The Silent Auction Lesson

Silent Auctions-love them. Know one? E-mail me.
This time however, it was me doing the offering at the Strawberry Festival at my Quaker Meeting House- 'A Spinning Lesson Guaranteed-You will spin a hank of yarn.' My optimistic victim winning bidder, thankfully gave me lots of lead time to practice but how in the whirled was I actually going to send someone home with a presentable piece of handspun considering the hank my last optimistic victim did after an entire evening was thick and thin-as in THICK for about 2 yards and then really really thin .


The W.B. arrives, I have fiber spread over the entire livingroom. Raw greasy fleece, lbs. and lbs. of colored Merino and assorted other lovelies. I like to start people off with Corriedale, because it is so easy to handle. The W.B. loves the crimpy Cotswold fleece I paid a pretty penny for at MSWF last year. Not a beginner fiber but we roll in it for a bit.

Finally we begin. My plan- have her start on pencil roving. WOW- harder than I thought it would be and it doesn't look so good. I think top or batts might have been easier. Then a brain storm---throw in some gorgeous mixed stuff

I've been saving from MSWF and have her spin them togother. It will be fatter, easier, and possibily more satistifying. I pull off strips and lay them along side the pencil roving. Voila- The W.B. is delighted. It is easy to see the twist, the bobbin is filling up and most importantly-

it looks like very cool yarn. WOW- I wish my first handspun looked like this.

Doggone Cheap Sheep

April 2006, I'm at my little bros. house in Waynesboro VA. I see a flyer in 7-11, yes, 7-11, for Sedalia Spring Fiber Festival, in Bedford VA. On a whim we go and one of the gems from that day is this roving that I bought from a 86 year old man and his big ole dog. The man processes and dyes the roving himself on his farm on the edge of valley . I pick it up. It feels great. No machine evenness, fresh. I read the label.

Dog, mohair

Cormo

I love it so much I buy two Colorways.

It's quintessential quaint.

I love it even more on the bobbin.

I'm already dreaming about next year. -April I think it is. The sweetest little fiber festival in the East. http://www.springfiberfestival.com/index.htm Leave me some dog hair. (Cheingora)

Where the Buffalo Roam

My partner and I in a car late last spring.
D.P. "Was that a Buffalo?"
ME: "Oh my god, is that American Cashmere on the hoof?"

We stop and ask the neighbors until the owner, Ray, is I.D.Ed and a phone # given. Ray, also owns the only gasoline station in town and is mildly amused that I want a bag of Buffalo hair. He tells me the field is full of the stuff and if I can help him find a way to make $$ off of it, he'll give me all I can carry.

The next morning--there's a scary bag of hair/dung/ vm waiting for me at the Citgo. As a spinner you run into some pretty gnarly dark corners with the stuff you plan to wash, dye and beautify, but this was truly over the top. It looked like what our friend Roberto pulled out of the shower drain last year that made me want to sell the house. It's hair, not fleece, not silky llama hair, but coarse you-know-what textured hair. Ooooooowwwwww.



SO how does one begin? I do an internet search and find to my great consternation...the directions for how to clean Buffalo hair and separate the down, or good stuff, from the unspeakable hair is patented. YES patented, read the whole "hairy" story here:http://www.girlfromauntie.com/journal/index.php/2005/the-buffalo-gal/


So I figure, what do I have to lose. I have a garbage bag full of yuck with potential. First, I dump it all a big laundry tub and start going through it...then I remember left over rubber gloves from this week's hair change...Finally I find that the buffalo down looks really different than the guard hairs and is all together in one clump. Good news, except it also looks like it may be felted already.

On the left is guard hair


On the right the good stuff