Tour de Fleece 2026: Rediscovering My Fibre Stash
Hello friends,
And welcome back to my blog after a couple of weeks away. It was lovely to have a chance to rest and recharge while on holiday, but with July comes the start of another Tour de Fleece, and the opportunity to spend some time rediscovering my fibre stash, and enjoying some cosy spinning time while the weather is cold outside.
Now, I don't know about you, but I have quite a large fibre stash. Over the years since learning to spin, I've picked up fibre and fleeces from online shopping, in-person stores, craft events, and even from friends who kindly bring treasures home for me from fibre festivals. Somehow, fibre always seems to find its way into my stash, and despite my best efforts, it seems to accumulate much faster than I can spin it into yarn.
With all this in mind, I decided that this year I wasn't going to buy any more fibre for Tour de Fleece 2026, but instead shop my stash. I opened the wardrobe in my craft room and began pulling out boxes and containers until I found one filled with fibre, ready to be rediscovered.
After spending some time sorting through the box, and exploring the fibre within, I finally settled on a plan for Tour de Fleece 2026. These are the fibres I've chosen to spin during this year's Tour.
This first project is 300 g of natural brown Romney lambswool from Duncraig. I originally bought it as an unwashed fleece, and at some point over the years I washed it and carded it into batts on my Ashford wide drum carder. It's been sitting patiently in my stash for a couple of years, and Tour de Fleece seems like the perfect opportunity to finally spin it into yarn.
Next up are two batts from Dark Harbour Yarn in the colourways Big-Eared Woolly and Wrinkle-Lipped Free-Tailed. These batts are made up of Corriedale, Merino, silk noil, and Tencel, and I couldn't resist bringing them home with me from Unwind 2026 back in March.
Also making an appearance this year is a Corriedale batt called Tequila Sunrise from Deep Creek Woolworks. I picked this batt up at Unwind 2026 in March as well, and its warm, vibrant colours were simply too beautiful to leave sitting in the stash any longer.
Tucked away at the bottom of the box was an unknown amount of a 50/50 Merino and alpaca blend left over from a previous project. Back when I lived in Wellington, one of my husband's workmates gave me some raw alpaca fleece. After washing the fleece, I blended it with 50% Merino fibre and carded it together on my drum carder. I then dyed the fibre in aurora-inspired colours and handspun it into yarn for a Southern Skies shawl. This small amount of fibre is what remained after the project was finished.
And finally, I unearthed various odds and ends of Merino fibre in shades of purple that I dyed many years ago, along with a bag of silver Angelina sparkle fibre. Thinking the two might work well together, I pulled out my drum carder and blended them into a sparkly purple batt. I have no idea what this fibre will eventually become, but I suspect it will be something fun.
I dusted off my camera and filmed the process of blending this sparkly purple batt together. There's something rather satisfying about watching colourful fibres transform into a finished batt, so if you'd like to see the process, you can watch the short video below.
So, with my Tour de Fleece fibre choices finally made, all that remains is to sit down at the spinning wheel and begin. There is something rather satisfying about rediscovering forgotten treasures hidden away in my stash, and giving them their turn to become yarn.
I'm looking forward to many cosy hours of spinning over the coming weeks, and I'm excited to see what these fibres become along the way. Whether I manage to spin everything or not, I know I'll enjoy the journey.
Have a wonderful day,
Julie-Ann
If you'd like to continue the conversation, you can find me on Instagram, Mastodon, Bluesky, and Facebook.
I'd love to hear what you're spinning, making, or creating this winter.
Saving Dahlia and Zinnia Seeds for Next Season
Hello friends,
Over late summer and early autumn, I spent many happy hours collecting seeds from the dahlias in my garden, and from the Floret zinnia varieties growing in my zinnia patch.
This year, my focus was on saving seeds from as many collarette and anemone dahlias as possible, along with seeds from some of my favourite seedling dahlias from this season. There's always something hopeful about saving dahlia seeds. Unlike tubers, the seedlings won't grow true to their parents, and that's part of the magic. Every seed has the potential to produce something completely new, making each growing season full of anticipation and surprises.
The process of saving dahlia seeds takes a little time and patience. Once a flower has finished and the petals have fallen, the waiting begins. Not every flower produces a good seed head, so I watch carefully for those that develop into plump, full seed heads.
