a nylon cord.
I tested them all out and the smaller needles + the wool needles work quite well with some DK weight fabric I knit up and some of my handwoven fabrics. The larger ones are prob best for nalbinding or looser/bulkier fabrics.
I learned a looooot about wood grain carving these. I tried carving some with the grain perpendicular to the shape of the needle and it was soooo awful. I'm sure them being parallel increases its strength, tho I know they're still brittle.
Def gonna keep making these in different woods (these are walnut) and mayhaps sell a few if there's interest.
also happy homestuck day
xoxo gospel girl
Nalbinding Needles
04.11.2025
I was interested in giving nalbinding a try so I carved a couple needles out of walnut. I spent all last night trying to get the foundation going, but I don't think this craft is for me. I don't even like the fabric it creates that much. I think I'll stick with knitting as it became instantly clear it was much faster and forgiving.
Regardless, they're so charming and I'll be using them for my miscellaneous sewing needs. It was fun to carve and I want to make sooo many more in different shapes and sizes.
xoxo gospel girl
TC2: Handweaving on a Digital Loom
04.09.2025
I finally got around to using Cranbrook's TC2 loom last week. Despite my current aversion to modern technology, this was a great opportunity for me to examine my own practice in colleting physical media.
My pitch for the loom was weaving a textile that served as digital storage, an external hard drive of sorts. Weaving and computers share history as the jacquard loom was kind of the first computer. Lifting warp threads was binary, up or down.
Using this principle, I decided to take all of my favorite media and archive it onto a piece of fabric. I converted the text of scripts, lyrics, and book passages into binary using UTF-8 encoding. Every 8 warp threads would be 1 character!
Usually TC2 files are .tiffs made on Photoshop or something, converting an image into something readable by the loom. To translate the binary directly into an image file I first had to make a .pbm file in some fancy notepad app and open it in Gimp to see it visually. From there I could convert that into a .tiff and weave away.
It was quite easy determining what favorite media of mine was worth making more "permanent", as this will probably outlive any USB. That being said, I started to realize all the ways this fabric will get corrupted. Snags, stains, tears, moths, tension issues while weaving. It ended up being a lot more similar to digital storage than I thought.
The TC2 loom itself being 44" weaving width was a bit of an adjustment, given I've only woven 25" width at this point. I had to stand most of the time because my wingspan wasn't big enough to sit comfortably. There was also this pedal to press when advancing the warp that was a bit fussy. I would have to stop and feel around for it while working. I never wanted to leave my foot resting on it because I was afraid I'd advance the warp while the shuttle was inside the warp. It was still exciting to work in a new way and build up a more detailed fabric much more quickly than I could on my own loom. And I didn't have to set up a 90 EPI warp.
What I ended up with was this marled fabric that looked a lot like TV static. It's an illegible mess that would be incredibly tedious to actually convert back into something readable. Within that mess though are many things I love, waiting to be decrypted.
robbie@Loom:~/media$ ls
ReadMe theCatInTheHat FabulousMuscles MemnochTheDevil TheVampireLestat WharfHorse WorldWharfII TheEsteemsters
Also the file extensions in my made up fabric computer are .txtiles which I think is hilarious
xoxo gospel girl
Yet Another Blog Reset
04.09.2025
Every time I read anything on my blog I cringe and delete it all. I should add a counter honestly.
My second semester is almost over and I decided to update some pages on my site so I can visualize how much I've actually accomplished this year.
Grad school is tough, and it has yet to be revealed to me what I am gaining by being here (except monthly loan repayments), but I am trying to keep it together and continue making things that spark joy.
I would like to be uploading more consistently on here, so my goal is to make all of my research coherent & post it, maybe make a separate page or incorporate some navigational tools on this page. tbd.