Wash, wash, then wash again...

Today I started the process of washing all this glorious fiber; not the sheep, but alpaca. An acquaintance of mine has daughters in 4-H - they raise alpaca, and he wants the fiber spun into yarn to have something made for them for Christmas (how cool is this dad?!). I volunteered to get it ready for him, and after a couple months have finally gotten around to it. I haven't made a dent in the process yet. Every time I wash a batch, it seems that more fiber grows in the basket!

Anyway, the first step is to fill a container - in my case, the tub and kitchen sink - with extremely hot water. Add a squirt of liquid dish detergent, swish it around with your hands, then very gently lower the wool into the water. If you agitate the wool in the hot soapy water, you will end up with felt...unfortunately, felt doesn't spin into yarn very well, so this is tricky business.

Fill 'er up!

Bubbles!

This is "Cinnamon" the Alpaca, ready for her bath

Here's "Alferd" the Alpaca, going for a dive

 Then...you wait. I'm pretty impatient, so I only let it sit for about 15 minutes or so before I dunk it in a tub of cold water to rinse the soap off. If any residue is leftover in the rinse water, it goes back in the soap. And so it continues, until the water runs clear.

Alferd is a dirty boy! He was also incredibly difficult to sort through before washing - apparently, he loves nothing better than to roll around in the dirt/hay/bugs/feathers/poo...well, you get the point. He was dirty!

Once the wool is washed, it goes outside (preferrably) to dry. Meanwhile, after the water drains from the tub and sink, here is what is left.

Eeeeeeew.

Out to dry!

Next step (after washing the zillion more pounds of wool!) is carding...more on that another time.

Happy Crafting!

-A

Baa Baa Black Sheep, Have you any wool?

Yes Sir, Yes Sir - a HUGE bag full!

A few weeks ago, I had a yard sale. Don't ask me how, but I started chatting with a lovely gal about wool. She said that her in-laws had a sheep farm -- when I asked what they did with the wool, she told me they just "threw it away." Noooooo! From that, a beautiful relationship was born. (Yay for networking at a yard sale!)  She brought me this:

The picture doesn't do this baby justice. I could easily fit myself inside this bag, multiple times. It's gigantic! Full of glorious wool, that otherwise would have been (gasp) thrown away. It's straight from the sheep - and it smells and feels heavenly. Of course, I guess it depends on who you ask. Hubs was downwind while I was sorting it and he said, "That smells. Bad." Ha.

So now I have all this wonderful sheep at my disposal. It needs to be sorted, picked through, washed, carded, and then made into roving. Since I don't have real equipment to do any of this, I improvise. Here's my "skirting table." Two sawhorses and chicken wire.

This is what most of the wool looks like in the bag. It's a tedious process to sort through it and get all the "barnyard boogies" out. But the cleaner I can get it at this point before washing, the easier the process will be.

 Apparently wool is like catnip for dogs. This crazy boy wants nothing more than to eat the sheep!

I pulled this out of the bag - there were at least 3 just like this. I think the person that was shearing the sheep was trying to see how long they could shave without breaking the wool!

After a couple hours, I got it all sorted through. There are still barnyard boogies, but most of that will wash out. The small amount that doesn't will be picked out once it's in use, either when it's spun or when I felt it.

Lastly, here is what is left after all the wool was sorted. It looks like a lot of waste. But honestly, I use more of the wool than would be given back to me if I had it processed at a plant. They are kind of particular at the plant - they won't use the underbelly (too dirty), or the second cuts (when the wool wasn't cut short enough the first time, they get re-shaved; second cuts aren't good for making roving). The beauty of processing it myself is that I get to keep more of it. Waste not, want not. And, since most of the wool will be either wet felted or needle felted, it doesn't matter if it's a second cut or not. It's a little more work to wash it if it's super dirty, but it's well worth the time!

Over the weekend, my goal is to wash and card most of this. I won't get it all done, but I'll have a good start!

Happy Crafting!

-A

HeartFelt - crafted with love

I've been a crafter for a long time. Probably all my life. I remember going into my late Grandmother's "craft room" in her tiny little house and sorting through all her junk -- mostly wooden beads, and boy were they icky. I even found a few critters (worms) crawling around the bins. But I was fascinated! At one point in time she told me she was leaving the entire contents of her room to me in her will. I guess she used it all up, because I never saw anything after she died...

I've dabbled in a lot of crafts, and finally found my niche in wool. I love wool. I love the feel of it in my hands. I love the way raw wool ("in the grease") smells and feels. I love to wash it and card it and pull out all the barnyard boogies, and turn it into lovely soft roving. One day, I want to have a flock of sheep. And alpacas - oh, alpacas!

My intention is for this blog to be a means to an end, so to speak. I have a business - I sell to a couple local shops and to individuals looking for unique gifts or handcrafted items. I plan on doing a lot of craft fairs this fall. I want to share my craft with the blogger world, and will (hopefully) show you from start to finish how I create my products. And I hope to learn some things in the process!

Happy Crafting!

-A