Hand carded and spun.

I just realized I never shared this! A week or two ago, I finished spinning my first yarn made from fiber that I prepared myself, and I was pretty thrilled about that. :)

 

I got one pound of Corriedale raw fleece from the Woolery. As I mentioned before, it was nasty and gross, especially compared to the other fleece I've been working with. I washed it, and then it took me weeks and weeks to go through and get most of the vegetable matter out. {This whole process amazes me...it began with this dirty wool and resulted in pretty yarn.}

 

Then it only took me a few evenings to spin through it all. :)

 

 

It's very inconsistent, but that's okay. My hand carding skills apparently need more work. :) When I went to spin the fiber, there were quite a few little bumps and things that were difficult to spin evenly. But when I plied it, things evened out.

 

From the one pound of fiber, I made 66 rolags while hand carding. Those rolags then became approx. 228 yds of 2 ply yarn. Not all of the pound of fiber was usable, of course...towards the end there were some bad, partially felted parts that I just threw away.

 

 

So this was the first yarn I have spun that I bought as raw fleece. It was also my first time spinning woolen instead of worsted, because I've read that's the traditional way of spinning hand carded rolags. At least I think I was spinning woolen...I was trying to, though it took me a while to get the hang of it. (I still might not have been doing it properly.)

Until next time,