Once I find one, I mark it with a piece of flagging tape and leave it on the plant to mature. Depending on the weather, this can take anywhere from a couple of weeks to a month. As the seed head ripens, it gradually turns a mid to dark brown colour, becomes dry and crunchy to the touch, and the outer sepals begin to pull back, revealing the inner parts of the seed head.
At this stage, I remove the seed heads from the dahlia plant and place them in an open container labelled with the variety name. I then gently break up the seed heads by hand to increase the airflow around the seeds. As the seed head falls apart, the dahlia seeds begin to separate from the chaff, and I leave everything together in the container to dry for a couple of weeks.
Once the seed heads are completely dry, it's time to separate the dahlia seeds from the chaff. Fortunately, the chaff is both larger and lighter than the seeds, which makes the job a little easier.
There are a number of ways to do this. One method is simply to shake the container, allowing the heavier seeds to settle to the bottom while the chaff sits on top. Another option is to winnow the crushed seed heads on a windy day, or in front of a fan. The heavier seeds drop into a waiting container, while the lighter chaff blows away. A third method is to use a soil sieve, which screens out the larger pieces of chaff while allowing the seeds to fall through.
Most of the time I use the first method, as I've found that viable dahlia seeds can sometimes remain attached to the chaff. If I wasn't paying attention, it would be all too easy to throw away perfectly good seeds.
Before I begin, I make sure the seed heads are crushed up as much as possible. I then gently shake the container from side to side, allowing the heavier seeds to settle to the bottom while the chaff rises to the top. As I remove the chaff, I quickly check it for any viable seeds that are still attached and carefully pry them off by hand.
It takes a little extra time, but I'd rather spend a few extra minutes cleaning the seeds than accidentally lose some future potential favourite dahlia varieties.
Once all of this is done, I pop the dahlia seeds into labelled paper seed envelopes. I like to include the dahlia variety, the flower type, whether the seed was open or closed pollinated, the pollen parent (if I know it), and the date the seed was collected.
With everything labelled and safely stored away, the seeds are tucked away until spring, when the whole process begins again. One of the things I love most about growing dahlias from seed is that each seed holds the possibility of something completely new, and I can't help but wonder what surprises next season will bring.
My approach with the Floret zinnias in my zinnia patch (Precious Metals, Unicorn and Blush) was a little different. Rather than selecting individual plants, my aim was simply to collect as many viable seeds as possible from across the patch.
Because Floret zinnia seeds were only available in New Zealand for one season in 2024, I have no way of purchasing more seed. If I want these beautiful varieties to remain part of my summer garden, seed saving is really my only option.
Thankfully, zinnias are generous plants, and with a little effort I hope to carry these favourites forward for many summers to come.
Last spring, I sowed all of the remaining Floret zinnia seeds I had in storage and grew them on through the season. By late January the first flowers were appearing, and I began saving seed in February.
Fortunately, many of the plants set seed well, and before long I had collected trays of mature brown seed heads. Then, in April, just before our first decent frost, I harvested as many flower heads that had begun setting seed as possible, hoping that some of them would continue to mature and provide a few extra seeds as well.
With Floret zinnias no longer available, I was keen to make the most of every opportunity to save seed and carry these beautiful varieties forward into future summers.
The process for collecting zinnia seeds is pretty much the same as with the dahlia seeds. I allow the seed heads to dry out completely before gently crushing them by hand. The seeds naturally fall to the bottom, and I use the same shaking method to separate them from the chaff.
One of the interesting things about zinnias is that they produce two different types of seeds. Seeds from the ray flowers are larger and rounder in shape, while the seeds from the disk flowers are much smaller and narrower. Some growers believe that the larger ray flower seeds are self-pollinated, while the smaller disk flower seeds are more open-pollinated, producing different flowers in the next generation. I haven't found any definitive evidence for this, though.
As I've collected both seed types, it would be easy enough to grow them separately and see what happens. Perhaps that's a future Crafty Gardener project waiting to happen...but that's a story for another growing season.
Overall, I managed to harvest over half a margarine container full of Floret zinnia seeds. They are now safely stored away, waiting patiently for spring and another season in the garden.
Both dahlia and zinnia seed saving have taken up a lot of my time throughout autumn and now into early winter, but I have many seed packets safely stored away ready for sowing in spring.
