365Caws is now in its 16th year of publication. If I am unable to post daily, I hope readers who love the natural world and fiberarts will seize those days to read the older material. Remember that this has been my journey as well, so you may find errors in my identifications of plants. I have tried to correct them as I discover them. Likewise, I have refined fiberarts techniques and have adjusted recipes, so search by tags to find the most current information. And thank you for following me!
Wednesday, April 14, 2021
Spinning My Wheels
Day 183: The pandemic has left me feeling as if I'm spinning my wheels. Oh, hang on a mo'...that's exactly what I've been doing. In addition to my other fiber-arts projects, I have not only been spinning woolon my 40-year old Louët, I've taken up the new sport of turning cotton into thread on a charkha. Not only did I finish up 42 ounces of "cinnamon twist" (white Corriedale plied with a cinnamon-coloured lamb's wool), I polished off a pound and a half of silver-grey Gotland over the last month. Now I have moved on to a lightly washed raw fleece I call "Honey-lamb" for its golden overtones. It was a gift from another spinner, and I've felt guilty about not getting to it before this. While I normally card my wool into batts and spin directly from them, Honey-lamb seems to want to be processed into rolags in order to achieve a smooth yarn, perhaps because it is a very long-staple fiber, measuring out at 5.5-6.0 inches on average. I spent last night and part of this morning filling my basket with rolags, wool which has been carded and formed into loose rolls. Tonight, I will spin up as many as time allows. And so it goes: card and spin, card and spin. Sometimes spinning your wheels is a good thing.
Labels:
carders,
honey-lamb,
rolags,
Shelby's fleece,
spinning wheel
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)

No comments:
Post a Comment