Wool by any other color

Wool preparation

One could easily go out to the store and get prepared wool ready for spinning or finished yarn for whatever craft desired. However, you may find that the preparation of the wool is as much fun as the actual spinning, weaving or kniting of it. There are a number of places one can purchase raw wool that has been sheared from a sheep. Raw wool needs to be throughly cleaned to remove both the oils and the dirt from it. Once cleaned, it can be carded, combed and/or dyed

For cleaning raw wool there is nothing like Dawn liquid detergent, and lots of it. Fill the largest utility tub you have available. I use side by did utility sinks in the workroom. One to soak the fiber and the other to transfer it to when its time to change the water. Even though it is tempting to run you hands through soaking wool, it must not be agitated or it will likely felt. Fill the tub with the hottest water you can and the use about a cup of dawn per large load. Place the wool in the water, not so much that the fiber is crowded, and make sure it us pressed below the water level. (I use a grate with a weight). Do not play with it. Walk away for about 45 min to an hour. Then fill another tub with hot water. Drain the wool the best you can and then transfer to the rinse water and let it sit. Repeat the rinse. I do this at least twice so that the wool sits in two siap solutions and 4 rinse waters. After the final draining, I spin the wool using the spin cycle of my my wasking machine. It has never hurt my machine. Actually, you can do the whole procedure in the machine, lifting out the wool as you refill the drum. NEVER NEVER NEVER run water over wet wool, especially COLD WATER. This is will felt that lovely fleece. I have used a quarter cup denatured alcohol on very greasy fleece like merino in a rinse solution but remember denatured alcohol is very very poisonous. The better you drain the fleece between solutions the more effective the washing will be.
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After the wool is washed and most of the water is spun out. Lift the mass of fiber out. It should appear clean and not feel tacky and sticky. Take the fiber to a location with lots of room and fluff out the fibers to dry. I have wooden trayes with chicken wire grate that I spread the fibers on outside in a protected area. As the wool drys, it will blow away if not watched. There are collorful bits of wool decorating lots of bushes around my house. Turn the wool over from time to time to help it dry. Don't set it on wet ground or allow it to get rained on. I have found sun light does not hurt it, although I have read where that is not recommended.

You can effectively dye it now (in the fleece, or "in the wool") or later. The next step is carding or combing. I do both depending on the the type of yarn I wish. If I am combining fibers or blending colors, I use handcards. A drum carder would be lovely but it is expensive. For the smoothest yearns, I use huge, deadly looking english combs. The waste is tremendous, but the product is lovely. Combing get rid of knots and junk nicely. I have sent of large lots of fleece for commercial carding and then combed it. It saved me much time. Fantasy Fibers did the nicest job with colors.

The one thing I haven't had the chance to do, is raise the sheep. Our subdivision is adamant about NOT doing that. Oh well.

I have used many other fibers and blends. The best thing to do if your interested is to find of spinning\weaving craft shop, a spinning guild. or go to a fiber fair.

See Highlights of the 1999 Wool Festival in Maryland

Spinning and Plying

Round and round and round and round and......

You get the picture - taking the clean combed wool and making it into yarn is a never ending project. There is always one more bag of it to spin. Once the wool has been spun, multiple threads of it are plyed to make a yarn. The most beautiful yarn is that made from naturally colored wool although plying colors and textures are always an adventure.

I use a Lendrum double treadle wheel, and love it and have both the cstle and saxony. Drop spinning is fun too but I can't produce the same volume that I can with my wheel. Some collect wheels, but with the two I have, I don't think I need more.

Weaving

What to do with the spun yarn? Well, one of the options is to weave it into some sort of cloth.

Triangle loom

A Triangle Loom produces wonderful shawls. The loom is adjustable from a triangle of about 2 feet on the long side to about 6 feet. These triangles can either
be used as a shawl or can be combined to make a larger piece of material for some sort of covering.

Squares

Remember the old pot holder loom of many years ago that was about 6 inches by 6 inches? Well, plans still exist for them. They make wonderful squares of
material that can be combined to make interesting blankets and coverings.

Table loom

Quite an undertaking and not for the faint hearted or those with little time. I dream of such a thing but time is a premium. I have a lovely rigid headle one, but
"dressing" it is quite an undertaking. Who knows, maybe when I retire........

Knitting

A number of things can be done with that wool that has been spun besides making it into some sort of fabric. After spinning and spinning and spinning and finding no time to weave, I had to do figure out something to do with the yarn. So, I learned how to knit. Below are some pictures of some items that have been knitted from the home spun wool.. I taught myself so it is not at all hard. After a lifetime of saying I couldn't do it (I was a confrmed crocheter), it was surprisingly easy with lots and lots of practice. It helps to find a knitter to validate your technique ("Watch me and see if I am doing it right"), and to get a video or two. I personally love knitting in the round and from the top down. It spares endless finishing.

Patternworks is an excellent source of knitiing needs.
A vest made from home spun wool for the 16 year old.

A cap and mitten set made for a new born.

Too shy for the camera?

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