Have Wool - Will Spin!

Ma and Pa took me (and my younger siblings) to a Wool and Fiber Festival last Saturday! I had the GREATEST time and want to go back next year!!!!!!!!!!! I didn't take any pictures but there was HUNDREDS of home spun yarns, rovings to spin your own yarns and even raw fleece so you could do the whole process yourself.There was live working dog demonstrations, sheep to pet, as well as llamas. The kids liked that part the best =)

There was a silent auction with about 100 (or so) different bags of raw wool. All from different breeds of sheep (some bags were the same). It was cool to see the difference between the different breeds. Mom and I bid on a bag and won! I got 3 lbs of Shetland fleece. Ma and Pa also bought me a pair of used hand carders.

Photo from Wikipedia

So all day Monday and Tuesday (between gardening and other household duties) I was on Google trying to figure out what to do with it all! Here is the process that I found to work for me.

 Washing the wool. Really it should be called soaking the wool. All I did was put enough water in to cover the wool then added a little squirt of hand dish washing detergent. Stired that around a bit then added the wool and let it soak. I did three different soaks for about 2 hours each and it's as clean as a whistle!

Drying the wool on a towel in the sun.

My washed and dryed wool.

Placing the wool on a carder.

This carder is full and ready to be carded.

Brush the other carder over the first but don't mesh the teeth!

All carded!

 Here is a great video of the carding process.

All rolled up off the carder and ready to spin!

My little brother wanted to help.

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