Winter has arrived, and although it is often thought of as a quieter time in the garden, I know there is still much to do. There is tidying and weeding to tackle, dahlia tubers to dig up, and a new back garden project waiting in the wings.
This will be my last blog post for the next fortnight. My husband and I have a medieval-themed wedding to attend (which means we finally get to wear our new cloaks!), and afterwards we're taking a short holiday to relax after a busy growing season.
So, until then, I'll wish you all a happy winter solstice. I'll see you again in July, at the beginning of a new gardening year, and the start of another season of stories.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
Want to discuss my post? Feel free to chat with me on Instagram or Mastodon or Bluesky, and now also Facebook.
Predicting Frosts At Home
Hello friends,
This week I thought I'd share with you how I predict frosts at home using weather resources for New Zealand which are available on the internet.
More often that not, thanks to us being in an inland valley, the weather forecast for Dunedin doesn't apply to Mosgiel, and yet the Mosgiel regional forecast is meant for areas further inland than us. Over the years I've used a bunch of different weather forecasts and also my gut feeling to know when to put frost cloths on my citrus and other frost sensitive plants.
The usual frost set up for us goes something like this: In autumn, winter, and spring, a southerly front/storm comes in from the south west from out over the southern Pacific Ocean. It brings with it either rain/snow, wind, and cold temperatures. After the southerly blows through, the wind dies down, and the sky clears, usually mid afternoon/early evening, then it cools overnight and then we get a frost (or a number of frosts) in the days following. Our frosts can get down to around -6˚C in the middle of winter, but in autumn and spring they can hover just around 0˚C.
Because this set up is pretty predictable, I've come to get a gut feeling about frosts in our local inland valley. So in the late afternoon after a southerly storm when I tend to get a feeling that it'll freeze, that's when I turn to my top three weather forecasting methods.
First up I go to Metservice's website:
On the today forecast in the Dunedin Regional Forecast the -4˚C predicted isn't for "today" but rather than the next morning, on Monday. It's all a bit confusing but it's the best way that it works for me, and the temperature is approximately right. I then look at the "Monday" forecast to see if it says calm winds and frost. In autumn and spring, this forecast tends to be incorrect in predicting frosts.
The second forecast I check is Weather Watch's frost risk forecast. The blue and purple sections on the map show the medium and high risks areas for frosts for the coming days. You can also look at their minimum temperature map to see the temperature bands.
From my observations, Weather Watch's frost predictions are the most accurate. Basically if frost risk map shows blue (or just on the edge of blue), we will get a frost. I trust this frost predictor rather then the other two that I use.
And finally the last frost predictor I use is Rural Weather's forecasts. Just go to rural weather, enter which area of the country you are in, and it'll show you rain, wind, temperatures, fog/cloud, and frost predictions for the coming days.
Their frost trend graph is still in beta, but it is good for predicting frosts. The dark red sections means most likely to have a frost, and the pink is a slight risk of frost. It also shows you what times the frosts might occur. This is my second favorite frost forecast.
With all three of these forecasts in mind, and with my gut feeling telling me there will be a frost, it's time to pull out my frost cloth. My citrus plants and my wasabi plant are sprayed with liquid frost cloth, which protects them down to around -3˚C (depending on how much rain there has been recently). And I also put frost cloth on top of them as double protection, because sometimes, if the plant is still actively growing, the tips of the leaves and flowers may not have been sprayed by the liquid frost cloth. This method works down to around -6˚C, which is usually the coldest frosts we get. If the frost is predicted to be lower than -5˚C, then I just chuck more and more frost cloth on the plants until they are cocooned.
In this case, we did indeed get a frost, which got down to -2.4˚C, which is warmer than the predicted -4˚C by Metservice, but colder than the predicted temperature for Dunedin. It was well and truly worth spending the time putting the frost cloth on my beloved citrus and wasabi plants overnight.
And so, as you can see that my frost prediction method for home is a good setup, and it works for me most of the time. It's much more tricky to predict frosts in late spring though, and we are now getting frosts up until the first week of November, which is a huge risk for my newly emerged dahlia plants. And considering that I have over 50 dahlia plants in my garden, I do not have enough frost cloth and buckets to protect all my plants that late in spring. And that's when I raid the linen cupboard, and use all my spare sheets and blankets as frost protection. As climate change continues to evolve in the coming years, I think our late spring frosts will only get worse.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
Want to discuss my post? Feel free to chat with me on Instagram or Mastodon or Bluesky, and now also Facebook.
