Wednesday, November 02, 2005

What I need to start Spinning Wool

The thing I need most is patience - that has been building, especially these past few years after college ;o)

On to the physical things/equipment :

1. A drop spindle or spinning wheel.
--What am I doing about it : I have a bid on a spindle kit on ebay.

2. A pair of hand carders for wool.
--What am I doing about it : I've been scouting prices, watching items.. I've set my mind that after I get the spindle, the carders will be the next month or so.
Update : I've posted a 'want' ad for used carders on FiberFling - with a ceiling price. Maybe someone else has a pair lying about, willing to be sold.

3. Sew a nylon bag for washing fleece.
--What am I doing about it : This is a cinch once 1 & 2 are complete.

4. Get a wool fleece to try my preparation.
--What will I do about it : If my spinning on the spindle is turning out good, then the next logical step will be to cruise more fleece auctions on Ebay, and/or, look to the Fiberfling group for a fleece. I would really like a Jacob fleece, but the skirting and separation will be more important at this stage.

------Use my nylon bag in the washing machine to wash the fleece per the instructions on Joy of Handspinning

------Do some hand separation and drying etc...

------Use the wool carders to prepare the roving from the washed fleece.

------Try a natural dyeing method?

------Spin some of the roving on my spindle.

Other things to think about - My cats are going to go nuts over a spindle ;o)

in other news : 2nd mousie for kittens, done. They love it. They 'lost' the other one - I can't find it anywhere. They may have hid it to 'eat' later.

ktbl must be wrong. It didn't work at all. I ended up with two rows of garter stitch instead of two rows of ktbl,p1 raised ribbing. If I think logically about it — maybe I need to try Knittinghelp.com's version of purl through the back -- because if I ended up with garter stitch... *insert brain logic here*, and I do most of their stitches 'backward'... *insert more logic here*

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