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    How to make your own yarn

    First, get a couple of sheep.



    Then let them roam around for a year growing out all that nice wool. And shear it off! Get a professional do to this. Seriously. It's quite a task.



    Then take your big stinking, greasy filthy fleece and get it sparkling clean. Yes, this is from a white sheep. The stench to irresistible to all manner of creatures, so if you are finicky about your wool, do this out of smell range of your pets. This is my first time going through the process, so I'm still figuring it out and figured the critters could help too.



    Cleaning wool is just a lot of soaking. Sheep 'sweat' a substance called lanolin. It's great for all sorts of things, lip balm, rust proof coatings, chapped nipples, you name it. It's not so good for leaving on the wool when you want to spin it. So we need to get it out. Good thing it's soluble in hot water. But you don't want to wring the wool, or agitate it much while it's in hot water, because the fibers will mat together - called felting. So cleaning is just soaking. If you get tired watching the wool soak, you have a ready made soft bed to take a break on as long as you don't mind the greasy stink.



    First soak is in a tub of hot water with ordinary laundry detergent for 45 minutes. Here's the wool after the soak (with a chunk of uncleaned wool nearby for comparison). Mmm...look at that water!



    Soak again in just plain hot water for 30 minutes. Getting cleaner!



    Finally, a soak in hot water with white vinegar for 30 minutes. Ahh, can finally see through the water in the tub.



    The wool isn't 100% clean at this point, but you can wash the yarn once it's done, so that's my plan with this batch. But look how much cleaner it is!



    Next up, carding and spinning the wool!
    The Pagan Porch - a Pagan Homesteading forum

    Sand Holler Farm Blog - aren't you just dying to know what I do all day?

    #2
    Re: How to make your own yarn

    This is an awesome post....can't wait to read more! Makes me wish I had sheep! Or even a yard to put them in haha.

    Weird question but was curious...do you do anything with the lanolin water? Like, can you boil it down to get a lanolin that you can use for something?

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      #3
      Re: How to make your own yarn

      Very cool, Madness!

      I'm still working on the first step - get a couple sheep.

      We'll probably switch that to llamas, though...
      Every moment of a life is a horrible tragedy, a slapstick comedy, dark nihilism, golden illumination, or nothing at all; depending on how we write the story we tell ourselves.

      Comment


        #4
        Re: How to make your own yarn

        Originally posted by DanieMarie View Post
        Weird question but was curious...do you do anything with the lanolin water? Like, can you boil it down to get a lanolin that you can use for something?
        I did briefly consider this, especially because we have a few fleeces that are particularly low quality (the breed plus the attempt to shear without a professional). The only real mention I could find of extracting it yourself was to get a breed that is super greasy and then squeeze the fleece through rollers. So even as greasy as ours feels, it's no where near enough for home extraction (I think...). The water from the first wash is filthy with other things including laundry detergent. I'm sure there's a way to separate, but instead it just got dumped out!

        Ok, so now we move to processing the clean wool.

        The first step in processing is rather easy - called picking. There is a device to do this for those that go through a lot of fleeces, but the easiest way is to just do finger picking. You just pull all the wool apart. There's still lots of vegetable matter stuck in between the fibers so picking helps loosen it up. This weekend was perfect for this - sunny and a bit breezy. So I just sat outside picking wool, letting the breeze take the lighter bits of debris and the heavier ones fall to the floor.

        Once you've picked the wool, then it's ready for carding. This is essentially combing it so that all the fibers are going in the same direction. There are all sorts of 'carders' for this, but they are all basically paddles with a bunch of curved metal teeth.



        You load up one carder and then begin drawing the other one on top. Repeat this until all the wool is on one carder, then transfer back to the first. Pretty soon, you end up with nicely combed wool.



        Once it's all lined up on the carder, you just pull off and roll the wool into a little log...called a rolag (it's my 2 year old's favorite new word). These are pretty messy. The first ones I've done in about 10 years! You'll want to build up a nice pile before moving on to the next step.



        Finally, you get to turn the wool into yarn. I'm using a drop spindle. Back 10 years ago (come to think of it, it was more like 15 or 20!) when my aunt was teaching me all of this, I never graduated to this stage. So I'm basing this off of books and lots and lots of youtube videos. There's a group in town that I'm going to meet with soon so I can get better instruction. I understand the process - it's the application that is a bit difficult.

