In an earlier post, I uploaded photos of rolags and the rough felt that I made. Unfortunately, I didn’t think to take photographs of the raw, dirty fleece that I started out with, what it looked like after I cleaned and dried it, and what the wool looked like on the carding combs. Maybe next time (if there is a next time — this project was LONG, taking three months, off and on).
Here is what I did with the remaining rolags that didn’t go into the felt:
1) Spun them:
2) Got eleven balls of yarn, and used 2.5 balls of yarn to crochet a floppy hat:
3) Dyed eight balls, reserving two balls per dye colour.
From left to right, they are Undyed, Light Green (from spinach), Orange (from safflower and annatto seeds), and Lavender (from red cabbage).
Although the fleece-cleaning and wool-carding were a royal pain in the patookus (and time consuming to boot), I found wool-spinning enjoyable, even with the aching fingers and the yarn getting all lumpy and strange. I didn’t care for my house stinking of boiled spinach and cabbage, and I’m disappointed that the beautiful deep purple of the red cabbage didn’t take, but that orange was a pleasant surprise and really easy to achieve. Yayness on that one.
And now I’m gonna give these lovely balls of yarn away and also the big, floppy hat because for me the joy is the process of learning how to go from a sheep’s coat into homemade stuff, and sharing that joy by giving the fruits of my labor to people who’ll use them and enjoy.
lizardqueen
Man, I need a hat