For my birthday, Jamie helped me build that spinning wheel. Hoorah! We figured it out between youtube videos and very detailed and wordy paper directions. It seemed a very fitting thing to accomplish on my 24th birthday. Sometimes I can't believe I was only 18 when I met Jamie, and 19 when we got alpacas and sheep. I've shared this here before, and I'll confess it again:
When we got the animals, I had no immediate intention of spinning yarn. I knew that's what you were supposed to do if you owned fiber animals, but we honestly just wanted them because they were so magical and represented our big dream of living off the land. I guess that locked us into becoming farmers, which wasn't such a bad thing after all. We have them to thank for living in the beautiful place we are now. I've been spinning on my wheel ever since Saturday, and love it. Spinning Abraham's fleece is like spinning butter. I'm not joking. It's so amazing I told Jamie that if I find another $100 Suri alpaca on Craigslist, it's mine.
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that is just so cool. what a grand experience that must be--from feeding him, to shearing him, to washing & carding it, and now, to see it become yarn you can knit with! If you ever make a sweater from his wool, you should do a post that shows every stage of the wool's journey :) But honestly--this is just such a neat concept. spinning wheels have always held a fascination for me. must be the fairy tale lover in me :)
ReplyDeleteThis is so awesome! It must be an amazing feeling to be spinning fiber from your own animals. I'm trying to convince my dad that we should get a couple of wool sheep (he has 50 or so sheep, but they're all hair sheep). But I guess first I'll have to prove myself by doing the whole process a couple of times...so I'm keeping an eye out for some raw fleeces this year. :)
ReplyDeleteWhen I started knitting a year and a half ago I had no intention at all of learning how to spin yarn...I just started researching one day and became a little obsessed. :)
~Kristin
we hope to have sheep just for this reason - awesome!!
ReplyDeleteThat looks perfectly dreamy!! Spinning wool from my own animals is a "someday" dream of mine. Good for you for making that leap!
ReplyDelete-Jaime
I have a beautiful blanket made from the wool of sheep from my family in Morocco that I never use! Either I need to figure out how to use it or maybe I should give it to you! Have you seen it?
ReplyDeleterawketstarling, great idea! I totally will do that.
ReplyDeleteKristin, it is. It feels like everything is coming full circle. As for fleece, do a search for a local fiber mill if you can. I'm sure the owner could put you in touch with someone interested in letting you play around with a bit of wool. Maybe you could offer to wash, pick, and card it for free? Just so you learn the beginning stages? We take our wool to the mill to be picked and carded. I find that it's more worth it than spending days and days doing the same thing they can do in hours. But I recommend trying it all by hand at least once so you know how much work can go into the different steps. Good luck! :)
Denise, GET SOME! They're my babies. ;)
Jaime, I'm sure you will love it when you get there. It took me five years, but it was all worth the wait.
Amy, I would love to see it! Is it knit or woven? If it's woven, maybe it would be a pretty wall-hanging. :) (Though I wouldn't mind taking it off your hands if you can't figure it out... hehe)