Regarding putting fine fiber into coarser fiber...I didn't realize that the
coarser fiber would completely take over the finer fiber. I will learn this
less this way, rather than do it by mistake. It seems like this could be an
expensive lesson to learn and one I'd prefer not to make. Thank you for
this discussion. So, was the Romney the 70% or the 30% of that blend?
Is Romney always coarse? I have a registered Romney ram I got for free from
a local person along with two registered Finn ewes, and all their fiber
seems very soft, not coarse at all. Is this unusually for a Romney ram?
He's got so much fiber on him right now that he looks like that merino who
had not been sheared for 7 years...except in a nice light tan color.
Holly, you go, girl! I'm knitting one out of silver gray Icelandic for
Lance for the same reason. You can get some really cheap wool sweaters, but
they are not nearly as nice as the hand spun, hand knit or crocheted ones.
Again, since gas went up, the prices on any kind of hand made goods has
nearly doubled and even store bought, manufactured goods are about 1/3 more
expensive because of gas prices in transporting them from countries like
China, India, Pakistan, etc. Besides, it's so much more rewarding,
especially if you can find a nice pattern or create one on your own.
I add my waste wool to my bird nesting supply projects or to my compost. It
eventually breaks down and becomes part of the ecology after a time (not a
real fast breakdown, but it adds fertilizer and keeps moisture in the
soil), which plastic yarn does not. It just feels better to me and keeps
you much warmer. Wool has been around a heck of a lot longer than plastic
yarn has and plastics do not break down very easily at all and if you burn
plastics, you get a very harmful smoke depending on what plastic they used
to create the yarns. Some doesn't even feel good at all.
I stopped buying commercially processed/spun wool yarns because they are
almost always scratchy. That's why I make my yarn and garments from hand
processed, hand spun wool that I've grown myself or I buy raw fiber from
someone else, then process it myself. It just feels better and I love being
that involved in the whole process. It's hard to explain, but it makes me
feel better in the end...like in a way I'm part of that pioneer spirit. It
is such a spiritual feeling. I've tried explaining this to my FIL and he
just doesn't get it, but then he can't even fix a light switch without
putting the wires in wrong and blowing up the electrical panel (he did that
to the house they lived in down in SoCal before they bought the house up
here--but he had to pay to get the house re-wired). I've firmly figured out
that some people get fiber from scratch and some do not. He keeps telling
me I'm wasting my time, but that's not how I feel. It's a matter of quality
over quantity and spirituality over not being part of the answer.
I bought some of that silk remnant yarn from Tibet through SWAK or
whomever. I hated it. It hurt my fingers to knit with it because of that
overtwisting. Within the last four years ago, Spin-Off had a great article
on how to not overtwist fiber. I remember my first excursion into spinning
alpaca and I overspun it and it was so harsh all I could do to salvage it
was to create a new product called "Soft Scrubbees (TM)," which are
tightly, over spun alpaca fibers that are used as a dermabrasion
cloth...and it works because once the over spun fibers are wet, they work
better at debrading the skin than those plastic scrubbers do and don't
leave your face feeling raw. Those are some of my biggest sellers at the
farmers' market, so now I have to over-spin at least 1/3 of the alpaca
fleece crop so that people will have their Soft Scrubbees (TM). The nice
thing is that they don't leak fibers when you use them and eventually they
will felt but that doesn't affect how well they work. So, my thought on
make mistakes when you spin, is that you have to find a way to salvage your
mistakes. I did with my over spun alpaca yarn and came out with a product
that I can sell on POS stands at the local bath and body shops as well as
at the farmers market.
Jet Tenley: Fiber Artist & Instructor
Celtic Crossroads Alpacas, Finnsheep & Icelandic sheep
1887 W. Highway 12
Walla Walla, WA 99362-8529
Phone: 509.522.0348
Cell: 509.240.2231
URL: http://www.celticxroads.com (parked at the moment)
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Yahoo email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Yahoo Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spinning_diva/
& http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BlueMountain-FiberCircle/
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