Just the Fleece Rug

I posted on Wednesday over on my own blog about the experiments I am doing with fleece and the rug warp I have on the Newcome rug loom.

I had some fun mixing up the natural colors of roving on the bench pad, and I thought that I might try a solid color, for the first rug.  I have had a box of 2 white shetland fleeces from the sheep I used to own.  It is in fact their very first fleeces, so the finest and the best of wools.

Here is what it looks like in a rug, on the loom.

It is just as soft as you might imagine.  I almost hate to felt it!  I may see if I can  soak it in the tub and not agitate, and see what happens.

I have several natural colors to choose from.  Some of them are already in roving which seems to be the easiest form to use.  If it isn't already in roving, I run it thru the drum carder, and then using a "diz" (a little gadget with a hole in it)  I start just a small edge of the batt on the carder, and pull it all thru the diz a little at a time.  I know many of you will not have a clue what I am talking about, but it is kind of like cutting strips of cloth for rugs, when you have made a tube of the fabric.  You can keep going around and around until the carder is clean.

Here is what I have to work with:

Black roving from an unknown sheep.  (Not the one that Lou Ann wants me to spin up!)

Grey roving, fairly short stapled, again from an unknown sheep.

And finally, some Moorit Shetland from my own sheep.

All the other fleeces are not in roving form, so I will have to do some work to get them that way.  I have to laugh to think that some months ago I was mortified that I had 15 fleeces,  now I am thinking that it won't be nearly enough if this project is a go.

Until next time, Happy Weaving, Tina