World of Woolcraft

Last night after dinner my son asked me if I wanted to play the XBox game Resident Evil 5. "No." I'd rather wash wool. It occurred to me that if they designed a game that was more interesting to me I'd play XBox. Maybe a game where you had a flock of sheep and if your sheep ran away you could go to different areas (XBox Live-interactive)to get them. You could shear and sell fleece, maybe buy more sheep with the money. There could be a lambing challenge of some sort. When I told this to my son and husband they agreed that it sounds like a game I would play. My husband promptly titled it World of Woolcraft.

So instead of having bonding time with my teenager, I took my latest fleece purchase out of the box and checked it out. Nutmeg is a Shetland. I have about 2 1/2 lbs here. As I sorted through it I decided to keep the locks intact and carefully wash them.

I divided the fleece into three sections. Shorter locks with lots of crimp, long locks, and "other" which is the more tangled pieces that I'll end up carding.

I'm going to flick card the shorter locks, comb the long locks, and card the "other" locks. I'll probably dye the "other" batch also. I washed all the long locks by hand---lock by lock method. That means I dipped them in hot soapy water then rinsed them carefully under the running faucet. This actually went really fast and left them in excellent condition. I washed the shorter locks carefully in a shallow hot soapy sink and rinsed them so that the locks stayed aligned. I'm almost done with that process. While that's all drying, I'll wash and dye the "other" batch later today.

Odd Balls

I took time today to wind all the odd skeins into balls. These are the skeins that I spun last year that just got thrown into the back to the closet. Once I pulled them out and decided to process them I realized that the colors were really interesting. (The spinning was lumpy and uneven.) Some are natural wool, some were dyed with natural dyes, and some were dyed with acid dyes. That bright yellow one was dyed with Osage Orange (natural dye) and it's obviously the brightest.

Spring Cleaning

It was more like spring organizing...  I went though my spinning and knitting jumble the other day.  This is a photo of some of the unprocessed yarn I made last year.  At the time I must have felt these skeins were unworthy of a good soak.  Now they are on the top of my to-do list.  

To do: set twist on oddball skeins.

Fiber Art in Public Places

I stopped by a diner on the way from Great Falls to Helena. Over by the pool cues I spotted this large piece of fiber art. What do you think?

Looking for raw fleece?

I really loved the fleece I bought from Maplewood North last year.  They have recently sheered and have put the fleece for sale up on their website.  Check it out: Maplewood North

This fiber prep work is getting old!

After hours of picking though 5 lbs of wool, I went crazy and made a wig. Need I say more?

Spring!

Now that I'm done moving my office to the new building, I hope to have more time for yarn. All my creative energy went into fixin' up the new place so I have basically done nothing with fiber for weeks. Every so often I'd comb wool a little bit while watching TV, but that's it. The photo is of the combed product ready to spin. Tonight I got out the carder and carded some of the seconds from the colored Shetland. That will be fun to try to spin.

Spring means more to me this year. While living in Seattle I noticed there was little difference between winter and spring other than a few buds on the trees. Here in Montana, Spring is like Prozac! I'm starting to feel hopeful. Unfortunately, side effects may include: winter relapse and mud.