Weekends of 2-12-2024 and 11-12-2023, part four:
It took me a long time to write up the next installment in the series, but here I am! Only four months later!
Anyway, the weekend of the 2nd of december was for carding. I texted a friend of mine who has a drumcarder, and luckily enough I was able to borrow it for a few weeks. The first weekend I carded the first half (partly scoured, partly soaked overnight). Part of that (the scoured stuff) I used for a dyeing experiment with food colouring:
The blue turned out very pale and kind of a blue to green gradient, which I ended up spinning as a thick 3-ply. The purple/red ended up kind of blood coloured? At least that is what it reminds me of, this is still unspun. Conclusion: blue does not like to exhaust, get better dyes.
I also did some testspins and swatches:
On the left pic is a small test I did to see if I liked the way I cleaned and carded the wool. Of the swatches, on the left is a 3-ply (chainply), right is a two ply (I think, I did not note it down). I ended up chosing the two ply, as it is a bit more supple and I like the airiness of it better.
I decided that I wanted a bit more lanolin in it while spinning, so the other half I carded straight from the fleece during the second weekend:
There were so many stubborn locks! Since I didn't open up the locks before hand, I had to do so while carding. I ended up gathering clumps of curls in my hand and running them allong the carder to open them up. I carded each bat again to get rid of most of the clumps.
Now to start spinning and knitting! Thanks for following along!
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