        Anyway, you start by 'drafting' (pulling) a rolag thinner on one end and twisting it up so you can attach it to the spindle. Then you 'flick' the spindle to set it in motion. More advanced spinners do all the work while the spindle is going, but I'm still in the learning phase, so I'm doing a process called 'park and draft'. Just before the spindle starts spinning in the opposite direction, I 'park' it (grab it between my knees or feet) and then 'draft' (pull) the unspun wool to the desired thickness while still pinching the spun wool so as not to let the twist further up. Then when I let go of the twisted wool, the built up tension twists the newly drafted part. Release the spindle again, flick, park, draft. Repeat, repeat, repeat.



        When the spindle is full (yarn goes half way up the shaft or so), you simply unwind the yarn and roll it into a ball. Whew!



        I'm still working on keeping the yarn the same thickness and the same twist amount. There are lots of finer points to using a drop spindle so I have a long ways to go before being proficient...but I also have 10 fleeces to process so surely I'll catch on by the end! The yarn in the picture above is from maybe 1/10 of a fleece. And the sheep are due to be sheared again in March! I feel as though I'll be doing this in all my free time from now on...at least it's fun for now!
        The Pagan Porch - a Pagan Homesteading forum

        Sand Holler Farm Blog - aren't you just dying to know what I do all day?

        Comment


          #5
          Re: How to make your own yarn

          Originally posted by Madness View Post
          I did briefly consider this, especially because we have a few fleeces that are particularly low quality (the breed plus the attempt to shear without a professional). The only real mention I could find of extracting it yourself was to get a breed that is super greasy and then squeeze the fleece through rollers. So even as greasy as ours feels, it's no where near enough for home extraction (I think...). The water from the first wash is filthy with other things including laundry detergent. I'm sure there's a way to separate, but instead it just got dumped out!
          Yeah sounds like more effort than reward!

          Comment


            #6
            Re: How to make your own yarn

            My problem is getting the hang of the drop spindle...I just can't get the rhythm of it *right*. I don't really have sheep handy, but you can spindle plarn and really just about any fiber to make "art yarns", including t-shirt strips and I've even seen newsprint (though I think that was done with a wheel)...
            Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
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              #7
              Re: How to make your own yarn

              I've heard of people using their dogs shed for yarn as well, if you can't afford or don't have the space for sheep. People either collect what their dog sheds during every combing or they collect what fur they lose when they shear them in the spring. I'm sure not all dog fur is good for this, but it's something to think about.
              We are what we are. Nothing more, nothing less. There is good and evil among every kind of people. It's the evil among us who rule now. -Anne Bishop, Daughter of the Blood

              I wondered if he could ever understand that it was a blessing, not a sin, to be graced with more than one love.
              It could be complicated; of course it could be complicated. And it opened one up to the possibility of more pain and loss.
              Still, it was a blessing I would never relinquish. Love, genuine love, was always a cause for joy.
              -Jacqueline Carey, Naamah's Curse

              Service to your fellows is the root of peace.

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                #8
                Re: How to make your own yarn

                This is seriously cool, Madness.


                Mostly art.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: How to make your own yarn

                  Very cool!

                  Are you still making cheese? I'm wondering if there is a simple way to make cheese at home...
                  Every moment of a life is a horrible tragedy, a slapstick comedy, dark nihilism, golden illumination, or nothing at all; depending on how we write the story we tell ourselves.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: How to make your own yarn

                    Originally posted by B. de Corbin View Post
                    Are you still making cheese? I'm wondering if there is a simple way to make cheese at home...
                    Of course there's a simple way to do it at home! I'm actually trying to gear up to make some cottage cheese from the raw cow milk I now get (cottage cheese is notoriously hard with goat milk - I have about a 50% success rate - but is apparently impossible to screw up with cow milk). I'll be sure to do a tutorial on that!
                    The Pagan Porch - a Pagan Homesteading forum

                    Sand Holler Farm Blog - aren't you just dying to know what I do all day?

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: How to make your own yarn

                      What a lovely pictorial essay! Thank you for taking the time to share. I weave on a Navajo loom, but buy my yarn already spun. I would like to dye some of my undyed yarn this summer when I can get outside. I have all the stuff, but not the dedicated time.
                      Last edited by Miranda; 13 Mar 2012, 17:59.

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