Thursday, February 11, 2010

I'm Baaaaack!

As the last post stated, Mom's house is cleaned out, sold, and turned over to the new owners.   I am glad that's over, but half my garage is full of the stuff we didn't throw out, but want to sell later at a garage sale......more work to come.   I have also started my adventures on ebay where I am selling off Dad's collection of Mineralogical Record magazines.   For the record, I am cologal817 on ebay....if you are a rock hound or mineral collector and want to keep it in the blogging family.   The oldest issue we have is from Vol 2 No. 2 from 1971 and is nearly complete to 2007 when Dad passed away.    I am starting out by listing single issues from the oldest first, and then when I get to the 1990's (unless I get tired of the process sooner),  I will sell off 6 issue volumes by year.   If you or anyone you know is interested, you know where to find me!

In mid January, my first shipment of the Naked Fiber Club arrived and here is a photo montage of the prep process so far.  This is what the water looked like after a 24 hour cold soak to get out the water soluble yuck.   My garden will thank me in the spring!

The locks were still intact after one hot water bath and still really tight.



I started out with a dog brush and it was a lot of work since the locks seemed glued together.   I was told on Ravelry to give the fiber one more hot soapy bath followed by several rinses and then a vinegar rinse.

That seemed to soften the fiber and after it was dry, I used my hand carders and it was so much easier.   I guess that even after the cold water soak, two hot washes were necessary to get out all of the lanolin.

I didn't photograph the carded fiber, but here is my first small bobbin of spun singles!


It is a good thing I am only getting 8 oz of raw fiber a month, because there are probably only 2 ounces on the bobbin, and my next shipment is coming next week!   Back to work on the hand carders with the rest of the fiber.

2 comments:

Lynn said...

What fiber is that? I love the color!

I have a drum carder if you're interested in trying one out. Just let me know and i can bring it to spinning group.

bunnits said...

Isn't it amazing how a good soak will change the fiber! I've gotten some before from various sources that looked hopeless and after working with it, ended up with quite lovely stuff. Yours looks really nice. Happy spinning.