I always have to remind myself not to overload the carders or combs.
Denise
Apob, et al,
I've enjoyed following the forum. May I add advice from a country girl?
#1- free fleeces & fiber - when people learn that you spin they will start to give you fiber. Don't be shy. Ask - 'Say do you know any body with a hobbie farm?' You will be amazed at the connections and people who love animals but don't do anything with the fleece. I know several alpaca owners who will trade fleece for finished yarn. Contact shearers, ZOOs, large animal vets, 4-H,colleges, and county extension agents to network for fleece. Put out a call on 'freecycle' etc. Volunteer at a fiber shop, studio, guild, or farm.
Don't forget, urbanites, check for angora bunny clubs in your city. They are favorite urban spinner pets. And people do pay to have their dog's hair spun for them.
#2 Trade - you'd be amazed at the trades that you can work out. You could animal sit for a day or two, donate skills, expertise, time if nothing else.
#3 Guild - join or start one. People will share. Sometimes people get too much of a fiber and are ready to move on to a new project. Have a 'fiber tasting'. Be the guild's 'fiber broker' There are many ways a guild will save you money and increase your joy.
SHORTCUTS I've used this method on mohair, alpaca, LL, ramboulet, cheviot, cormo, and several crosses - never made felt.
SHAKE 10 minutes - shake that fleece out, cut side up, sheet on the floor (if inside) over the backs of chairs (in lui of a chicken wire screen) be rough! You'll shake out VM, 2nd cuts and all manner of stuff.
TEAR 5-7 minutes- Yup, tear into that fleece, yank off dirty tips, holding the locks tear and shake into handful size and put straight into a large laundry or garment bag. When laundry bag is 1/2 full lay flat and tack trough with large safety pins or knit stitch keepers (looks like large kilt pin). Tack front to back of laundry bag to itself in 4 or 5 spots to prevent lump. you will be pleased that the locks will stay together.
SOAK & DUNK- fill your washing machine with your choice of water, and scour ( 1-2 tbsp. original joy or dawn dish soap (no enzymes) in a pinch). STOP the cycle and the water will sit there as long as you let it. Dunk Lau.bag in and out 3 times then leave to soak minimum of 20 minutes. GO do something else, MULTITASK, nap . Dunk up/down 3 more times pull out and put in bucket. Advance washer to drain dirty water. Fill again and soak/dunk again. With or without soap. Do as much as needed. When you are good with the cleanness of your fleece, drain water, then put fleece in to spin (spin out water in the fleece). Warnings: no big temperature changes; no aggitation.(unless you want felt)
MORDANT /DYE - this is a great time to go to the mordant pot, then dye bath or process.
DRY- take out of bag. Toss on deck, over railing, bush, car hood or if inside, over floor vent or back of chair in sun or warm spot.
DRUMCARD- open the tips on the very top of the drum- hold that fiber tight! This saves you flick carding or an extra pass in the carder and it is so quick. Anne Field (if I remember right) Flick cards with her hand card; - a peice of leather on your leg, lay 4-5 inches of locks side by side on top and hold down, then whack! with the carder!
Well, hope that is helpful and encouraging! - R
Wow, thanks for all of the great information, R! Your suggestion to shake out as much of the vm as you can right at the start sounds great - I'll definitely do that. And the drum carding suggestion too! Lots of great stuff ...
I live just outside of Philadelphia... somehow I ended up in a "corporate job" where I've been for nearly 15 years. I'm at a level of seniority now where I have a lot more free time than I used to, but still find it difficult to find time for the networking you talk about, and then there's my impulse to solitude, which I think in some ways is part of the attraction to spinning and knitting. Not that I'm a hermit :). This spring I've signed up to attend the Men's Knitting Retreat in upstate New York, which I'm looking forward to. I know I have a local weaving Guild not so far away, and I should check that out. And I fully intend to get to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival this year (anyone else going? want to meet up there to say hello?).
In a flourish of serendipity (there's a phrase you don't get to use often), the place where I was getting my hair cut closed, and I started to go to a new one, and i started talking with the woman cutting my hair there, Shelly, and it turns out she spins and knits too! She's more into the artistic aspect of it, but it was just so unexpected and delightful to run into someone sharing my interest so randomly.
Your message has pushed me to get a bit more involved in the "fiber community" ... maybe I'll set out this year to do that. Thanks for both the help and the encouragement!
Thankyou for the advice.
I tried to find enough spinners to start a guild here in France,by writing a letter to a newspaper.......I was inundated with replies,but nearly all from the north west (Brittany) or the south west,both strongholds of expat brits,I live in rural Burgundy ( central east). In the soth west there is a guild and I put all the people in the north west in contact with each other,so maybe by now they may have a guild. I did manage to find one other spinner who lives about 5kms away,so we have a "guild" of the two of us! mighty oaks from little acorns grow........perhaps?
Mary
Mary,
You have great initiative! I admire that.
A group or guild just needs people of interest. You will be surprised how your guild will grow over time. On weekends, once in a while, find a public place to spin and chat. Strange things happen. People stop and ask questions. Your "seedlings" take root and start to grow.
I lived in Dole for a while. Beautiful country, beautiful memories.
Denise,
I'm not sure if it's initiative or desperation!
