ink and yarnI continue to spin the Soay fleece from my friends' sheep into usable yarn, and of course I tried some different techniques before finding the right one:
https://www.knittingpirate.com/2025/07/14/in-which-the-pirate-spins-soay/
Jamie@emery That looks great!
@Mustbetuesday Thanks! :)
Stéphanie Vilayphiou@emery your blog post reminded me of a fleece I got as a thank you when I helped sorting fleeces in Brussels. I cannot seem to have a nice yarn from it...it's very springy and has so many neps... Very difficult to remove them on the go as I'd have to stop very often...
I thought to maybe just felt it... do you think using hand cards and making rolags would be better then a drum carder?
@fiberarts #spinning
I thought to maybe just felt it... do you think using hand cards and making rolags would be better then a drum carder?
@fiberarts #spinning
@vvvvvilay Good question, but I'm really not sure - for my Soay fleece, I didn't use the drum carder because I don't have enough to make a full batt. Hand-carding worked to some extent but I had to go very slowly and accept that there'd be some waste - I don't know if there's really a way to get all the neps out with carding. If the fibre is long enough to comb, that might do the trick? The Soay is very short-stapled (and I don't have combs) so I couldn't try.
The fibre I'm currently spinning has more bits of grass in it than I'd like, and I have to stop so often, and grrrrrr.
@emery I do have combs but it's so long to use... Not sure I'll have the courage to do so...
Also, what I found weird is that I can't make a long supported draft with it... I thought it was me but then, with a fleece carded industrially, I had no issues...
Also, what I found weird is that I can't make a long supported draft with it... I thought it was me but then, with a fleece carded industrially, I had no issues...
@vvvvvilay You could try combing a little bit and see if you like the results? Experimentation is fun :)
@emery I'm pretty sure I already did it but I am sometimes not so good at labellingmy tests 😂 you're right, I should try again ;)