Use for a furry dog...or the crazy dog lady...
So, I've been sitting here. It's rainy. And when it's rainy, my mind wanders a lot of different places.
Some of those places are best not mentioned.
However, I've entered an area where I'm currently questioning my sanity and brilliance. Mainly my sanity.
It's no secret that I've become addicted to knitting. I've also become overly interested in Spinning. Now, at first, I hadn't gotten to the point my knitting friend Mat has gotten to. I had no desires of owning sheep, or llamas, or rabbits...or anything of the sort, and pursuing the creation of yarn from beginning of the process to the end result.
That process, for folks that have little clue about the mess and work involved is something (heavily simplified mind you) like this:
1. Acquire fleece/fur/what have you by sheering, combing, deshedding animal.
Next two steps are interchangable I believe.
2. Wash acquired fur.
3. Card acquired fur. This process involves running the fur/fleece through a machine or between cards, which are pieces of wood with fine steel teeth along it. You litterally comb the fur/fleece until you get...
Roving! A rope like fluffy substance that looks an awful lot like the stuffing that comes in bags and you put in dolls and things that you can buy at Walmart.
4. Spin the roving. This is a process of pulling the roving and stretching the entagled fibers of your fur/fleece and twisting them together to where they become yarn.
5. Set the twist with another washing or letting it sit a few days so the yarn will not untwist itself.
6. Ply the yar with another yarn so it's a bit thicker and more durable by twisting the yarn the opposite way you twisted before.
7. Repeat step five.
8. Dye yarn. Or you can do this before step 4 and dye the roving.
It's a really long process. Potentially really messy. And I had no intentions of doing this...
It's a really long process. Potentially really messy. And I had no intentions of doing this...
Until yesterday.
As stated above...you can spin damn near anything. A lot of yarn isn't straight wool. There's a lot of blends that contain fur from goats, rabbits, llamas, Alpacas...mmm...Alpaca.
I've finally gotten Bailey to lay for me for 5-10 minutes at a time so I can brush her. She has a really soft undercoat and I'm noticing that I'm not getting a whole lot of guard hairs (the coarse stuff) when I brush her...
Yeah. You see where this is going?
I'm questioning my sanity right now as I'm now bagging the soft fluffy stuff when I brush her and have been looking up equipment for the past 24 hours. I'm no where near the point where I can invest $1000 for the carding equipment and spinning wheel I'd like, but it's something I'm thinking about. Especially after being in KC this weekend and seeing all the potential for knitting and handspun yarn at faires.
Yes...I've gone crazy.
Non knitting related, I've looked back into some possible ideas for Collars again, since Bailey's is tore to hell right now. I think next month I'll make her another collar with the help of Justin and a trip to the leather factory.
Went back to the vet yesterday and came home with new medicine for Sey. Hopefully, we'll see her clearing up soon. I feel awful for the little girl.
Well, there is work to be done and knitting to dominate! Until then...*waves*
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1 comments:
I totally understand where you are coming from!! Lately my mind has been idly wondering where in my mess I could possibly put a spinning wheel. I even told my husband he could get me said wheel for Christmas (which seemed to be working until he did a search and discovered how much they cost). I have bags and bags of lovely soft sheltie undercoat which would make some very nice mittens! Enough for mittens for the whole neighbourhood!
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