Tuesday, 11 November 2008

Spinning in the grease - how to make wool!








I thought you might be interested to see it from start to finish - never amazes me that I can now make my own wool!
As you probably know, I have an - err, abundance of fleeces at the moment! The problem this time of year is washing and drying them; there's no chance of drying them outdoors, so I had a go at spinning in the grease for the first time. This is where you take from the fleece directly, card and spin it without washing it first. first picture is the fleece I was using - three of teh most recent fleeces were sorted, and I had enough to only need to use the very best of them. The carders are on top, not my own ones, but some borrowed ones, finer than mine. My own ones are awaiting repair just now.
Next picture is of a rolag, over the wheel. This is the result of rolling the carded wool off the carders - straightens the fibres and aligns them for ease of spinning. Third picture is of the filled bobbins - about 3 hours work there; following on is them on the Lazy Kate - this holds the bobbins from which you take the yarn for plying together, using the wheel. An S twist is inserted into the wool as it is spun, then two S twisted yarns are plied together in the opposite direction, inserting a Z twist, to form a knitting wool. The last photo is the finished skeins weighing 100grams in total. The wool at this stage is very greasy, bit smelly and dirty, some bits of hay, straw, bramble, etc included. The skeins were then washed in hot water with a squirt of Ecover, left to steep for about half an hour, washed, then rinsed. They are drying now, up on the pulley above the Rayburn, and should be ready to roll into balls tonight I hope. The change in the skeins once washed and dried is amazing, and I'm really looking forward to knitting it up - not sure what into yet, though.

4 comments:

Eileen said...

How wonderful to have all that fleece.....I spend a fortune to buy small bits for my felted landscapes - I collect and use the white hair from my dog too. Your hands must be so soft from the lanolin....take care....

aromatic said...

Such a wonderful art. The whole thing amazes me and what a delightful end result. Must be a really incredible feeling knitting with your own spun wool!
Jane xxx

MrsL said...

Eileen - I have various bits of coloured, prepared fleece spare if you would like them,a nd could send some fleece as well, raw or washed,c arded etc. If you would like some, just e-mail me and let me know and I can post it off to you. You'd be doing me a favour stash-wise! LOL

I keep eyeing up our dog too, funnily enough.............

hen said...

fabulous MrsL!! Just what I need to read about!