Home-Built Hackle and Comb Set for Processing Raw Fleece

Last spring, I purchased a beautiful clean and fluffy cream-colored alpaca fleece from Sabamba.  It's so nice and fluffy and relatively clean that I have been reluctant to actually wash it like regular sheep's wool.  The alpaca fleece does not have the grease that sheep wool has.  And I learned that alpaca fleece is even more prone to felting during the washing phase than regular fleece.  That said, many spinners prefer to wash alpaca fiber AFTER it's been spun into yarn.

I came across the following video that was very helpful, and gave me the idea to build my own :



This blog post from Moonsong Fiber Works was also very helpful in providing the basic plans for making my own comb and hackle set.

 No-- It's not a medieval torture device.  It's a DIY Hackle for processing wool.
Cherry wood and nails.

My husband accepted the challenge.  He studied the plans and made a supply list.   He was also convinced he could improve upon it ...

Here is the accompanying wool comb.  He realized after he was done that the short nails should be on the bottom.  I said I'll see how this works ...  If I have trouble with it, he can switch the handle around.

Truth be known : The Wisconsin Wool and Sheep Festival was coming up, and I did not want to be tempted to purchase more equipment (more than $250 for a purchased set) if I could make it myself.  That means more money to spend on fiber!

Fiberlicious

I've been carding an alpaca fleece I bought at Sabamba last spring.  Beautiful fiber!  I watched a video that explained how to pull it off the carder by rolling it between 2 wooden dowels into a fat rolag that can then be turned into hand-pulled roving--as opposed to dizzing it.  It's nice and compact and will store well, I think, but is still easy to pull apart for spinning.  I don't mind spinning off the batts, as they stay fluffy -- but they take up a lot of space, and can matt down over time.   See below ...  I worked through about 1/2 of that fleece this afternoon.

Here's the last of the alpaca roving I bought from Sabamba last fall.  This stuff has been a dream to spin -- so easy!  It's sad to be coming to the end of the batch.  It's remarkable that the roving doesn't get all tangled up.  It just unwinds nice and gentle ...


I found someone on eBay selling a mill end batch of 65% wool and 35% silk mix.  It's beautiful stuff!  The listing said it was clean, but needed to be carded--perhaps because it's been compacted.  I think I could get away with spinning it as is.  Something to look forward to when the alpaca roving runs out.  My friend Lynda liked it too, so we ordered a second round to take us through winter.


Remember those silk laps we learned about at The Sheep & Wool Festival?  I ordered some to experiment and play with.  I love the sheen on these!  the white one is mulberry silk lap; the other is honey tussah silk lap.  

Kirsty Mitchell's Wonderland at The Paine

 The Pure Blood of a Blossom

This weekend, I attended the Wonderland exhibit at The Paine Art Center here in Oshkosh.  It features the work of photographer Kirsty Mitchell.   They actually had a sign posted encouraging visitors take their own pictures and posting them to social media.  That's a new concept at an art gallery--to have them embrace that.  It's free advertising, in a way. 

The amazing fairy tale photographs came out of Mitchell's grief after her mother and best friend died in 2008 due to a brain tumor.  Her mother was an English teacher, storyteller, and avid reader.  So the stories and the world's Mitchell created for the photographs were a way for her to revisit time with her mother.

This show has so many things going for it -- Fairy Tales, story, amazing photographs, amazing sets, grief and healing, books, flowers, the Woods ...  With a background in fashion design, Mitchell also created all the costumes and sets.  Just as captivating as the final images are the videos explaining how she made everything ...

The Wonderland Book, 2nd Edition from Kirsty Mitchell Photography on Vimeo.

And then, to top it all off, she published a beautiful coffee table book to go along with the exhibit.  What is actually on display at the Paine is just the tip of the iceberg.   The book contains many more photographs from the series, along with commentary, and the Wonderland Diaries as she was going through this journey of grief and healing.

It's the most expensive book I've ever purchased for myself, and I'm glad I did -- I would have regretted passing this up.  She's doing what I wanted to do with the Vasalisa pictures a few years ago ...  But I never really took it further.  It's expensive to buy the costumes, find a model, schedule the time on locations.  And Kirsty clearly had a staff from makeup artists to staging help. 

