worth the work

Posted on Posted in book reviews/events, lace/shawls, projects, spinning and fiber

if you ask beth smith, she will tell you that prepping your own fleece by hand is the best way to achieve a beautiful spinning fiber. it’s not the nicest job—being comprised mainly of removing poop and dried sweat from the shorn locks, then teasing out the matted, tangled clumps—but it’s not the worst job ever, either.

and to entice us into doing our own at home once in a while, she met us halfway on some of the fibers we are spinning here at the spinning loft spring retreat. in our supply bag were several packets of cleaned locks which were ready to be flicked and/or carded in order to get them in shape for spinning.

on the second day, we started working with these, beginning with the brown/gray merino. the first step is to open up the ends of the lock a bit by tapping it with the flick (above, left).

then each lock needs to be brushed lightly, but firmly, to detangle and remove any junk.

after which, it is transformed from what it looks like on the left, to something like the one on the right, above. amazing, isn’t it?

you can do one at a time or rack up a few; whichever way suits your taste. heh—you can imagine how nice they are to spin . . . mmmmm.

doesn’t robin look content??

the clean, flicked locks spin like a dream; with all the waste removed beforehand, it’s easy to spin very fine and to use every last bit.

and here’s the 2-ply result, before washing.
after this, i started the whole process over again with the white cormo locks in my kit

they are the most brilliant white—it’s hard to believe they came from a stinky herd animal; amazing what a little soap and water can do, along with a good brushing . . .

that evening, while we sat in our cottage, knitting and gossiping with andrea, i soaked and rinsed the yarns so i could play with them further and they were almost dry by the time we went to bed, but i waited til morning to photograph them for you

just look how those fine, springy wools poof up after a bath.

now, beth says that we’re not done sampling til we’ve knit with the yarn and since this week is all about spinning for lace and making laceweight yarn, the obvious choice for swatching is a nice lace stitch pattern, right?

i picked the good old pine cone pattern as my standard to swatch from with all my samples. while the rest of the group worked on their shawl projects in class that afternoon, i started my swatches.

fast forward to last evening, when i was able to soak those and lay them flat to dry . . .

i did a couple of repeats of the lace pattern, along with a couple of inches of stockinette, just to compare; don’t they look pretty?

i think it’s so interesting how the yarn behaves in the lace patterns versus the stockinette. i like both yarns in stockinette, but i like the white cormo much better in the lace pattern—and not because of the color.

the white yarn lays more evenly throughout the pattern and is pretty similar to the way it behaves in the stockinette segment. but the inconsistencies in the dark yarn show up a lot more in the lace than in the stockinette (though i’m not exactly sure why).

yesterday, we spun up some commercially prepared wensleydale and some hand-prepped polwarth. i washed those last night and swatched them this afternoon during knitting class (they are soaking now; i’ll blog about them next time)

you should see the awesome shawls everyone is making—many lace-knitting breakthroughs were achieved this week as well. it’s been a really wonderful retreat—thank you beth for inviting me to teach; i’ve enjoyed every minute of it (and i mean that from the bottom of my undercarriage).

BTW, beth has all of these incredible fibers, along with a huge bounty of handspinning treasures (both unwashed and commercially prepped), in her awesome online store, the spinning loft. if you like fiber and spinning, you must go take a look . . . and say hi to chelsea while you’re there; she’ll appreciate that.

and although the spring retreat is over for this year, beth offers great classes with highly esteemed teachers in her brick and mortar shop in howell michigan, which is centrally located for many of us. or catch her at SOAR or one of the many venues she will be teaching in the near future.

tomorrow i head off to richmond, VA, where i’ll be teaching at the yarn lounge and at the hanover guild. on the way, i’ll visit with my nephew james and his fiancee diana for a nice sunday afternoon lunch; i can’t wait to see them!

8 thoughts on “worth the work

  1. Oh, wow – those swatches are gorgeous! (And those yarns… mmm…) Heading for my wheel right. now. 🙂 (After I check out that website.)

  2. Wonderful spinning – so fine. What is the trick for doing that? I’m guessing you want it to hardly be pulled in at all, so you have enough time to draft it fine enough and add the twist? The transformation after soaking is pretty impressive too. Enjoy your onward travels.

  3. You certainly do spin a good yarn, Anne (heheheh). I very much enjoy the information and photos that you share about your spinning adventures. Can you recommend good books/articles that describe how to choose a “good” fleece? Ditto, Jocelyn, my wheel is calling….

  4. Your handspun looks great & knitted up so nicely. I wish I could take this class as it will be so helpful as I have just started spinning.

  5. Wow! I love it! Watching it magically change from fleece, through to delicately knitted wool! It’s truly amazing!

  6. Wow, it sure looks like a lot of work at first, but boy, it really pays off. The yarn is so very beautiful! One of these days I’ll get brave and jump off the deep end into the realm of raw fleeces, especially when I see how pretty yours are. 🙂

  7. what an interesting post! I recently took a class in drop spindling so I actually have some idea what you are talking about!

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