Sheep to Shawl - 2010

This will be the second year students from Capilano University - Textile Arts program will be participating in the "Sheep to Shawl". This is a yearly event for the guilds of Greater Vancouver to compete against each one another to make the best shawl, by hand of course.

Blurb:

Cheer on local spinners and weavers as they participate in this traditional competition. Watch as they card, spin, and ply raw sheep’s wool into yarn, then weave a shawl - all in four hours! See demonstrations of sheep shearing, view wool displays, and try weaving on heritage looms or spinning on real spinning wheels. Kids can try weaving, or make sheep crafts and pictures while they watch the show.

Saturday, May 22, 2010
11:00am-4:00pm
All ages
By Donation

Entrance to exhibit gallery by admission fee.

at Surrey Museum
17710 - 56A Avenue
For information, call 604-592-6956

I'm going to be the happiest textile girl ever!

Last week my teacher told us that we are allowed to borrow equipment from school for over the summer! I was so excited to hear this because the "equipment" includes drum carders! Why is this so great you ask? Well, I am addicted to spinning. I have more fleece than a herd of sheep. hehe. So, I was a little concerned that I would have to hand card (slowest method ever!) all my fleece before I could spin it. Which would seriously slow down my production over the summer, for my Etsy shop. But, never fear! I will have a drum carder here! (I talked about the drum carder in a previous post). That will also give me more inspiration for blog posts, which will be nice because I've been slacking a bit. Well, wish me luck on lugging that thing home! Here is a picture of something random, just to add some interest to the post! *wink*

Today, we shall remember....

I had to haul this thing back to school today. It must have weighed at least 10lbs. (which doesn't seem like a lot, but it is. Especially with a backpack on, trudging through the snow) I was happy and sad at the same time. Happy that I have my dining room table back, but sad that I won't have easy access to a drum carder. I will now have to haul fiber to school (at least it will be lighter *wink*) and card it there.

As I lugged this thing on the 2 buses, a skytrain, and another 2 buses, today, I set a goal for myself. If I pass my program with an A- or higher in all my classes, I will buy a drum carder. I've been wanting a drum carder for at least a year now, and I think this is a good goal. It will give me more motivation to do well in school and I won't just run out and buy one, now that I don't have my own drum carder at home.

i'm going to need a bigger basket...

Today's post was brought to you by the letter "S" and the number 2.

Last spring my friend V and I did a spinning demo at a local farm called "Maplewood Farm". V was invited on stage and helped the sheep get sheared. (I wish I could have gotten a picture of that!) At the end of the day we were given a gift of a fleece and a half from the sheep that got their hair cut that day. One was white, and the other was "black" (it's actually almost black with a bit of grey and some brown tips (bleached from the sun)). Both of us were super excited, but had never cleaned a fleece before (that's a story in itself. hehe). After many mini adventures of picking, cleaning, and re-cleaning. I took most of the white fleece to school (I'm lucky enough to have full access to any kind of textile supplies you could think of. More or less.) and I dyed the fleece a rainbow of colors using Ciba Acid dyes. The fleece then sat on patio for a few weeks *cough* and then in a cardboard box, paper bag, and rubbermaid container (poor thing ... lol) until tonight. (I borrowed a drum carder (picture shown is not the actual model of drum carder I used)) So, I sat down on the floor and sorted all of the colors into piles.

(cat for size reference *wink* )

After sorting the piles it made me realize, I'm going to need a bigger basket for storing all the batts I have to card! haha. So now, making a large basket is on my ever growing "to do" list. After a few hours (with lots of breaks of course!) I drum carded 17 batts!So, that leaves me with the yellow, yellow purple mix (I don't think this one is going to turn out very nice), grey (it was supposed to be black), green, and purple. Unfortunately though, I have to bring the drum carder back to school this Monday. That means I'll have to bring my fleece into school and drum card after class, not that I mind. I actually enjoy drum carding, it's very relaxing.

Dealing with this fleece was definitely a challenge. I am sure I will have more challenges with it considering I'm not even half done (note: the fleece packed to the brim in the box; in the first picture) It was and still is fairly greasy, even after washing it at least 5 times (I don't think i used hot enough water.. and I also left it to cool). I am hoping that after I spin it, I'll wash it again and it will release more of the grease. Even though it was kind of a mess, and a hassle I would definitely purchase a raw fleece in the future. I really like doing everything by myself right from the start. I look forward to seeing what kind of yarn this will create. I think I'm going to spin a few skeins of patchwork yarn.

i've gone batt crazy!

Last night I drum carded 23 - 0.5 ounce (average) batts of llama fleece. I couldn't believe it when I counted them at the end. It definitely didn't FEEL like 23 batts! haha

"Calle"

(I'm still trying to work on my picture quality. I don't have a lot of light in my house.)

The fiber is titled "Calle" because that is the name of the llama. The color is absolutely beautiful! It is a medium brown with some cinnamon highlights. I have spun some of this fiber up already, and it is so soft! I think I started with approx. 1 pound of fiber.

I also have 2 more pounds of llama fiber (from two different llamas). One of the fleeces is already 3/4 spun ("Wreckless"), and the other is still in the bag, from when I bought it. The last fleece ("DeNiro") has not been washed, though I have read that you don't have to with llama, so I might skip this step for this fleece. The three fleeces came from a couple I know that own a local llama farm.