Mitchell came to our fair city this week to speak about the project. Wow!  Again and again, she said the project was not about her, but her mother.   I wish I could tell her that her mother is right there with her, every step of the way ...  loving how she has blossomed, and come through the other side of her grief.  They don't stop loving us once they die.   It took me a long time to learn that after my friend Sandy died, after beloved dogs died.

She said that she learned to take whatever weather came on her shooting days.  She took that to mean her Mother was present and taking an active part in the making of these images.  And often, the weather added elements she could not have imagined.

When I saw the exhibit, I was a little surprised that it was just the images printed and blown up to 2 meters, but none of the accompanying costumes or props were part of the exhibit (except for the Faerie Key).  One the panel, someone asked about the costumes -- They are all in her house, she has most of them still, is living with most of them still.  She did say that some of them fell apart as soon as the picture was taken ...  So there's the idea of photography being a moment in time-- a momento -- the photograph being the artifact, not the costumes and props. 

She also talked about the preponderance of ships in many of the photos.  Mitchell said the ships signified a journey.  In this case, an inward journey.

She also said, she started out with a lot of these flowery girl pictures, but they didn't really go anywhere -- until she started taking these characters into the swamps and getting dirty with mud and blood, that SHE really started to heal and began to feel better about where she was going with her grief, that something good could come from it. 

I did persevere in the long line to have Kirsty Mitchell sign my book.  I got her autograph!  And no, I did not hold up the line for everyone behind me to get a selfie with her.  I didn't need that ... and the people behind me didn't need that either. 

I'm so glad I went to the show, and her lecture, and that I bought the book.  Janna--You have to see it sometime!

Successful Day at The Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival in Jefferson, WI

JIM HOKETT BOAT SHUTTLES

The find-of-the-day was these beautiful 15-inch wooden weaving shuttles made by Jim Hokett. 

I was in the booth for The Weaver's Loft, sorting through a box of shuttles when some other weaving ladies were interested in the same.  One called the owner over, and we discovered that she had bought out Jim Hokett's remaining stock in weaving shuttles.  She was selling them as a great discount : $30 each for these beauties!  One still had a price tag on it for $85.  Wow!    This was certainly the find of the show -- if you're a weaver.

 

I purchased 2 of the Jim Hokett Shuttles (1 Bird's Eye Maple and 1 Bubinga).   My friend Lynda got 3 of them!  She just couldn't pass this up either.  She got Bubinga, Cocobolo (a little more expensive), and some kind of wood that was mostly black with a little white, and quite heavy.  She is looking forward to working with these on her largest loom.

 

I've seen Jim Hokett shuttles online (Pinterest and blogs), but they seem to be hard to come by if you're actually trying to purchase them.  Now I know why ...  If you want to get one for yourself at these prices, they may have some left at The Weaver's Loft.

The only other thing I purchased was this lovely little commercially-made acrylic diz.  Very elegant, don't you think?  I remembered these from last year at Mielke's Fibers.  They come with a handy threader--a loop--not the usual hook. 

I might still try to make some of my own dizzes.  It's an easy thing to do if you have a big button and a drill press.  Anything with a hole will work, really.  Still, it's nice to have an official one.

"What?" You say in disbelief.  "You went to the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival, and did NOT come away with any fiber?"  It's true!  There were plenty of fibers to touch and feel -- Plenty of beautiful dyed locks and color combinations (Oh My!   Patty Reedy from Rainbow Fleece Farm among others.) The funny thing is : I feel like I've been "spoiled" by spinning alpaca.  Even Merino (which I used to think of as the cotton candy of spinning fiber) feels a bit rough next to alpaca.  

And silk ---  We learned about silk lap at The Thorntree Pass booth where the lady had beautifully dyed Wensleydale locks and silk lap.  Silk Lap is a batt that builds up on a drum carder while processing for other silk products.  It peels off and can be dyed and spun.  I'm really interested in exploring this more ...  She had some beautiful color combinations on her dyed goods.  I hope to see her again someday. 

As for my lack of fiber purchases : Never Fear : I have plenty of fiber at home waiting to be processed, and a few more bags set to be delivered via mail order over the next week -- some with silk!  That will be a separate post. ;-)

Even the catalog is a useful reference to keep around the rest of the year, as it lists the vendors with contact info, and lots of other useful info. 

Spinning the day away in the last hours of the Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival 2017 in Jefferson, WI.