Dole, that's just up the road, I live nearer to Cluny and yes it is glorious........but as you know it's not a sheep area,though I have found three alpaca farmers,so fingers crossed.
As Denise has suggested, it doesn't take much for a group to grow. Our local library has a craft group that meets once a week, as well as a knitting group (meeting on a different day) in one of the meeting rooms. Perhaps your local library could put up a similar notice about a craft group and you and your other spinning friend could kick start it.
Alpaca a lovely to spin - not greasy like wool but usually dusty as alpaca love dust baths. I've only ever just teased it out with my fingers, similar to clouding mohair, and spun straight from that. Any VM usually falls out with the teasing and the dust washes out when I wash to set the twist after plying.
JudyT
Apob et al,
I don't always spin in the grease either, sometimes I'll wash the fleece first as has been suggested in a couple of the threads, and I do buy coloured rovings and slivers etc.
We are very lucky here in Australia regarding the quality of the raw fleeces available. My spinning group go for a weekend once a year to our favourite sheep station (ranch, to you folk in USA), usually just after shearing time where we have access to very, very good quality fleece, both white and colours. These fleeces are always well skirted and have very little VM, so there is usually not a lot of preparation required with the flick carders or hand carders before spinning, therefore not a lot of mess - just a lap cloth is enough. We only pay $15/kilo for the fleece and if we buy a kilo, we can expect a kilo of finished yarn.
Sometimes, though, I would rather just spin, so then I spin the already prepared rovings, slivers, tops etc.
Some of my own conclusions on processing raw fleece after reading the responses and just finishing my Shetland fleece:
- Given the amount of effort, I think it can make sense to pick a fleece that would be difficult or expensive to obtain as roving or top. For example, from a less available breed of sheep or in a particularly nice natural color.
- Since it's likely you won't save a lot of money anyways, go ahead and spend a little extra to get a really nice fleece that you will enjoy processing. Even a free fleece isn't worth the amount of time and effort you will put into it if you don't enjoy processing it.
- It can make sense to prepare the fiber in a way that woudl be difficult or expensive to purchase, and to spin in a way that takes advantage of that. So, for example, if you're going to comb to get true combed top, then maybe it makes sense to spin true worsted to take advantage of that preparation. Similarly, maybe it makes sense to actually hand-card rolags so you can spin a true woolen yarn. The reasoning being that semi-woolen and semi-worsted yarns are easily spun from commercial roving.
- Exercise the extra creative options that processing the fleece yourself affords you, such as blending different fibers into a custom blend, or dyeing to colors that would be difficult to find.
- Do what you enjoy. If you enjoy picking a great raw fleece, but you don't particularly enjoy the carding/combing, then think about either sending it off to have it commercially processed or think about spinning it in the grease.
Hope everyone here on the US east coast is making out ok in the snow storm - we have almost 30 inches of snow here in Philadelphia and expecting about a foot more tomorrow. My back hurts from shovelling! :) But, I had a lot of time over the weekend to spin in front of the fire too ... maybe the snow's ok.
Judy and Apob,
Judy thankyou for the encouragement,I'll update on how spinners in Burgundy progress,I'll try a notice in the local libraries and see what happens.
Apob I have to agree with you, having spent ages processing three fleece given to me by a neighbour,it wasn't worth the time and efffort I put into it ,the wool was poor,I ended up using it as cushion filler.So in future I shall only process good quality fleece that is going to give me something special at the end.I love dyeing and so often buy white commercially prepared fleece and then dye and blend it to suit what I want to make.
Happily our snow here has gone,hopefully your weather front will have dissipated by the time in crosses the ocean!
I have only been spinning since this past summer and am so excited to find this website and for all the helpful suggestions that i have read about preparing fleece from scratch. i am a painter and weaver who wanted to be able to spin some of my threads for weaving. it is a truly enjoyable process and i am finding the challenge of fleece prep to be fun and rewarding. my commercial rovings seem to create perfect crisp yarns that don't speak to the more creative in me. when i do a yarn from the fleece, i get such a sense of completion rather than simply time spent. i also like to blend different wools together. i do like spinning in the grease with some wools and how good it feels on your hands.
i live in kentucky and have joined a guild here. it is well worth the travel involved to meet with other spinners. i am also finding i can buy wonderful wool to process myself for $5 a pound. i have found setting up with equipment to be such an expense that this savings means a lot to me.
i have been cleaning my wool in buckets and am about to bravely try the washing machine method described. i live in the country and have a septic system, would the grease have any adverse reaction to this type system? is there any issue with it clogging pipes due to build up ?
You will want to put a screen over your drain to catch the fibre that gets loose or it will be a problem, and I'd recommend you shift your washer over to a gray water drainage system. You wash water isn't septic, so it can just go out onto the ground or into a drain field of its own without going through your septic tank- it'll save you cleanouts over the long haul, so well worth the expense to install. Lessons learned the expensive way...
The grease won't, however, seriously negatively impact your septic if it is operating properly.
Do you all know what to look for in a selecting a good fleece? I have my opinions, how about you?
Why don't we post some suggestions here:
With my canary stained Corriedale fleece, I can take a staple, snap it between my fingers so that it makes a sound, and it has a much lower pitch than doing the same thing with a healthy fleece. I understand that indicates the weakness in the wool due to the damage the bacteria causing the staining has done to it.
Wind chimes ???????????
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