It is better to have carded than to have never carded at all

A few weeks ago I purchased a lamb fleece. I wanted the experience of processing a raw fleece. Why? So that I could say I did it and so I can fully appreciate the amount of time and energy it takes to process a fleece "the old fashioned way". 

I washed the fleece in my bathtub using a large mesh bag and Dawn dish soap to remove the lanolin oils from the fiber. I had to wash and rinse several times before all the dirt and lanolin were removed.

I then spread the washed fleece out on an old towel and put a box fan on it to let it dry. This wool is so soft!

So now I am in the midst of the long and tedious process of carding and spinning.

Hand carding raw fleece sucks. This is when I need a drum carder or a fiber mill to speed up this part. I had to do some adjustments to my wheel to spin this fiber, mainly with tension to get the yarn to wind onto my bobbin. 

I honestly don't plan on ever processing another fleece by hand. If I ever own sheep, I will definately be sending the fleeces off to the fiber mill. The time and energy it takes to hand process fleece is just not practical. Angora is much easier to deal with because you barely have to do anything to it before you spin it.

I assure you, that this fleece is not going to waste. I'm sticking it out, I'm gonna card and spin this into yarn, damn it. Because I'm a fiber artist, and I need to say I've done this. 

Note: from now on I will be buying roving for spinning projects.

Wool!

Thanks to a dear friend, I recently scored four huge garbage bags of Llama and Alpaca wool from a farm in Waterford. I think I will have enough wool to spin for quite some time. The wool was really clean so I did not have to do much soaking but it took a full day and a half to get through two bags.

Also, many thanks to my father-in-law who got both of my antique spinning wheels in working order, so that I have a mechanism to actually spin all of this wool!  Yes, there will be many future spinning posts. After all, I bartered all of this wool in exchange for making a few hats with the finished product.

Angora Baby Hats

I can't wait to model these hats on our little one, so I just had to give you a preview. The purple ear flap hat is my first attempt at plying the Angora with wool and dying it. The plying allows me to get more out of the angora fiber and I like the strength and dimension it creates. The grey hat is all  undyed angora and is incredibly soft. I never thought I would get this kind of satisfaction from raising Angora rabbits. I love caring for them, harvesting their wool, spinning it and then knitting it into something special.

The Spinning Continues

Sorry folks, it's been a long time since our last post. We have had a few ups and downs earlier this year and we are still moving toward a more self sustainable lifestyle (we just haven't had much time to blog about it).

But I wanted to share how good I am getting at spinning all this angora wool! I am quite proud. I am actually getting large enough skeins where I can finally start making knitted items. I also found the secret to spinning pure angora yarn - a really lightweight drop spindle. The tension is perfect and does not break the fiber while spinning. I tried spinning it on a larger drop spindle with not much luck.

Bunny Love

Denali (left) and Acadia (right) have officially made themselves at home. I am so excited to see the amount of wool these two will yield.

We were originally going with two black does, but then Urban Abode offered me her opal doe. The two colors will give me more variation with my spinning. 

My first skein of yarn

I am so proud! I made this superwash merino skein from a beginning spinning kit I got off Etsy. The whole process went rather smoothly, it took me a bit to get the tension and spin right with the drop spindle. This yarn turned out kind of bulky, and I love it.

My only fault was that when I was dying the yarn in the microwave, I melted the plastic container and some of the plastic wrap that the directions told me to use to set the dye into the fiber. So I had to pick out bits of melted plastic out of my yarn! Faulty directions or user error? I am going to have to research some different dying methods.

Two Angoras

Photo courtesy of Urban Angoras

These will be the two new additions to our little urban homestead! I will get picture updates on them every week until they are ready to come home on March 9th. I'm not sure what their names will be yet, but we are busy preparing for their arrival.