{"id":4993,"date":"2020-07-04T08:11:10","date_gmt":"2020-07-04T06:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/waltin.se\/josefinwaltinspinner\/?p=4993"},"modified":"2021-12-21T06:37:01","modified_gmt":"2021-12-21T05:37:01","slug":"frida-chanel-bag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/waltin.se\/josefinwaltinspinner\/frida-chanel-bag\/","title":{"rendered":"Frida Chanel bag"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A project that I have been working on for a long time is finally finished \u2013 the Frida Chanel bag. The bag is woven on a backstrap loom from outercoat yarn spun on a suspended spindle. Frida and Chanel are the two ewes that gave me the wool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Frida Chanel bag project has gone slowly but steadily through winter, spring and summer. It has lived through office meetings, sheep festivals and the corona crisis. So many experiences fit in the resulting field belt bag. In this post I walk you through the process from fluff to stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The Frida Chanel bag is comfortable to war across my hip, either to the front or to the back. Photo by Dan Waltin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The sheep<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The wool in the yarn comes from the outercoat from two fleece championships contestants \u2013 one \u00c5sen\/H\u00e4rjedal crossbred lamb and one Kl\u00f6vsj\u00f6 ewe. They are both perfect warp candidates with long, strong and shiny outercoat fibers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chanel<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I got Chanel on the 2017 Swedish spinning championships<\/a>. She got a gold medal and rightfully so. It wasn’t for sale, though. The shepherdess didn’t want to part with it. She isn’t a spinner herself, though, and she realized that no spinning mill would do the colour variations justice. I talked to her and she decided to sell it to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Chanel's
Chanel’s fleece divided into colour piles.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I divided the fleece into colour piles and spun each of the lovely colours separately. After some trial and error<\/a> I landed in separating undercoat from outercoat and spin the fiber types separately. This way I was able to make both wool and colours justice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frida<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If found Frida’s fleece at the 2019 Swedish fleece championships<\/a>. She didn’t win any medals, but she was still so beautiful and I really needed to take her home with me. She has the most incredible shine!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The Kl\u00f6vsj\u00f6 ewe Frida’s beautiful fleece.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The yarns<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With Chanel’s outercoat I ended up with five colours of brown, from solid chocolate, through dark and light coffee swirls to a frappuccino.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Five
Five colours of the \u00c5sen\/H\u00e4rjedal lamb Chanel’s outer coat.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I have been spinning Chanel’s combed outercoat tops on a suspended spindle on coffee breaks and meetings at work<\/a>. Through the soft feeling of the fibers I have been able to filter the coffee break chatter and focus on the content of the office meetings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I treated Frida’s fleece the same way I had treated Chanel’s \u2013 I separated outercoat from undercoat and spun them separately. When I got to spin Frida’s combed top it was already March and the government urged everybody who could to work from home, so I have spun Frida’s outercoat yarn at digital meetings and coffee breaks from my home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The Kl\u00f6vsj\u00f6 ewe Frida’s outercoat spindle spun into a strong and shiny warp yarn.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I decided to dye the Frida outercoat yarn in two shades of blue. I used the same dye base as the yarn for my weaving bag<\/a>, but for some reason it turned out green instead. They are still lovely colours and I did get the difference in shade I was after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Finished
Finished yarns from Chanel (brown shades) and Frida (dyed green). Spindle spun and hand wound with love. Photo by Dan Waltin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Colour play<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When all the yarns were finished I had a wonderful weaving yarn treasure to play with. I wanted the stripes to be in different widths and I wanted to pair dark colours with light. In the end I decided on using two gradients \u2013 one brown and one green (if you can call two colours a gradient) \u2013 going in different directions. I added a section with horizontal stripes in the middle. I messed up with the calculations here, though. The horizontal stripes should have been twice as wide but my head obviously wasn’t with me all the way in the warping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n