Browsed by
Category: Fiber Preparation

Batts and Roving

Batts and Roving

Comments 22 comments

The last time I did a World of Wool order, I got some Botany Lap Waste. If you’ve not heard of this it’s basically a huge bin they have at WoW, where they put the left over tops from the ends of carding runs, and when you order some they grab 500g out of the bin and you get what you’re given, but it is cheaper than Merino or blends and sometimes you get a lot of the luxury fibre like yak, alpaca etc. This time it seemed I got the ends of someone’s bizarre order of various greys, including what looked like natural grey Merino blended with trilobal nylon (why?!) I don’t know why they can’t have a ‘neutrals’ choice for browns, greys etc. The rest of my bag was a kind of dyed steel grey Merino,  some green Merino which looked like it was their Gooseberry shade, and some pinky pale lilac I didn’t recognise. I carded them all up into batts then put them through again with other Merino to make some blends. I put the lilac through with various shades of purple and a few blues. Then I used a diz (a brass picture hook with 3 holes) to make roving:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI made another batt with the same colours, but added some orange, pinks, yellow, red, and some brighter blues:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is what the roving looks like unwound:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI put the gooseberry batt through with some green shades and light/bright blues. I meant to make roving, but forgot, so I might put it through the carder again. One side:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe other side:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI put half and half gooseberry and grey through the carder, and made roving:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAWhen I was putting the batts and blends away in my Workshops Supplies tubs, I discovered some other odds and ends from when I did MakeFest last year. I might blend some of these greens with half the gooseberry batt I forgot to card:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI found some gorgeous (even if I do say so myself!) texturey batts I’d forgoten I’d made too. I might have to save these for when I get a spinning wheel to make some texturey yarn!:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

My turn for a Giveaway

My turn for a Giveaway

Comments 92 comments

I am going to give away some fiber. The winner will get approximately 100gr of one of these multicoloured Merino batts.  I couldn’t decide which one to give away so the winner will get to pick the one they want. All but the last are textured. They are good for felting or spinning.

Brown
Brown/orange
orange
Orange/yellow
pale green
Pastel greens
pink
Pink/purple
purple
Purple/pink

I will announce  the winner on January 24th. To enter just leave a comment on this blog post.  Good luck.

Knitting and Roving

Knitting and Roving

Comments 22 comments

Last time I did a World of Wool order, I got some ‘Pencil Roving waste’, it’s a the bottom of this page here. I very recently learnt to knit and it is really nice to knit with. I was going through my commercial yarns recently, they’re pretty much all tassley, eyelash, loopy things for embellishing felt, but right when I first discovered felting, I bought some thick and thin acrylic ‘fake’ pencil roving. :

I’ve needlefelted and wet felted with it, and made a tiny knitted square when I first learnt and thought it would be perfect to use with the pencil roving to make something thick and soft and texturey. I used a multicoloured ball, and added in the pencil roving lengths as the previous one ran out. I think it’s about 10 inches square:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI did neaten the ends a bit, and poke them through to one side, so this is the back:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI think the texture is really nice:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAIt got me thinking about making my own pencil roving, I kind of made some a while back when I was having my kitchen done, I spun some Merino on a drop spindle then knitted it straight from there a day or two later, but the drafting is such a pain from wool tops. Then I remembered Ann did a video right when we first started the site about drafting roving using a diz. So, I blended a drum full of browns and turquoise/spearminty colours, found a button with a big hole and made myself some roving. I was impressed with myself, it only went thin a few times:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAA few shorter lengths:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI thought this could be useful for making wet felting kits because I noticed people who’ve never seen wool tops before find them hard to pull off, and hand carded/drafted roving is much looser. I made a short video of the next lot I drafted. I made a new diz from a film tub lid, because I wanted it a bit wider and also made a little ‘tool’ from bent wire to help pull the wool through the hole.

More Carding and a Surprise.

More Carding and a Surprise.

Comments 18 comments

My friend Mary came over to get some mohair carded. We mixed it with some merino to make it easer for her to spin later.  I have never done mohair before. It was very fluffy. It added a lot of volume to the batts.

mary carding carding mohair

This is the batt.  It is not as compact as a straight merino batt. If you wanted it more blended you would split the batt into layers and put it through it again.

mohair batt

She also had some left over bits from other projects that we carded together.

mixed colour batt mixed colour batt 2

mixed colour batt 3

Now for the surprise. My son came in from feeding the bottle lambs there lunch with a very noisy bucket.

chicks in a bucket

We have a rogue chicken and she hatched 11 chicks in a hidden nest in the barn. They are now in a box with  water that they splashed everywhere and some food that tastes best if you stand in it.

chicks in a box 1

It will be interesting to see how they turn out. They will get a pen next to the older chicks today. They can’t be left with mom or they will not survive. Between the barn cats and the wild predators they all disappear when we have let them try to raise them.

