Chair Seats – Cats Who’ve Owned Me Series – 1

Since I can’t take the afternoon heat lately, I’ve been working (finally) on a set of chair seats in honor of cats who have owned me.  The first one (described in this post) is Sandy and Rori looking out the window.  I used my homespun and millspun hand dyed yarns, all of which are wool/ mohair blends (details).  The backing is 100% cotton Monk’s Cloth.

I designed Blue Skies yarn with variegated blues and a bit of white here and there to look like the sky in weaving and rug hooking.  Similarly I designed Forest Dreams with primarily greens and a bit of blue to be used in weaving and rug hooking for broad expanses of trees or a forest with just a hint of sky poking through.  Here it is used for carpeting or a reflection of the outside grass.

 

View from the House Chair Seat

“View from the House” Chair Seat

View From the House Chair Seat - Closeup of Sky, Clouds and Bird

Closeup of Sky, Clouds and Bird

View from the House Chair Seat - Closeup of Grass and Edging

Closeup of Grass and Edging

 Learnings

For this size “rug” (roughly 16″ x 14″), not much detail will show.  Next in the series will  be designed with less detail and the lettering will be made larger to show more clearly.

The Monk’s Cloth used was found hiding in my fabric stash (price was right!), but since it was 8×8 epi it was difficult to use for rug hooking.  The design came out but it took more time and yarn than it should have because the yarn did not always stick into the fabric evenly.  It was also hard to get the tension correct.  After some searching I located 12-13 epi cotton Monk’s Cloth and ordered some for the rest of the series.  The best price I found was from Earth Guild at $14/ yard (60 inch wide).  The 8epi cloth was $4/ yard!  It was not easy to find the right epi cloth because most web sites don’t list epi in the description.

Yarns Used

Info on the yarns used is given below.  The picture links to the full description and creation details for the yarn where available.

Sky: Sky Blue Millspun Yarn  Sky Blue Hand Dyed (After Spinning) Millspun. Designed to look like sky with variegated blues for use in weaving and rug hooking.
 Grass:  Forest Dreams  Forest Dreams Hand Dyed (Before Spinning) Millspun. Designed to look like trees/ forest with variegated green and a touch of blue for use in weaving and rug hooking.
 Cats:  Yarn Worsted Tan White Tweed 2Ply Millspun 68% Mohair 32% Wool - Sold by the Pound Tan White Tweed (for Sandy) Natural Color Millspun.
Since natural black isn’t readily available in mohair (black mohair is  dark grey at best) I bought a skein of  Brown Sheep’s Lamb’s Pride Worsted Onyx from Alpaca Direct as they had the best price when I was shopping.  It is a USA made 15% mohair/ 85% wool single ply yarn.  I used this yarn for the black cat (Rori).
Clouds: Yarn Sport White Millspun 2 Ply 59% Mohair 31% Shetland Wool - Sold by the Pound Small amount hand spun natural DWF white mohair/ wool yarn. Sport White Millspun 2 Ply 59% Mohair 31% Shetland Wool.
 Edging: Iris Millspun Yarn  Iris – Hand Dyed (After Spinning) Millspun
 Birds: Yarn Dark Grey DK 2Ply Millspun 68% Mohair 32% Shetland, Blue Faced Leciester Wool - By the Pound  Natural Dark Grey DK 2Ply Millspun 68% Mohair 32% Shetland, Blue Faced Leicester Wool
 Lettering and Cloud Outlining:  Small amount of hand spun, turkey baster hand dyed roving (white with small amounts of orange and blue).  A ball of roving was soaked in water for an hour, then injected with colors using a turkey baster, heated to boiling for 30 minutes to set the colors, then washed before hand spinning.

 

 

 

 

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Fleece Locks

Fleeces with lock structure are available for use as doll’s hair, Santa’s Beards or art yarn/ tail spinning. Lock length is ~4 inches.

Hand washed adult/young adult mohair: $4/ounce  for doll’s hair/Santa Beards

Machine washed adult/young adult mohair (some loss of lock structure): $2/ounce  for spinning, natural white and grey as well as dyed colors

Hand washed (Blue Faced Leicester) wool: $2/ounce for spinning or doll’s hair/Santa’s Beards – natural colors only: white, greys, browns

It is very difficult to keep locks intact through the washing process particularly if the raw fleece contains any VM.  My standard washing process includes prewashing to remove the dirt and some of the grease (lanolin in wool), followed by hand picking to remove most of the VM, followed by a final wash to remove all (or nearly all) of the remaining grease.  Washing is done in a washing machine for soaking and spinning (ie- no agitation).  This gives an extremely clean fleece that can be spun directly from the fleece.  The less VM in the original fleece, the less damage there is to the lock structure.  Most fleeces are not clean enough to produce clean intact locks.  Only fleeces with low VM and good lock structure are hand washed to retain as much lock structure as possible.  That’s why locks are so expensive and why they are not always available.   I will sell raw locks if you want to wash them yourself at a substantial discount.

Contact me based on your project needs (amount, type, your location) for availability and a quote.

Currently noo fleeces available.

