I’ve been given a whole alpaca’s worth of wool and I’m not sure what to do with it Spoiler: The wool in question
Do you know if it's been picked and skirted? If not, that's your first step. You gotta spread it out and check for debris that might be caught in the wool and pick it out. Second step is gentle wash. Do not agitate the wool during this process. Usually you can put it into a mesh bag (or several, depending on the size of the bag) place in warm (not hot!) water with a little dawn dish soap and let it soak while occasionally coming in and pushing the bags under the water/rotating until it's fully soaked. Then drain and rinse the same way. Might take a few goes around rinsing. Third step it to spread it out to dry some place it won't be disturbed. You may want to pick through it a second time at this point just to be sure it's as clean as possible. Fourth step is carding! If you don't have hand carders, you can use slicker brushes (for dogs) but they're smaller than hand carders so it will take longer. If you have a drum carder I'm jealous. Now you have rolags for spinning or blending with other wool!
re washing it, if it's not noticeably dirty, you can also 'spin it in the grease', which is to say spin it as-is and wash the yarn afterwards. apparently lanolin is great for your hands, but it can have a bit of a wet dog smell. i haven't tried it, but i imagine it wouldn't be gross at all if there was no actual like poop or mud in there, just a bit of dust and leaf crumbs.
I have finished my Dragon Age cosplay/inspired scarf thing! (Not sure it's recognisably dragon age, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)
I sewed a tote bag a few weeks ago, hell yeah for using a sewing machine for the first time in 8 years Im in the decrease section of my sockhead hat (i did not make the body of the hat as long as directed, because it was gonna be hugely slouchy and im not a fan) I just found this free pattern for a smol mouse friend and i wanna make it (tumblr post with context; and heres the actual pattern link)
been knitting for a few years now but first time in this thread, so hello! I'm currently working on a cardigan for my partner's mum, who has been an absolute wonder with helping us out after we moved house recently, and her birthday's coming up soon, so I wanted to make her something nice. Spoiler: pics of knitting I think this is probably the most knitting that I've done within a week? I have to keep pausing to rest my hands, but I'm really damn proud of myself. I've still got the sleeves and the collar to do, but next up: Pockets!
it needs a little tlc (restringing, straightening some of the pins) but i got it for 54 SHITTY CANADIAN BUCKS (plus $1 for the nice husband who loaded it into the car for us) if anyone has tips on maintenance or even just starting out i am pre-emptively in ur debt! im excited to compare this to drop spindles
Congratulations! I've very recently been refurbishing a wheel that had probably been serving decorative purposes only for a while, but mine is fairly different from yours in significant ways - I don't know how to take care of a painted finish, for example, and I was able to identify the maker right away and thus get access to some replacement parts pretty easily - if you know or can find out who made this wheel & if they're still in business, I highly recommend it. For my drive band (the string that goes around the big wheel) I've been using sz 3 crochet cotton and it's working fairly well for me! There's apparently a lot of debate on drive band materials, but I wanted something I could source easily while I figured things out.
Thank you!! The couple I bought it from said it had never been used for spinning, but I'll try to see if I can find similar-looking ones to get a clue about the maker. That's also good advice for the drive band! Esp while I tinker around with learning my way around it haha