Prep and Finishing

Prep and Finishing

Comments 20 comments

This last little week hasn’t been a felting week its been a preparation and finishing week with an emphasis on preparation. I carded up all my dyed balls of merino. You can see all my sheep on the top shelf.

caded wool on drum carded wool on shelf

 

I added the sheep to my little bag, it needs to be reblocked from having little balls of wool in it and hanging out in my purse for a few weeks until I got round to doing the sheep

sheep bag

 

and doing some doodling in my sketch book, I would like to do more felt art work.

sketch collage

The other thing is I have been  thinking or things that might sell in the summer. I made some felt laundry balls and some tea cozies and bags that might go well in the summer. What do you make for warm weather sales?

 

That Doesn’t Look Like My Old Jeans

That Doesn’t Look Like My Old Jeans

Comments 35 comments

A while back I made a note to myself to make paper from and old pair of jeans.  I wanted to play with some fiber in a different way from felting.

The first thing I did was to cut the fabric into small 3/4″ squares, discarding the seams.  Then I dragged out my old papermaking equipment which includes an ancient blender.

2015-04-21 15.01.19

Using warm water I filled the bender half way, then added a pinch of the squares and ran the blender for 30 seconds or so until the water turned blue.  This was a long process since I couldn’t overload the blender.

2015-04-21 15.46.00

The resulting pulp was strained.  When I had about a quart (1.14 liters) of pulp, I gave the blender a rest.

2015-04-21 15.58.57 2015-04-21 16.05.21

 

 

 

 

 

The set up for making the paper included a big container of water, a mould, deckle, pellon and blanket sheets. The deckle in black, the screen covered mould on the left.

2015-04-22 14.50.35

Using a handful of pulp, I added it to the water and agitated it. With deckle on top of the mould, I submerged the pair into the water at a 45 degree angle and came out with a pulp filled sheet.  Without going into all the nitty gritty of all the papermaking steps and terms, I couched (pressed) the paper onto a wet pellon sheet and repeated the steps until I had used up all the pulp and had a pile of sheets.

2015-04-22 15.04.152015-04-22 15.10.20

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next step was to press the paper in my homemade paper press.

2015-04-22 15.42.09 2015-04-22 15.45.01

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After letting it sit awhile, I gently placed the paper on a white board and used a haki brush to place it on the board to dry.

2015-04-22 15.55.27 2015-04-22 16.04.15

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since the blender was old, the fiber didn’t get chopped very fine, but it made an interesting texture and look with the various long fibers running through the paper.

2015-04-24 10.56.53 2015-04-24 10.59.45 2015-04-24 10.59.23 2015-04-24 10.58.28

Like an old pair of well worn jeans, the paper is soft. One side is smooth where the paper dried on the whiteboard, the other is textured.

I could run it through the process again, but I think I’ll try to felt with it before I do.  What would you do with denim paper?

Carding some Wool and Making some Felted Soap

Carding some Wool and Making some Felted Soap

Comments 14 comments

After I dyed my wool last week I had to recard it into batts. I have to do this because it became slightly felted during the rinsing process after dying. I have to rinse a lot more than some people because I have hard water. It doesn’t matter if I use a little dye for soft muted colour or lots of dye for strong bright colours.  To recard the fiber, I strip it down into thin ropes. I feed the ropes into the carder. I have a large electric carder but you can do this with a small hand operated drum carder too. I have in the past. I am sorry to say that yesterday I took a nice long video of the carder working but it has disappeared from my phone.  All I have are a few still shots.

Carder This is the carder and infeed table. They are in my nice new studio space. It is all by itself at the moment until I can get the rest of my stuff sorted and my husband can finish the electrical work.

wool in strips carder batt end

Here are the strips on the infeed table and the batt coming off onto the storage drum. I do feed the wool through twice as the first time it is still a bit stripy in density . I separate the batt into thin layers and feed it in again.  I end up with very nice batts.

finnished batts These are all a little less than 100grams/3.5ounses. I used them to make some felted soaps. I tear off a piece of batt and wrap it around the soap. I add a wool stripe or a piece of silk hanky and then pop them into the toe of a nylon. When I have a bunch ready I sit with an audio book and wet felt them all.

soap felted 2

Here they are all ready to go in their nice bright spring/Easter colours.

I am starting to feel like spring with the longer day light hours we are getting. it puts me more in a mood to be felting.  I would feel more  like spring if there wasn’t  still a couple of feet of snow on my lawn. I am however thankful I do not live in the Prince Edward Island on the east coast of Canada . They have had 16 feet of snow in the last two months the last being just a few days ago. I am sure they feel like spring will never come. Are you feeling like spring? Or perhaps you are in the southern hemisphere and are starting to feel like winter is coming?

