BB's News / Softness

Merino/Tencel

Merino/Tencel

Dear Weavers
It has been a while and a lot has happened. To be precise it is four months since I last wrote a blog post. That is terrible! I better get going then....
The biggest news is probably that I have finally, finally managed to put the Merino/Tencel yarn online. The whole yarn range with 21 colours is now available and ready to be purchased. I say finally because I promised many people that I would do this soon and then "life" came in between... It always takes quite a large junk of my time to put a new yarn range online with all its colours, photos, examples, prices, tags, description and shipping until everything is the way I want it. But anyway, I have managed and the Merino/Tencel is now there. The Merino/Tencel is quite a special type of yarn. It makes beautiful scarves or fabrics and is absolutely gorgeously soft!!! The yarn is half cellulose and half protein fibre. Which makes it a very interesting yarn to use. The cellulose, Tencel gives it the beautiful shine and the protein, wool makes it irresistibly soft. For weavers who like to dye their yarns, this one will give you a challenge. I used cellulose dyes for my test and of course then the wool didn't really take the dye very well. But instead of looking odd, it gives the yarn a really interesting uneven look, a certain shine comes through. See below
For some unexplained reasons the colours of the Merino/Tencel yarn change quite frequently. Some of the colours put online now (they have an asterisk next to the number) will only be available as long as stock lasts. But the good thing about this is that for every colour no longer available will be a new colour appearing. And I can tell you that I already have received some of the new colours!!! So watch this yarn line carefully, it will change there so often and reveal new amazing colours. But for now please feel free to have a look at the yarn, try it out and experiment. I used it at 16epi. What are you going to do? 
Go to www.bbyarn.com and look for the Merino/Tencel yarn or simply click on one of the above pictures.
Life has been rather busy lately: A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to give a beginner weaving workshop in Maryborough QLD. The workshop was held in the most extraordinary place I have ever given a workshop in. It was in a beautiful gallery room surrounded by amazing artwork. We even had Einstein at the back wall!! If you do not feel inspired to learn a craft in a space like that, then I don't know. I had 7 very enthusiastic new weavers, most of them have woven before just a little bit and wanted to know more. There was only one person which has never woven before and was very happily weaving at the end of the two days. I quite enjoy teaching beginner weaving workshops and showing these new weavers what this wonderful craftmanship is all about. It is not rocket science... only many, many steps to learn from warping to weaving! Here are some impressions:

In other exciting news: I've got myself another loom! Yes, you read right... This one was an offer I simply couldn't refuse. It is basically my dream loom and funny enough I received an email from another weaver asking me, if I know someone who would be interested in that loom!!! Yes, me! The loom is a computerised Toika Eeva loom with 24 shafts. No serious weaver can resist that. Because I didn't want my studio to be overfilled with large looms, I had to get rid of one of my trusty looms. The computerised Mecchia dobby loom 8 shafts is at the moment in pieces back in the little house. I will eventually look for a weaver who might be interested but I needed to see first if this Toika loom would suit me. Not that I really had any doubts, but you never know. I did have to make some adjustments to the new addition, but I have now already woven 3 projects on it and the loom is working beautifully! Extremely happy with it. I'm rather spoilt with shafts now. No more saving and turning patterns to match it with my 8 shafts. I can indulge in an abundance of shafts. It is actually quite a new experience for me. One project I recently did was trying out all 24 shafts using some colours of the UKI pearl cotton, see below.
Winter up here on our hill seems to have evaporated. We did have some cold days in June/July but in August we received an unexpected rain. We had 85mm! Even the creek getting into Michelles road was flooded and we were cut off for a day. From then on the temperatures started to raise and today we had 30 degrees. In August! Very strange. It makes you wonder what the coming summer is going to be like. But nature up here seems to dwell and all the bushes suddenly unpacked their flowers. It is just simply beautiful right now! Grevillea, bottle brushes and wattle flowers everywhere, gum trees are bursting with flowers, bees humming all day long and every single bird is chirping and singing. I couldn't live at a nicer place. Spring is here!
That is all from me. Stay safe everyone and until next time...
Happy weaving
Ursula
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Bambu 12 & Bambu 7 yarn

Bambu 12 & Bambu 7 yarn

Look, look, look we have a new yarn available online! The Bambu 12, the little sister of Bambu 7 is here!
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Bamboo yarn

Bambu 7 spools

BB' s News

Dear Weavers

This month I would like to discuss the bamboo yarn. A lot of weavers seem to be rather skeptical about this yarn. I am actually not quite sure why, is it because the yarn is "man-made" or is it because it is hard to believe that it could actually be a real bamboo plant?

BB Yarn Supply sells a 100% bamboo fibre yarn called Bambu7 TM. It is truly made out of bamboo! Really. The Bambu trademark from Silk City, USA insists on cultivation from sustainable and environmentally-sound vegetation. Bambu yarn is 100% cellulose and similarly produced like a rayon or viscose yarn. It is called "man-made" because the yarn is not spun from fibre. The bamboo is cut into a pulp and then pressed through a very fine jet to produce the yarn. The Bambu yarn is also free of pesticide and chemical fertilizing.

Bamboo is known for its skin friendly abilities. In the shops you can now buy socks, baby ware, T-shirts and underwear made out of bamboo. It is because bamboo has the ability to be suitable for any skin problems. And this is not all, bamboo is also really easy to look after. It can be washed in the warm washing machine with no problems. It might be stiff when it comes out of the machine, but after drying in the shade, all it needs is a good shake and hot iron. The fabric will be back to its normal softness and shine.

Bambu 7 scarves

A fabric woven out of bamboo has a beautiful drape and extraordinary softness. I haven't met anybody who didn't go "uhh" and "ahh" when touching the fabric. It is simply stunning. I always tend to explain to customers that bamboo feels to me like something between silk and tencel.

Can you feel me, yes I love bamboo and I have worked with this yarn many, many times and still not enough. It is one of my absolute favourites.

When I started BB Yarn Supply I always said that I only ever going to have natural yarns for sale. No rayon or polyester. Well I think I still do, because the Bambu yarn is still 100% cellulose or bamboo. There is nothing not natural about it. Let's face it, because it is "man-made" it doesn't mean it's artificial. It is just another way of producing a yarn. Yes, there might have been chemicals involved to produce the yarn. But this doesn't mean the chemicals are still in the yarn. How can it be so good for your skin otherwise?

Baby blanket wrapping

The only thing to be careful with bamboo is the sett for weaving. If you have a too high sett for your project, it can get heavy and you end up with something nice and shiny, but rather heavy. Bamboo yarn has the same feel in weaving like tencel, it is as slippery and flat. There is not much elasticity in the yarn and advise you to loosen your warp, if you not weaving. If you leave a bamboo yarn warp under tension for too long, it will get loose and you end up with tension problems.

My favourite sett for Bambu 7 is 16epi and ppi, a balanced fabric. The yarn comes in 36 stunning colours to choose from. It runs 4247m/kg and a 100g spool goes for $16.90. The yarn is suitable for weaving, knitting and crocheting.

If there is someone out there who is by any chance reading this blog and is not a weaver, maybe a knitter, I would be very interested to hear how the Bambu 7 behaves in other crafts. Let me know at sales@bbyarn.com I would be very happy to have you included into my monthly blog with some productive comments.

Ruthli crackle scarf

Maybe for some weavers this Bambu 7 yarn might be too modern or out of the ordinary. I like to go with the time and try out new things. What is that saying.... if you never, never try, you will never, never know! Have a try and give Bamboo a chance. Click on any Bambu 7 or picture and it will take you straight to the shop.

Happy weaving

Ursula

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