Several of you have wondered as to my whereabouts and activities. I landed at Cousin Betsy's in Albuquerque, where, in between getting a spare car key cut so I could lock the dogs in the car with the AC on, buying dog food since traveling with my homemade stuff is not easy, and getting a new touch pad for my McBook Pro, I've been playing with LLAMA FLEECE.
A friend in Wise gave me the fleece from her two llamas. I've been wanting to wash, card, spin, and weave it, just to be able to say "Oh, yes. I washed, carded, spun, and wove it myself." Of course, if I really, really wanted to be a fiber snob, I'd grow the llama and shear it myself.
I started with one tub of llama fleece....unwashed, but, fortunately, not too dirty.
Then, I wrapped a portion of the fleece in mosquito netting and immersed it gently in tepid, soapy water. These activities take place in the back yards and back porch.
I swished very, very gently, so as not to turn the fleece into felt. I let it sit for awhile, then swished again. After half an hour or so, I lifted the netting, heavy now with wet fleece, out of the tub and onto
Betsy's clothesline, where I let it drip while I emptied the water from the wash tub, refilled, and gently immersed..... Repeat until water runs clear, 3 to 4 times.
It is at this point, looking at all the water I'm using for a very small batch of fleece, that I begin to wonder how the Navajos wash sheep fleece in arid Navajo country. Betsy and I postulated stock tanks. After the final rinse, I spread a sheet on the ground and scattered the wet fleece around to dry.
Gradually, clean fleece accumulated
until I had a pile and was ready to card. A friend of Betsy's had lent her a drum carder
which turns fleece into spinnable fiber, called a batt, much easier than using hand carders. I tried with a hand carder once, for about five minutes and knew I would have been an abject failure as a pioneer. I fed the fleece into the drum carder, turned the handle, and voila, something resembling a spinnable object began to appear.
I moved to the front porch as the back porch faces west. A wonderful work space. The batt produced by a novice (moi) resembles a Halloween fright wig.
Trust me. A professionally carded batt does notnotnot look like a Halloween fright wig. But I'm new at this so..... I now have a small stack of Halloween fright wigs
which will one day become yarn.
All of the above supervised, gently and with love, by
A friend in Wise gave me the fleece from her two llamas. I've been wanting to wash, card, spin, and weave it, just to be able to say "Oh, yes. I washed, carded, spun, and wove it myself." Of course, if I really, really wanted to be a fiber snob, I'd grow the llama and shear it myself.
I started with one tub of llama fleece....unwashed, but, fortunately, not too dirty.
I swished very, very gently, so as not to turn the fleece into felt. I let it sit for awhile, then swished again. After half an hour or so, I lifted the netting, heavy now with wet fleece, out of the tub and onto
It is at this point, looking at all the water I'm using for a very small batch of fleece, that I begin to wonder how the Navajos wash sheep fleece in arid Navajo country. Betsy and I postulated stock tanks. After the final rinse, I spread a sheet on the ground and scattered the wet fleece around to dry.
I moved to the front porch as the back porch faces west. A wonderful work space. The batt produced by a novice (moi) resembles a Halloween fright wig.
Trust me. A professionally carded batt does notnotnot look like a Halloween fright wig. But I'm new at this so..... I now have a small stack of Halloween fright wigs
which will one day become yarn.
All of the above supervised, gently and with love, by
