Welly Swotting over Suri

Working on this Suri fleece has been quite the chore and learning experience. I've had to rethink how to process it several times, and the sheer amount of dust that is still sticking to the fleece after multiple washes is driving me batty.

At first I was putting it through the drum carder and it was, kind of, working. A lot of the fiber would stick to the lickr-in drum, and then it would poof out as if it had a hand in an electrical socket. Remember those electrified balls that the museums would have to show you the effects of static charge?  Yea, that's what it looked like. I did try spraying it with some watered down conditioner, but that didn't do much for it. I washed the resulting batt and it came out the purest bright white!! Nothing like the rest of the "washed" fleece!!

Then I tried my combs. Found out the giant course Indigo Hound combs I have are not really meant for this kind of fiber. I haven't used them hardly at all in the nearly 10 years I have had them. I may sell them in order to get a finerViking set. I tried out a pair last week at The Dancing Lamb, and I got a pretty good sliver from that, although it was a lot of effort.



So I've resorted to my carding paddles. I've been making several dozen Puni's a day. Thankfully it's only three pounds worth of fiber to process and I have till May to get it done. I'm still off work from a back injury so I've been spending a lot of time inside watching movies, spinning, processing and knitting. I do have exercises from visiting the PT to do, other than getting some walking in which I am told is the best thing I could do for a back injury. The exercises are developing some underused muscles in an effort to support my back in hopes that it doesn't get any worse. As a result, I have been craving protein, MEAT, like a fiend. I ate three chickens from the grocer last week. THREE!! I eat all the dark meat right away and then make a casserole with the white meat because it tends to be dryer.

The trader wanted the resulting yarn dyed Magenta. I thought I had magenta in my dye stash, and it turned out I did not so ended up having to buy some from Dharma. Pretty darn cheap from there!! So I gave a spun sample a good washing and dyed it. Pretty!!!





I also ventured to try a scouring soap I've never seen before and....it's absolutely HORRIBLE!!! It did not take the dust off the fiber like Unicorn Scour Power does, and the smell....THE. SMELL. To me it smells like rancid latex, or a dildo....neither of which I can stand. (If you have to ask, don't.)  As soon as I opened it I felt nauseated and had a headache for the rest of the day. Of course I am stuck with it now. Attempting to resell it on Ebay since I only used a fraction of an ounce to test wash with. The buyer from Etsy would not accept it as a return, and she said she liked it's smell over Unicorn.
Never again will I stray from Unicorn Scour Power! I enjoy the light floral scent it has.

Afterwards, I spun some shetland like
a mad wommin so I could finally
work on MY projects.

Update: After working on this constantly for three months, putting my own projects on hold, then returning the spun yarn, I was basically told my yarn was shit and it was "too thin". Trader said "spinners choice" and I spin lace, so that's what I did. I was booted from the group Spin-a-pound-get-a-pound without notice, and told after-the-fact. I would advise people to avoid that group because the group moderators are complete assholes. The rumors I read about them when I did a google search on them do not fall short. What a waste of time and energy that was. I gave the rest of the fleece away because I didn't want that bullshit in my home. I've been spinning on and off for 15 years. I am no novice. Follow are photos of the said yarn, which I would have loved to have knit some lace with. That fleece was the most frustrating fleece I have EVER worked with. Fuck you Sapgap and your snotty, uppity, ways. My world is a better place without you.

Until next time...
***All content is Copyright year and date of posting, and are the sole property of C4G/CCW unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this website (text, photo's, etc)is strictly prohibited (linking to the post is OK). I've had to revert to moderating all comments due to spammers.***

Welly Swotting over Suri

Working on this Suri fleece has been quite the chore and learning experience. I've had to rethink how to process it several times, and the sheer amount of dust that is still sticking to the fleece after multiple washes is driving me batty.

At first I was putting it through the drum carder and it was, kind of, working. A lot of the fiber would stick to the lickr-in drum, and then it would poof out as if it had a hand in an electrical socket. Remember those electrified balls that the museums would have to show you the effects of static charge?  Yea, that's what it looked like. I did try spraying it with some watered down conditioner, but that didn't do much for it. I washed the resulting batt and it came out the purest bright white!! Nothing like the rest of the "washed" fleece!!

Then I tried my combs. Found out the giant course Indigo Hound combs I have are not really meant for this kind of fiber. I haven't used them hardly at all in the nearly 10 years I have had them. I may sell them in order to get a finerViking set. I tried out a pair last week at The Dancing Lamb, and I got a pretty good sliver from that, although it was a lot of effort.



