This week, I have been spinning the yarn that I mentioned last week, for the next shawl project. The fiber is Romney lamb (a long wool with some shine) / Alpaca (long and slippery) and Silk thrums (bits and pieces and threads of silk), it is from "Solitude Wool". My daughter gave it to me for Mothers day, and I believe that this may be a record for the shortest time something has stayed in my stash!
I have never spun anything like this, with threads and flecks of silk fiber, and it took me awhile to figure out how to do it so that the bits an pieces would show up, yet be well incorporated into the yarn.
I have been working on this batch of fiber off and on all week and I have to say that I am pleased with the results. I have almost finished the singles, in fact I should be done with the second bobbin today, and I will probably ply it later on this evening. I will be adding to this skein of yarn, with some silk yarn and some more Romney wool yarn for a shawl. I need at least 2,000 yards of various yarns in total, for this shawl project.
In my May 15th post, I mentioned that I was busy washing the many fleeces that I got from the "Sheep Shearing days 2017" at the Museum of Appalachia. I am happy to say that I have washed all of the fleeces from the flock that are sometimes at the Museum. Those 6 fleeces have produced 7 pillow cases full of "clean" fleece.
I say "clean" because getting the lanolin out is just part of the process. I don't know what it is about these particular sheep, but they seem to have a fleece that likes to hold onto dirt, like a magnent!
The lanolin comes out easily, like I said but these locks like to hold onto bits of stuff, and it has to be combed out.
This is the pad that my wool combs sit on, and this is just a little bit of the stuff that comes out of the fleece.
I work through the fleece with my combs and when it looks good to me, I draw it off of the combs. I can still see just a little bit of the "stuff" in there, but not much. The rest of the "stuff" is on the table and on the floor around me, it is unbelievable how much of it there is. I have combed through one bag of wool I have 6 more to go. (I will do that as I need the wool!)
From this "truly clean" state I can either blend the fleece further by working it once more with the combs or I may use my hand cards and make some rolags, to use on the great wheel for a more woolen yarn.
This wool will not make a good yarn to use on the looms, it is far too springy, so I plan to use it for knitting, (it would be good for hats, sweaters or socks) or I might possibly sell it as skeins at our fall shows. I probably won't be bringing it up on this blog much in the future, but I may show a skein or two as they are done.
I still have the "Scottish Blackface" fleeces in progress, and this week, I also pulled out a white Corriedale fleece that had been hanging around the Studio too long, and I washed it, though it still has a bit too much lanolin in it for me, I will be giving it another wash soon.
That is it for me, once these dirty fleeces are done, I will be hitting the looms, big and small. So much to do, so little time!
Until next time, Happy Spinning and Weaving, Tina
I have never spun anything like this, with threads and flecks of silk fiber, and it took me awhile to figure out how to do it so that the bits an pieces would show up, yet be well incorporated into the yarn.
I have been working on this batch of fiber off and on all week and I have to say that I am pleased with the results. I have almost finished the singles, in fact I should be done with the second bobbin today, and I will probably ply it later on this evening. I will be adding to this skein of yarn, with some silk yarn and some more Romney wool yarn for a shawl. I need at least 2,000 yards of various yarns in total, for this shawl project.
In my May 15th post, I mentioned that I was busy washing the many fleeces that I got from the "Sheep Shearing days 2017" at the Museum of Appalachia. I am happy to say that I have washed all of the fleeces from the flock that are sometimes at the Museum. Those 6 fleeces have produced 7 pillow cases full of "clean" fleece.
I say "clean" because getting the lanolin out is just part of the process. I don't know what it is about these particular sheep, but they seem to have a fleece that likes to hold onto dirt, like a magnent!
The lanolin comes out easily, like I said but these locks like to hold onto bits of stuff, and it has to be combed out.
This is the pad that my wool combs sit on, and this is just a little bit of the stuff that comes out of the fleece.
I work through the fleece with my combs and when it looks good to me, I draw it off of the combs. I can still see just a little bit of the "stuff" in there, but not much. The rest of the "stuff" is on the table and on the floor around me, it is unbelievable how much of it there is. I have combed through one bag of wool I have 6 more to go. (I will do that as I need the wool!)
From this "truly clean" state I can either blend the fleece further by working it once more with the combs or I may use my hand cards and make some rolags, to use on the great wheel for a more woolen yarn.
This wool will not make a good yarn to use on the looms, it is far too springy, so I plan to use it for knitting, (it would be good for hats, sweaters or socks) or I might possibly sell it as skeins at our fall shows. I probably won't be bringing it up on this blog much in the future, but I may show a skein or two as they are done.
I still have the "Scottish Blackface" fleeces in progress, and this week, I also pulled out a white Corriedale fleece that had been hanging around the Studio too long, and I washed it, though it still has a bit too much lanolin in it for me, I will be giving it another wash soon.
That is it for me, once these dirty fleeces are done, I will be hitting the looms, big and small. So much to do, so little time!
Until next time, Happy Spinning and Weaving, Tina
1 comment:
That's a lot of dirty water!!! LOL I know you're glad to have this job almost finished.
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