A Fiber Weekend
I spent the weekend at the Sacramento Weavers and Spinners Open House. When I wasn't helping in the Sales Area I demonstrated carding with my Ashford drum carder. I chose a fleece from the November shearing and washed it in two batches. I also wanted to experiment with my new Power Scour to find out how much I needed to get the wool clean. The first 2 pounds of greasy wool weighed about 1 1/2 pounds when cleaned. I don't think I got all of the lanolin out so I'll probably increase the amount of Scour for the next batch. Even if there was still a bit of lanolin in the fiber it carded beautifully. I took this batch to the Open House on Saturday and here is what it looks like after carding.
That will provide a lot of spinning time. I was sure impressed with the drum carder. It breezed through that fiber.
These are a couple of skeins spun by a friend of mine using fleeces she bought from me. Aren't they lovely? The wool in the lower skein is blended with carded sari silk which adds beautiful flecks of color.
This is a close-up of one of the pieces I had at the show. It is a tencel scarf woven in undulating twill.
There are some very talented weavers in SWSG. Here are a couple of stunning pieces woven by members.
The warp for this screen is silk covered wire and it is woven with rice paper "yarn" if I remember correctly. (I thought that I'd remember from yesterday to today without taking a close up photo of the tag.)