So I've resorted to my carding paddles. I've been making several dozen Puni's a day. Thankfully it's only three pounds worth of fiber to process and I have till May to get it done. I'm still off work from a back injury so I've been spending a lot of time inside watching movies, spinning, processing and knitting. I do have exercises from visiting the PT to do, other than getting some walking in which I am told is the best thing I could do for a back injury. The exercises are developing some underused muscles in an effort to support my back in hopes that it doesn't get any worse. As a result, I have been craving protein, MEAT, like a fiend. I ate three chickens from the grocer last week. THREE!! I eat all the dark meat right away and then make a casserole with the white meat because it tends to be dryer.

The trader wanted the resulting yarn dyed Magenta. I thought I had magenta in my dye stash, and it turned out I did not so ended up having to buy some from Dharma. Pretty darn cheap from there!! So I gave a spun sample a good washing and dyed it. Pretty!!!





I also ventured to try a scouring soap I've never seen before and....it's absolutely HORRIBLE!!! It did not take the dust off the fiber like Unicorn Scour Power does, and the smell....THE. SMELL. To me it smells like rancid latex, or a dildo....neither of which I can stand. (If you have to ask, don't.)  As soon as I opened it I felt nauseated and had a headache for the rest of the day. Of course I am stuck with it now. Attempting to resell it on Ebay since I only used a fraction of an ounce to test wash with. The buyer from Etsy would not accept it as a return, and she said she liked it's smell over Unicorn.
Never again will I stray from Unicorn Scour Power! I enjoy the light floral scent it has.

Afterwards, I spun some shetland like
a mad wommin so I could finally
work on MY projects.

Update: After working on this constantly for three months, putting my own projects on hold, then returning the spun yarn, I was basically told my yarn was shit and it was "too thin". Trader said "spinners choice" and I spin lace, so that's what I did. I was booted from the group Spin-a-pound-get-a-pound without notice, and told after-the-fact. I would advise people to avoid that group because the group moderators are complete assholes. The rumors I read about them do not fall short. What a waste of time and energy that was. I gave the rest of the fleece away because I didn't want that bullshit in my home. I've been spinning on and off for 15 years. I am no novice. Follow are photos of the said yarn, which I would have loved to have knit some lace with. That fleece was the most frustrating fleece I have EVER worked with. Fuck you Sapgap and your snotty, uppity, ways. My world is a better place without you.

Until next time...
***All content is Copyright year and date of posting, and are the sole property of C4G/CCW unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this website (text, photo's, etc)is strictly prohibited (linking to the post is OK). I've had to revert to moderating all comments due to spammers.***

My first commission!

Lots of things have happened since my last post which was pretty dark in feeling.

I recently fractured my back while working so I have been off for a month, healing. The physical therapy is helping A LOT. I can't say too much about it right now since it is a workers comp dealio.

So I've been thinking about getting back into blogging but I have this thing that I do...I really want to blog, but then I get to composing a post and then I write-and-write-and-write so much that by the end it's a flappin books worth. So, I'm going to keep things simple, short and sweet. That way I don't overwhelm myself, or the reader, with so many words.

I kept seeing posts on a Facebook group about commission spins where a grower sends a spinner fiber (raw or washed, but definitely skirted) and the spinner gets to keep a percentage of the fiber for themselves in exchange for sending a percentage of the spin yarn back to the grower. And the more I looked into it, the more I wanted to try it! So I joined up with the Facebook group "Spin a Pound, Get a Pound". It took several weeks to get the OK and become an "approved" spinner by their standards. Along the way, I've not heard very good things about the moderators, and the rules are extensive, but necessary and mostly common sense stuff.  I think I will not let the opinions of others (who may or may not have abided by the group rules) sway mine opinion until I have had my own experiences.

OOOooo yummay!

My first commission is a luscious three pounds of white Suri Alpaca blanket. The trade is 60/40, 60 going to the spinner. AWESOMESAUCE!! So generous!
The grower wants it dyed magenta so I am working on that today. It's been quite a bit of work just to get the fiber mostly clean, and some dirt is being stubborn.

Jacob/Alpaca

I've almost worked my way through three pounds of Jacob I acquired at last years Fiber Festival, stretching that by blending it with alpaca and spinning it very fine for lace. I plan to spin the Suri as a lace or fingering yarn since the grower said "spinners choice". So far I am feeling very good about it and I LOVE the feel of the Suri. I may just like this working for fiber thing!

Have wheel, will spin for fiber. LOL!






Until next time...

***All content is Copyright year and date of posting, and are the sole property of C4G/CCW unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this website (text, photo's, etc)is strictly prohibited (linking to the post is OK). I've had to revert to moderating all comments due to spammers.***