Next Step

Remember, eons ago, when I spoke about my sheep? I have finally acquired the elements for the next step in the sheep to something process. For in order to start spinning wool, one has to (apparently) card the wool. This is done with spikey boards with handles, and they are spikey. So while trying out my two new toys, I managed to hurt myself again. When I tried to pull the wool of the carders, I managed to get the spikes into my right middle finger, not once, not twice, every time. After a while I had to quit because on the last try I managed to actually draw blood. Figured that was not the goal of the exercise. I now start carding only when I’m wearing plasters on said finger.

These are the carders and the loot from the first night.

I hope though, that I can continue on the road to having a something made from my own sheep. I have tracked down a spinning wheel that I can probably use, so maybe, maybe, I’ll end up with a something in the (relatively) near future.

Below are my fingers, especially the damaged one. If you don’t want to see, don’t scroll further down, it’s not that gruesome though, just a couple of red pin like pricks. By the way, I know that the pointy finger is strange, it met a door 18 years or so ago, and still hasn’t recovered. The blood on that one isn’t from the carders, though.

Thrifting

I’ve been trying to find carders at an affordable level to further continue on the journey of the homespun scarf (or something similar). In order to do this, I’ve been wanting to visit second-hand shops to see if they have them there. Since they are available new, but they cost >50 Euro and I am not willing to spend that kind of money on an experiment.

There is an online ‘vendingplace’ where people can sell their stuff, but I haven’t had much luck there either. There is a lot of demand and little supply, so classic economics teaches us that the price will be high. This is sadly the case. So the second option is those second-hand shops. One pesky little objection to this brilliant idea is that they are generally open from 10-5 on weekdays on limited or not at all on Saturday. Since I am at school each weekday from 9 to 5, this is making it difficult to visit second-hand shops.

However, the other day I was able to go to the one in the next ‘city’ over. They didn’t have carders, or knew what they were, but they did have some patterns that I liked. Although I don’t really wear dresses, I like the pictures a lot generally. I also tend to choose patterns for the pictures (yes I know that this is logical), and ignore those with terrible fabric choice. I can find it difficult to see past that. I found 3 dresses/skirts and 1 men’s shirt that I had a plan for (that failed). They were 25 cents each, which I figured I could spare. Anyways here are my patterns:

I really like this skirt/blouse? combo because the picture looks so happy. I think that only the skirt is a contender for making, but I like to look at the happy girl.

The men’s shirt that I don’t think I’ll really ever use. However, I like the dress. I hate the ruffle on the right line drawing, but I like the left one a lot. I find that kind of neckline interesting, and I’m curious to see what the pattern piece actually looks like.

 

I also really like the idea of this wrap skirt. I think it looks nice, and keeps movement possible. Also the vest thing I like. It would be interesting to try. While I’m not very interested in the boxyness of the jacket, I do find the sleeves fascinating, so maybe there will be some sort of incarnation of that someday. Hopefully I’ll be able to find some carders someday.

My Sheep

In the summer of 2010 I worked in an ecological museum with a garden. The owners were two hippies (sorry, there is no other way to describe them), eating ecological peanut butter, sour dough bread and selling biological pizzas. The lady who owned it was wandering around the place, one day, with three sacks of sheep wool. Straight of the sheep. Somehow we got talking about it, and I mentioned that I knitted and was interested in learning how to spin. One of the bags contained leftovers and she gave them to me for free.

Now, admittedly, that bag was left unopened for about those 2.5 years since I received it. The couple of times it was opened, the smell was quite.. interesting?? The past two weeks I did not have to go to school, although I did have some homework I should finish. However, freedom makes you do strange stuff, so instead of the homework, I located the tutorial online (this one) that could tell me what I needed to do with ‘my sheep’, as I have since named it. It said that I should have washed it as soon as I got it, I didn’t of course, but now I decided to tackle the problem. First, one has to remove all the dirty bits (straw etc.), which I did halfheartedly in the first batch, a bit more vigorously in the second batch, and I started on a third batch:

You might wonder why the pictures that will follow have different colour wool in it, that’s because I only remembered making pictures once I had the first load done, and was halfway through the second load.

So you pick out all the bits, and fill the bathtub (our bathtub fills very, very, very slowly  and it needed to be half to 2/3 full of hot, hot water). You then spread the wool in a single layer over the water and push it up and down in the water, careful not to agitate it too much. This ‘first rinse’ results in some really dirty water. Pick the wool out and let it drain. Fill the tub again (this is what makes it take forever to do this in my house) and add some detergent, do the pushing up and down and drain and repeat the process if the water is still icky.

 

If you decided you’ve done enough washing because your back is killing you from bending over the bathtub too much, or because it really is clean, it’s time for the rinse. Again fill the bathtub and now add half a cup (whatever that may be) to the water and dump the wet wool in it and push it up and down. Drain it again. Now it’s time for drying. My first batch was small, since I wanted to test it out. I found some chicken wire in the garage, draped it over a laundry basket and spread the wetish wool out over it. The second batch was much larger and since I’d given up because of said back I draped the entire chicken wire mesh over the bathtub to catch the falling droplets.

 

I did the washing 2 days ago and it’s been drying since. I should take it down some time soon, since it’s feeling pretty dry. The next step will be ‘carding’ or getting the fibers to align for spinning. I’ve been asking around for hand carders, but they do not seem readily available anymore. (Go figure!) So I need to buy some of the internet and then the next leg of the journey can start!

Someday people, someday I will have my own homespun scarf (I’m not going to bother with a sweater, much too difficult!).