Brighter Cat Toys and Making a Few Batts

Brighter Cat Toys and Making a Few Batts

Comments 11 comments

Last week I showed you the roving I dyed with Rit dyes and this week, I made them into cat toys as I needed some brighter colors. I have shown how I made the cat toys here.

New Brighter Cat Toys

These definitely fit into the “brighter” category. I always think it is funny when people are choosing what color they want and they have a discussion on which color they think their cat will like. Really?

Blue Green Merino Fleece

I had also dyed some merino fleece so I decided a little drum carding was in order.

Set Up for Carding

Here’s my set up on the coffee table in front of the television. It’s a good activity at night when I’m zoning out in front of the “boob tube”. My mom used to call it that. You can see the dyed fiber on the far left. I picked and teased it apart by hand and ran it through the carder. I got two batts out of it.

Drum Carder

This is a slightly closer view of the carder. My hubbie got it for me for Christmas one year which was a big hit as you can imagine. It’s from Strauch Fiber Company and is very sturdy.

Olive Green Batts

I had some left over green mixed breed fiber so I decided to combine them to make them a bit more interesting. They are both in the olive-green shades although the one on the left is much more yellow.

Close Up of Batt

Here is a closer view of the mix of colors in one of the batts. I am trying to use up bits and pieces of wool so that I will use them so blending them into batts makes them much more interesting.

 

Washing some Fleece

Washing some Fleece

Comments 16 comments

While looking for something else I found some unknown dirty wool. There was lots of nice curls so that’s probably why I kept them. There wasn’t a whole fleece but just a piece of one, enough to fit in a dish washing bowl. Here it is sitting on top of the water before I pushed it under. There is some dish soap in the water.

IMG_2432

Here  it is soaking. This is a pretty clean piece of fleece the water isn’t very dirty.

IMG_2435 IMG_2439

Here it is drying, and after it is dry, it is much lighter gray.

IMG_2441IMG_2454

The are lots of small bits in the individual locks  so I tried just combing the ends and rewetting them to bring it back together.

IMG_2452 IMG_2453

Unfortunately it did not word as well as I hoped. They are better and perhaps if I used them on some felt or off the edge of some felt they may come back together by the end of the felting.

IMG_2486

Have you had any success in getting locks back together?

 

 

Learning to Use a Drum Carder to Make Batts

Learning to Use a Drum Carder to Make Batts

Comments 20 comments

Our guest artist today is Cathy Wycliff aka Luvswool.

After several months of taking a hiatus from felting–due to a work project and family health issues–I was starving to get back into it.

Fortunately, Marilyn suggested a lesson in carding batts. I don’t own a carder and my experience with blending fibers has been minimal, that is, using my dog brushes to blend a few bits of wool roving. Last Friday, Marilyn came over with two carders: a Louet Junior with a very coarse cloth (40 tpi?), and a standard Brother with fine (120 tpi) cloth.

I felt more comfortable beginning with the Louet, and grabbed some neutrals to begin the carding process. I used these fibers with no particular plan for my first batt: Mystery fiber chunks and fibers, possibly some Finn hand-spun; hand-dyed vintage yarn (early 80s); small amount of Domestic 56s and Navajo churro–all in various neutral shades, mostly gray.

IMG_0404IMG_0401

 

 

 

 

 

 

IMG_0395 IMG_0394

Then it was time to move on to the Brother for some finer carding. This time I went for color: Indigo-dyed Domestic 56s, dark blue Merino, hand-dyed mulberry silk, white Tencel, green mystery fiber, possibly Corriedale. The machine was a bit more sensitive, and so the fibers needed to be fed more carefully onto the drum.

IMG_0389IMG_0396 IMG_0400 IMG_0399

I tried the Brother once again, using slightly different fibers and colors: Hand-dyed Indigo Domestic 56s, dark blue Merino, white Tencel, unknown white fiber (possibly cotton), and Milk protein. Marilyn suggested we make two passes through with the fibers.

IMG_0398 IMG_0397

Some things that surprised me about the carding experience: it took a lot of time and was more difficult than I imagined; the fibers don’t necessarily cooperate, in that bits get caught on the smaller drum; and finally, it’s probably a good idea to have a plan of what you want to make with the batts before you begin. This was an experience I really enjoyed and I have made a couple more batts with the Louet coarse carder, which Marilyn generously has loaned me. The neutrals below were passed through three times.

IMG_0406 IMG_0405 IMG_0412 IMG_0410

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More mystery fibers in green and yellow.

 

Thanks Cathy for sharing your first experience with carding batts.  Do you still have carder envy?  Personally, I am happy to have the carders.  They have come in handy more than once.  I love making batts just for fun.  I don’t always have a use for them and often give them away.  Its always a creative learning experience!