I'm still working at finishing all that wool that I got from our teaching farm. I joined a handweavers and spinning guild last year. I've got so many projects in mind, but I can't get them done fast enough! I hope to keep posting about these in the near future. Next project is going to be a salvageless tapestry, but I have to figure out what design I'm gonna do first. The pics below are in order...Blue Rayon yarn, Navajo plied; Georgia Meets the Blue Meanies, tapestry on Canvas: Momentum - a totem, tapestry on a camphor branch; and an Andean Pick inkle woven dog collar and leash (Clover likes the collar, not so much the leash.
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I entered the County Faire this year with 2 skeins of yarn, one I spun from Charlie's hair (fur) and one skein from alpaca I was gifted from the Loma Vista Farm.
I aslo submitted a wall hanging weaving that I cleaned, carded, dyed and wove, from Hampshire wool, gifted to me from Loma Vista Farm as well. Actually they all won 1st Prize. Finito! I finally finished spinning. Ended up with 4 topcoat skeins (approx 143 yds) and 9 undercoat skeins (approx. 499.5 yds). I took one skein of the undercoat and crocheted some samples for before and after washing pictures. It fluffed up pretty nicely. Depending on how tightly you knit or crochet will definitely affect the outcome! I washed the top row in room temp water and the bottom row in HOT water. The shrinkage was minimal as well and almost no felting!
This is Tasha and Nikki, circa 1980s Fluffing and separating the "guard" hairs (or topcoat) and fluffy "undercoat", took a couple of hours to complete. Fluffed up I got almost 2 garbage bags of "undercoat" and 1 of the topcoat. The topcoat looks very much like human hair taken off of your daily brushing. Kinda course and matted. Altho, there's alot of "almost undercoat" in the mix! The undercoat floats around the room and makes your nose itch constantly. Right now I'm carding the topcoat and started to spin it as well. Stay tuned for the next steps! Click on each picture to enlarge!
Wow! It's been almost a year since I posted! But here I am to tell you the story of Tasha and Nikki! Or at least my story with them. My sister-in-law, Linda, had two Samoyeds back in the 1980's. And wow, yeah That is so long ago! She and Tasha and Nikki were very close. Linda groomed them and kept their fur in hopes of some day turning it into...well...something. I was privileged to meet and play with them, way back then. Fast forward to 2018, 19 and today. I fell in love with needle felting and was given a truck load of sheep and alpaca fleece. This led me to learn how to spin with a Turkish drop spindle, and then a kick spindle. And quite recently (a few weeks ago) I landed my first spinning wheel. I've been practicing and I'm getting better at spinning with the wheel, and then, Linda remembered her stash of fur and asked me if I could do something with it. Well yeah! I could spin it! (I think!) So today, starts the saga of The Tasha and Nikki Fur(ious Adventure)! This is Tasha and Nikki's fur. Linda's husband (Bill) packed it up for storage. And I mean he packed it up. The can on the left is a 30 gallon can, the one on the right, a 5 or 10 gallon paint bucket and my foot to show scale. The package in between is the fur, tightly packed and ready to be freed!. Tasha and Nikki get a bath and then sun dried! |
AuthorI am not the typical blogger. I will generally post very sporadically, but if you are really interested, check back here once in a while. Archives
February 2023
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