Will work for fleece
Hrm.
Having finished spinning the fleece mamacate sent me and the electric blue that Pixel gave me some time ago to practice with, and the white (also from Pix), and having started the grey (yup, this is from Pix, too), that leaves me with the grey, the grey-brown (you're getting the trend here, yes?), and the brown left. Not a full fleece of any of it, but enough to do a smidge and give me my fix.
I'm going to need more fleece. I had a little snatch of mohair from Carol that was absolutely soft and smooth and a little slippery, but dyed a gorgeous blue-green, so I might try to figure out where she got it. But at this point, I think I'm sufficiently hooked to ask for recommendations for fleece suppliers. So if you have any, drop a comment.
I'm mildly entertaining the idea of trying to spin enough yarn at some point to make a sweater. Of course, I have to learn to ply to do that I think, but it's January, so that means I've got a whole 12 months in this year to make that happen. *smile*
In the meantime, tomorrow, the rigid heddle loom will get warped. I'm trying to decide if I should warp it with some crochet cotton stuff I have so that I don't have to worry about too-thin or under-spun bits breaking. I don't think the warp shows much in traditional weaving (I'm used to tablet weaving, where the warp is usually the *only* thing that shows), so I don't think it will matter and it will likely give the finished piece a bit more structural integrity. *ponder*
Now it's time to do my stretches and go finish Eragon.
4 comments:
Tee. Also, hee!
Another one bites the dust. Should the spindicate be looking for wheel bargains for you? Of course we should, why do I even bother asking?
Recommendations: Grafton Fibers, Lisa Souza, Foxfire Fibers, The Woolen Rabbit, and, I think a bit closer to you, The Fold (try googling spinning fiber with that, since those are common words). Most of those places dye wool. Let me know if you want more natural-colored wool. There are lots of shepherds out there who sell prepared roving from their flocks--it can be really worthwhile to get connected locally with the handspinning community, because I'll tell ya, it's very cool to spin (and knit and wear) wool from a sheep whose name you know.
I've been at a conference this week, and I talked to the guy at Carleton about you. Probably should have asked you first, but he says, sure, get in touch. :) Anyway, email me if you want his contact info (though I'm sure you can easily google him). He's particularly entertaining on the subject of guidebook surveys--he actually has a bit of a reputation for that.
I am a rank beginner when it comes to weaving, but from what I've read, you control the face of the weave by the density of the sett in relationship to the pick (I think that last one is right). So that means that if you want a weft-faced weave, you would sett the warp wide, but then weave the weft quite densely for an unbalanced weave. And the opposite would be true for a weft-faced weave (close sett, loose weave). It's quite common to warp with commercial yarn for weaving with handspun for exactly the reasons you mention.
Well, back to the salt mines. I'm sitting here in Florida with bright, warm sun outside my window...and writing a retention report. :(
Erm, change that last bit to "the opposite would be true for a WARP-faced weave." Because then it might actually sort of make sense. :)
I got the fiber from Ursual's Alcove. She usually makes the big events in Northshield (WW, Boars Head, hopefully Crown and Coronation). Here stuff is great.
I've also gotten fiber at Farmer's Markets.
There's a store in my neck of the woods called Yarns by Design that sells fiber, spinning supplies, looms, yards and all kinds of needle are stuff.
Oops. That last post was me.
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