So, I recently got back into spinning wool after not doing it for about a year. I guess I was to busy with life and moving and building a house and landscaping and .... well I could go on, but I'll stop.
But I've gotten back into spinning. I started out spinning on my spindle again
and then decided I wanted to take a class. There is a local place called the sheep shed where they offered a spinning class for $40. the class is around 4 hours so I thought it was worth it.
The class was fun and while maybe not worth $40, it was a lot of fun. The lady who taught it is recovering from cancer and she and her husband are in their 70's. She spent the first hour or so going over wool quality and types of wool and gave us a lot of pointers on buying quality wool and types of sheep that produce that wool. Also what to look for when buying wool (veggie matter, etc).
We also spent about 1.5 hours spinning on various spinning wheels. Of course I liked the $700 wheel the best. That's not going to happen!
Anyway, after having so much fun, I came up with all sorts of possible money making ideas that would make it possible for me to really get into spinning.
After much thought, of course none seem really feasible.
Anyway, for my birthday my hubby gave me the latest Nancy Drew game !!!! and said that I could spend $50 over at the Sheep Shed. I decided that if I was really going to get into spinning, I should think about getting some sheep eventually. So if I was going down to that level, then the best thing for me to buy for my birthday would be some carders for combing and blending wool. When I called the Sheep shed to make an appointment, Cleo , the owner said that she would give me some wool to play around with as well.
Well, when I got there, she pointed out a huge back of yucky looking wool. There was a lot of it though. So I felt like I should spend a little more money in her shop to help cover it. So I spent another $15 and bought a Niddy Noddy for winding spun wool.
Hubby thankfully wasn't upset when I came home having spent $73 instead of $50. He was little surprised though.
Anyway I weighed the wool. To my surprise it was 2 pounds. Wool typically sells around here for $5/lb, so Cleo really gave me a great gift. Anyway, before washing the wool I thought for sure it was multi colored brown colors. I wasn't super thrilled, but was excited to try washing and carding wool.
I put the wool in a huge bucket of hot water and dish soap. After that, I took it out and gave it 2 rinses (1-2 hour soak) in hot water. This rinses out the rest of the soap and lanolin.
Imagine my surprise when the wool came out off white. Now I should mention that each sheep varies in the shade of white that it produces. Also each sheep's wool takes dyes differently. So you typically dye all the wool at one time, and probably try and limit the sheep involved. A fleece from a sheep typically weighs around 5 pounds.
Anyway, I dried the wool next to the fire for the next few days. Then I started to card the wool.
after carding, it looks like this
It took about a week to get through all of that wool.
I should probably mention that you can dye the wool at two different stages in the process. You can dye it after washing it, or you can dye it after spinning it. I chose to dye after spinning it.
It took about 2 weeks to card and spin the wool.
In the meantime a project had been suggested to me. My parents are going to serve a mission for our church in the spring and Mom would need a sturdy church bag. I forget where I got the original idea from, but it got me excited. Now I remember. From this blog - http://letsknit2gether.com/blog1/
So after the wool was all spun, I had to figure out how I was going to dye it all. For wool (or any animal fiber) the best dye is a protein based dye. If you go this route, you need to buy pots, pans, measuring stuff, and stirring spoons specifically for this. You can never use these things again for food cooking.
Since I don't have that kind of disposable income, I opted to go another route. Kool-aid. Now, this dye does have its problems. It will fade over time. But for my purpose, it seemed ideal. A bag doesn't get washed very often. So the only way for the color to fade seems to be regular use, and maybe the sun.
So I bought several colors of off brand kool-aid and a couple of packets of real kool-aid blue and dark red that weren't available in the off brands.
I experimented with these colors in the microwave and then showed the results to my Mom and let her choose. I have to admit I sort of talked her into my favorite. Purple. the purple wasn't that dark purple you might think of. I'll add a picture once I have it. She was leaning towards a dark red or blue thinking they would hold up better. I was thinking more about what color would go with more outfits. :)
Anyway, it took me a couple of hours and every packet of purple I had to get the right shade. Even then I had to grab a couple packets of blue and red and mix them to get the right shade and add them to. I really liked that effect. It made the purple more reddish. It was nice.
Anyway, after that, I hung it all up to dry in my laundry room and almost overnight it was dry enough to start crocheting.
After looking at bunches of patterns on the web, I couldn't find any I thought would hold up to what my mom needed the bag for.
So I decided to design my own. This resulted in a week or so of crocheting and re-doing. This was partly because of design stuff, crochet errors, and even running out of yarn.
Anyway, after a week I was ready to felt. Here is the result.
With a box for shape -
Without the box -
I think Dad is going to put a cardboard square into the bottom of it for shape.
Now I'm really into felting. Since the first bag, I have crocheted and felted a purse for me
I haven't decided if I like it yet.
2 soap holder thingeys for use in the shower from this website - http://bricoreandfamily.blogspot.com/
and a pair of slippers for C that I will felt today.
before -
After -
I'm not sure if they are felted enough. I think I'd like to try and felt them some more.
Now here's the problem. I'm out of wool. Without wool or some other fiber from and animal, I can't felt.
What am I going to do? I am going through withdrawals!!!!!!
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