Elizenery🔻3d ago
Started playing around on the drum carder with some fibers that @venite gave me and some fiber from stash. I try to make a colour gradient of two colours with some white alpaca added for texture and more interesting colour. I plan to use it on hand spindles, But it's a lot so I'll probably do part of it on a spinning wheel.
#HandSpinning #FiberPrep
Elizenery🔻Feb 13
Combing sheep fleece is an insane amount of work and pure magical transformation.
#HandSpinning #FiberPrep #FiberArts #Defaidodon
Elizenery🔻Feb 8
The weather was so glorious that I spent the afternoon outside practising with my English combing station and a giant Border Leicester fleece. Made my first combed top! A whopping 35 grams - 5 times more than in the picture - after an afternoon's workout. Not a dent into the giant fleece. The fleece is full of vegetable matter, but also incredibly fine and pretty.
#HandSpinning #FiberPrep
Elizenery🔻Oct 12
New second hand wool toy. Wingham English comb station.
#FiberPrep #HandSpinning
Elizenery🔻Sep 28
Today was perfect weather for doing some fiber prep (and bicycle maintenance) outside on the deck. I took a manageable 240 grams of washed Clun Forest fleece. It had too much lanolin still in for dying. So first I fluffed up all the locks to allow the soap and acid dye to work. The container was completely full after that. Then wash, rinse, rinse, rinse, dye, rinse, rinse, rinse.
#HandSpinning #Fiberarts #FiberPrep
Elizenery🔻Sep 14, 2025
I finally finished the prepping of the Gotland fleece today. It took almost forever.
I'll soon finish spinning the long fibers and carding the shorter ones can wait. I already have some batts made for my next spinning wheel spin.
#FinishOrFrogAlong #HandSpinning #FiberPrep
Elizenery🔻Aug 24, 2025
Today was a good day for doing some blending on the drum carder outside. Made three small batts of the darker color fot the body of a softie and one lighter and softer (+alpaca) one for the belly and the face. Used leftover fleece. Some self dyed Clun Forest, an unknown breed local brown sheep, some of the shorter Gotland locks and some alpaca.
#HandSpinning #FiberPrep
Show threadink and yarnJun 11, 2025

Further update: a tiny soft sample from the "waste" that I hand-carded. I picked out some neps during carding, and many more when I spun the singles. This is only about 3g, so it didn't take very long.

#spinning #knitting #wool #FiberPrep #KnittingPirate

Show threadink and yarnJun 9, 2025

Second update: here is the last of the locks, a little damp still. It sure does look like three years of growth, as if he *tried* to shed the fleece, but didn't quite get there.

#FiberPrep #spinning #wool #KnittingPirate

Show threadink and yarnJun 9, 2025

Update: Turning fleece into spinnable fibre!

The top pile is about half of the sample of fleece I brought home yesterday. In the middle, the nice locks I've flicked open - darker at the base, sun-lightened towards the tip of each lock. At the bottom, the short, neppy, broken-off bits. I'm going to try to hand-card some of that to see if I can rescue any of it.

It does still have a bit of lanolin in it, so I need to decide if I'm going to wash the locks again. I also have to decide if I'm going to spin directly from the locks or if I'm going to card first. Leaning towards the former, because carding will surely introduce more neps into this very fine wool.

#FiberPrep #spinning #wool #KnittingPirate