Sewing Two Overland Cloaks For A Wedding
Hello friends,
In June this year our nephew is getting married, and him and his wonderful fiance are having a Medieval/Renaissance Faire themed wedding. Since they encouraged everyone to dress up in Medieval/Renaissance Faire inspired outfits for the event, it was time for me to pull out my sewing machine and get to work.
Now was the chance for me to finally make a medieval winter cloak of my dreams, which I've wished to own for a very long time. After a lot of searching on the internet, and asking some knowledgeable friends online, my friend Karyn suggested the Overland Cloak by Twig + Tale pattern, which is a "luxurious hooded cloak designed for hiking and adventure, with a generous dash of dreaminess". When I bought the Overland Cloak pattern, and showed it to my husband, he got very excited and wanted a cloak of his own, and so it was now up to me to now make two cloaks for the upcoming wedding...
As this wedding is happening in the middle winter, in a community hall, which more than likely is going to be a little chilly, I thought it best to make cloaks with some heft, so we could would stay warm and toasty on the wedding day and into the evening festivities.
First up was finding the fabric needed for the project. I needed 5 metres of outer fabric for each cloak, and the same for lining. From Spotlight we picked up two satin linings in midnight blue and gold. For the outer cloak fabric, the pattern suggested fabrics including wool coating, linen, cashmere and twill. I went hunting in our local secondhand stores to see if I could find any fabric treasures, and came across a steal, 10 metres of vintage gold velvet fabric for $80. This fabric came home with me to be used for my cloak.
For hubby's cloak, I couldn't find any more appropriate secondhand fabric which would work for him, so I ordered some black 100% pure wool coating from the The Fabric Shop in Auckland. When the fabric arrived I was so pleased with it, it wasn't too thick, but it was warm and very good quality. The only bad thing about the fabric is that it was so warm and cosy that Rosie cat became enamored with it and wanted to snuggle with it, and so the fabric quickly became covered with her cat fur...
With all that done it was time to cut out the fabric and then start sewing. I sewed my cloak first, and to be honest the vintage gold velvet was horrible to sew. Even with a Brother Walking Foot the velvet fabric shifted and bunched while sewing, and it took me a long time to make this cloak because it was so difficult, and I was getting very frustrated with it. I eventually finished it, but the cloak has lots of small flaws which are thankfully mostly hidden inside the linings.
On the other hand, hubby's cloak was a dream to sew, and the outer pure wool coating fabric was boiled and felted, which meant I could skip the overlocking steps since the fabric didn't fray at all. I managed to finish hubby's cloak in about a week with Rosie cat's help.
Hubby's cloak look's amazing on him in his favorite colours of black and midnight blue. It sits really great on his shoulders (size 5 pattern), and is the perfect length for all your Medieval/Ren Faire, and Lord of The Rings needs. He chose silver buttons which we got from Spotlight. As you can see from all the photos hubby's cloak is covered in Rosie Cat fur, because she just won't leave it alone.
My cloak looks amazing in shades of gold velvet and satin, along with gold buttons which I also chose from Spotlight. My cloak was sewn in a size 4, which was based on my shoulder width. Due to the incredible difficulty in sewing the cloak, I was unable to insert buttonholes into the velvet fabric, because the buttonhole foot on my sewing machine kept slipping while trying to make the buttonhole. Instead I had to sew on snap fasteners under the top section, and then just sew buttons on top to look like they had buttonholes.
Hubby and I both chose the oversized hood for the Overland Cloak, but they ended up being huge on us, so much so that it completely covered my face if I wore it. I think next time I make an Overland Cloak, I'll choose the smaller rounded hood available.
All in all I'm very pleased with both of the Overland Cloaks that I've made for the wedding. And I certainly now have the Medieval cloak of my dreams. But I am already planning on making another cloak, this time in pure wool coating in shades of purple like hubby's one, with silver buttons, and a smaller rounded hood. And I already have all the fabric and buttons that I need, I just need to find the time and energy to make it...
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
Want to discuss my post? Feel free to chat with me on Instagram or Mastodon or Bluesky, and now also Facebook.
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