Mohair Fleeces

Mohair Fleeces

Bella BFL Fleece

Bella BFL Fleece

Roving – Dark Brown Shetland Llama – Natural

Roving Dark Brown 72% Shetland 28% Llama

Dark Brown 72% Shetland 28% Llama

 

Description: Natural colored 72% Shetland Wool 28% Llama
Color: Dark Browns
Fiber Content: 72% Wool: Shetland, Autumn Breeze Acres (PA)
28% Llama: Phoenix Farm’s (WI) Eclipse
Type (Processor): Roving (Gurdy Run, PA)
Quantity (Pounds): 5
Price: $2/ounce, $13/8 ounces (63% savings), $23/pound (67% savings) plus shipping. Savings is fiber cost + shipping versus 1 oz. fiber.
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Batts – Royal Blue – Hand Carded

Batt Royal Blue

Royal Blue Batt

Description: Hand dyed and then carded at Dancing Waters Farm.
50% adult mohair, 50% Shetland wool.
Color: Royal Blue
Fiber Content: Mohair: DWF’s Jessie, James, Fred
Wool: Shetland, Phoenix Farm’s (WI) Snow White
Type (Processor): Batts (Dancing Waters Farm, NJ)
Quantity (Pounds): 10 (1.5 – 2 ounces each)
Price: $3/ounce, $18/8 ounces, $32/pound plus shipping
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Top – Tan – Natural

Top White 31% wool 69% mohair

Tan Top 31% wool 69% mohair

Description: Combed semi-worsted fibers. This is the best fiber as it is all the same length and extremely clean, no VM.
69% mohair (55% kid, 30% yearling, 16% adult doe),
31% wool (33% Shetland, 67% Cheviot)
Color: Light Tan or Cream
Fiber Content: Mohair: DWF’s Red, Rose, Sienna
Wool: Shetland, Phoenix Farm’s (WI); Cheviot, Shepherd’s Croft (PA)
Type (Processor): Semi-worsted Top (Zeilinger’s, MI)
Quantity (Pounds): 20
Price: $3.50/ounce, $21/8 ounces, $37/pound plus shipping
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Top – Grey – Natural

Grey Top

Description: Combed semi-worsted fibers. This is the best fiber as it is all the same length and extremely clean, no VM.
78% Adult buck mohair,
22% Shetland wool
Color: Grey
Fiber Content: Mohair: DWF’s Leo, Rembaldi, Badger
Wool: Shetland, Phoenix Farm’s (WI) Rambunctious
Type (Processor): Semi-worsted Top (Zeilinger’s, MI)
Quantity (Pounds): 20
Price: $3.50/ounce, $21/8 ounces, $37/pound plus shipping
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Top – White – Natural

White Top 37% Shetland 63% Mohair

White Top 37% Shetland 63% Mohair

Description: Combed semi-worsted fibers. This is the best fiber as it is all the same length and extremely clean, no VM.
63% mohair,
37% wool (60% Finn, 30% Shetland)
Color: White
Fiber Content: Mohair: DWF’s Roberto
Wool: Shetland, Phoenix Farm’s (WI) Rambunctious, Finn, Seven Springs, NJ
Type (Processor): Semi-worsted Top (Zeilinger’s, MI)
Quantity (Pounds): 20
Price: $3.50/ounce, $21/8 ounces, $37/pound plus shipping
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Top – White – Natural – Template

Trinity Roving

Description: Combed semi-worsted fibers.  This is the best fiber as it is all the same length and extremely clean, no VM.
21% mohair,
46% wool (60% Finn, 30% Shetland)
Color: White
Fiber Content: Mohair: DWF’s Roberto
Wool: Shetland, Phoenix Farm’s (WI) Rambunctious, Finn, Seven Springs, NJ
Type (Processor): Semi-worsted Top (Zeilinger’s, MI)
Quantity (Pounds): 20
Price: $3.50/ounce, $21/8 ounces, $37/pound plus shipping
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Roving – Metallica – Hand Kettle Dyed

Mettallica Roving

Metallica Roving

Description: Metallica was hand kettle dyed before carding.
80% adult mohair, 20% Shetland wool.  Has a metallic sheen from the large amount of mohair.
Color: Metallica- natural grey with swirls of red, yellow and blue
Fiber Content: Mohair: DWF’s Jewel, Rembaldi,
Wool: Shetland, Phoenix Farm’s (WI) Spook; BFL, DWF’s Carmella
Type (Processor): Roving (Frankenmuth, MI)
Quantity (Pounds): 4 oz
Price: $10/ 4 oz plus shipping. 
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Roving – Earth – Natural

Roving Earth Mohair Wool Llama

Earth

Description: Earth is a natural tan colored roving. 40% adult mohair – 52% wool (49% Blue Faced Leicester & 51% Shetland) and 8% tan llama.
Color: Tan
Fiber Content: Mohair: DWF’s Red
Wool: Shetland, Phoenix Farm’s (WI) Snow White; Blue Faced Leicester: DWF’s Esmerelda
Llama:  from local shearer (H. Emmons, PA)
Type (Processor): Roving (Spinderella’s, UT)
Quantity (Pounds): 4 oz.
Price: $10/ 4 oz plus shipping. 
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