Quote:
Sorry you had to cull. I had to cull one of my d'uccle chicks because it's vent was malformed. Culling is an awful but necessary thing. You have such a kind heart and I'm sure the chick is better off.
blessed, do ya'll have your own sheep? Where do you get the raw wool from? You may have said, but I have forgotten. When you dye do you do it before or after you spin it? How do you dry it?
Brindle, we don't have sheep. We do have angora rabbits. But I mostly spin merino and blue faced leicester. I will hand card the wools to add the angora from time to time, or sometimes I spin angora alone in small skeins and people use it for glove/hat trim, etc. I purchase everything except the angora from different suppliers. It is already cleaned when I get. You can purchase raw fleeces but I don't care to do all the work and deal with the smells of cleaning them... If I had my own sheep, I'd gladly do it.
Sometimes I dye roving and then spin it. Sometimes I spin then dye the yarn. Sometimes I hand paint the roving before spinning or the yarn after spinning. It just depends on my mood and what I see in my minds eye when I am working.
I hang the yarn outside to dry. I do not weight it as some spinners do because it seems to take away from the loft of the yarn and I also like the non-uniform, handspun look that looks like "dreds". If I am spinning a very uniform yarn, as I am doing more now, I am working on balancing the twist without having to weight the yarn. A weighted yarn (hung weight) is great for weaving though. Knitters, crocheters usually want the loft.
Do you knit/crochet/weave or spin?
Not very well but well enough to get my 11 yr old DD into it-shes made hats for gifts and such
