Saturday, August 21, 2010

pulling yarn like taffy

Part of the excitement of this lovely bundle of alpaca is how it's encouraging me to learn about spinning. Right now I'm working on longdraw drafting, still working through the hairier stuff that I pulled out for practice pieces. I dyed it green - some came out blue from the tailings in the dyepot. I spun up the blue without any particular aim, and navajo plied it into 38 yards of somewhat lumpy yarn. Then I took my time carding the really green stuff into smooth rolags - smaller is better it seems, or at least easier. I've spun a bobbin and a half of that, learning along the way. First lesson (learned from the blue stuff, actually): the smoother your fiber prep, the smoother you can make the yarn. Spinning won't magically make those lumps go away. Second lesson: don't try to spin alpaca when it's hot and humid - sticky hands make more lumps.
Londraw in particular has been challenging (maybe I should give it more than 2 days?) but still more fun than frustrating. The basic idea is to build up twist in a few inches of yarn, then let that twist into the fiber mass, getting just the right amount of twist per inch to let the fibers slip past each otherinto a nice even yarn. This is the part that feels like pulling taffy when you get it right, which I have once or twice. I think there's also something going on with thick spots taking up less twist, so they keep slipping while the thinner parts stay as they are. This doesn't always work the way I think it should - I've had a lot more breaks and thin spots in this yarn than when I was doing short-draw. When it cools off a bit I'll finish the second bobbin and ply them onto a CD spindle. Then I get to start on the really soft stuff!! or work on making wool combs - we got the welding rods for them today, much puzzling the fellows behind the counter. "good luck with your yarning" they said as we left.

Monday, August 9, 2010

more alpaca

I've washed a little bit of it, spun a little bit of it, even dyed a little bit of it. It's still a joy to work with, and I'm learning more about fiber and spinning all the time. First off, some book recommendations: Spinning in the Old Way by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts and Women's Work, the first 20,000 Years by Elizabeth Wayland Barber.

Here's another attempt at properly embedding photos.
This one is my drying set-up for the washed fleece. I actually spread the fleece out and fold the curtain over it to make a nice drying sandwich.

Hmph. can't tell if it's my fault, Blogger's, or the slow connection, but pictures are not working well. Poop.

Monday, July 26, 2010

my new, exciting project




This is a project that as soon as I started it - even before I started - it has been occupying my mind, all of my free time, and even some of my not-so-free time. It started with a visit to an Alpaca farm, and a bag of fleece. It's from a fellow named Puck - he's a white huacuya. The fleece spilled off the edges of the twin sheet I spread it out on to sort it. I sorted it into 3 sections - grassy bits with a little less crimp that look like they're from the legs, really dirty stuff from the middle of his back, and the beautiful crimp locks that have mostly dust on them.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

in one day

It's a little thing, just a fleece envelope around a stack of quilt batting, but I made a pillow! and it came out exactly the way I wanted it to! I love it when that happens.