Fluff day

I have a friend who knits, a lot, and not only does she knit but will prepare and spin, dye and knit wool straight from the sheep. So one day she invited me to join her, what a fantastic day that was. We took some pictures so I thought I would share them with you all as it is all animal related, and very interesting.

In the foreground is the raw wool, washed but other wise just off the sheep. Then being put through the carder to get all the fibres going the right way for spinning.

After carding we can take the wool off the carder and get it ready for spinning.

This is me carding the wool, we need the dust mask as the wool has bits in it that get up your nose. It is a dirty job but someone has to do it.

So before and after, we have a bit of a mess and straggly fluff with bits in and after carding we have a neat ball of fluff that is ready for spinning. This reminded me of Balin's Beard from The Hobbit.

Spinning is a fiddly process indeed. It takes a while to get the hang of it. This is the spinning wheel version of spinning which would be quite quick once you get into it.

Bobbin spinning is even more fiddly, you need at least four hands and is hard to do sitting down.

Closer view of the spinning wheel process.

Holding the raw wool and drawing it out, holding the spun wool so it doesn't all twist up and spinning the wheel takes a lot of co-ordination indeed. I think I need more practice although Sue say's I did quite well.

This is what it looks like when it has been spun, not quite like the wool on the ball you see in the shop but this is only one ply and needs a bit more work to get it ready for knitting.

I chose a few colours that I like to blend together. The dark purple is Alpaca wool and the white is Silk, I put a few strands of gold in too to give a bit of sparkle.

After carding the colours all blend together make a rather nice colour indeed.

After spinning and plying with a plain white thread and gold strand this is my finished colourway. Not bad for my first spinning project even if I do say so myself.