Current Projects

I am horribly guilty of starting new projects before I finish the current ones in progress. I have a lot of big plans for future projects, so these are the things I need to finish before I get there.

1. Feel Pretty Scarf - This one is a commission project I'm working on, in a lovely purple yarn that is great to work with. I'm about 1/8th of the way through it, so this one will probably be finished first.

2. Alpaca spinning project - this one will be an ongoing project and one that won't be finished before I get started on my planned stuff, but it's also an awesome project! I'm hand carding and spinning 6 fleeces, hopefully by the end of summer but we'll see how that goes.

3. Socks - This one is the Skew pattern, and I'm doing these 2 at a time, so they should also be fairly fast. I think I'm about halfway through the foot, and I haven't started the heels yet.

4. Catoctin Shawl - I seriously only have the border to do on this one. It's a knitted on border (meaning one row of border is one stitch off the length of the border, if that makes any sense at all) so it's taking forever... over 700 stitches give or take and it's slow going. I just need to suck it up and finish it already.

5. A BIG shawl- I may have bit off a bit more than I can chew currently with this one. It's a Shetland shawl, so it's constructed center out, and I currently only have a small portion of the center done. This one might end up in WIP land for a while while I work on everything else and be picked up later...

I think that's everything pressing right now. So, not a LOT of projects, but it's involved. