I started working on a fleece.
So I bought a washed shetland fleece a few weeks ago and the hand cards back in December. Hand cards were $45 with shipping and that was a great deal. I planned to get some in March or April but the price was good.
The fleece was a 1 lb 8oz and I was told it had 2-3 inch staples.
I was in the middle of a difficult spinning project when it arrived so I took a quick look at it and put it away.
Then yesterday, I pulled it out and started looking it over. First thing I noticed was that there was no obvious head or butt end, which I expected given that it is a washed fleece. It seems to be a tiny bit felted in the cut ends of locks, probably was handled a little bit before it was fully dry but who knows, that might be how it goes.
More pictures ahoy
Second thing I noticed was that most of the locks were actually 4-5 inches long. There was some 2-3 inch locks but most were 4-5 inches and had guard hairs and undercoat. This is ones of the 4-5 inch staples
I took a few of the shorter locks and carded those
Then I started working on the longer locks. I’ve been pulling the longer guard hairs off and setting them aside. I can’t tell which way the picture will post, but the wool closer to the handle of the card is the undercoat and the wool further from the handle is the guard hairs
I’ve also been setting aside the shorter locks to do those separately.
And now I’ve got rolags! This is about an hour of carding and I’ve done more since this picture.
I also tried spinning the guard hairs to make thread and I ended up with a thickness similar to quilting thread! If I spun on a supported or hand held spindle and combed the fibers I could probably get it thinner. It’s nice and strong and totally usable.
Guard hairs
The quilting thread is held between my fingers for a size comparison, it’s pretty close. I actually use quilting thread for all my sewing because I don’t sew much and that’s what I have and it doesn’t matter for the stuff I’m making. I do want to try using my thread to sew at some point. I may also send some to B (dragonlady7) to see if it is suitable for embroidery since I have no idea!
I also started flicking the locks before loading the cards because of the vegetative matter that is stuck in the locks and to release the felted lock ends. Doesn’t take too long and I just use a dog slicker brush that sits on my chair’s arm. Definitely noticed a decrease in vm in the rolags once I started doing that. Most of it will fall out in spinning but why let them get that far?
Overall, I really enjoy using the hand cards! I switched to using my left hand as the moving hand, so I can rest my right hand in between spinning. So it works out super well. I can do it during conference sessions right now and it goes pretty quick. I thought it might be a bit tedious but it’s actually pretty nice. I’m going to spin them soon and I think I want to work through this fleece before I buy more. Like a sensible person. Who definitely didn’t just buy a pound of alpaca roving. Shhhh, it was cheap and is very nice. Any fleece I buy next will be from Clemes & Clemes Good Clean Fiber page, which is definitely more expensive than random etsy purchases but is guaranteed to be high quality fleece and well washed.
Depending on what comes up on spinning and fleece preparation sale forums, I may get combs sooner but right now, I’m thinking I’ll get those in a couple months. And once I’ve checked that my tetanus shots are up to date.
I won’t be venturing into raw fleece anytime soon, still no good way to store/wash/dry. Maybe once we’ve moved. I’m looking into first time homebuyer stuff now and will hopefully start poking at that soon although renting is still more likely to happen. My bank account doesn’t look spectacular right this minute because my dog’s insurance just got renewed. The real estate market isn’t wild around here like some other places so there are actually a couple decent options on the market now but I’m not quite ready to make the leap yet since we’ve still got 7 months on our lease.
I’ve got a project on the wheel right now but the shetland is next!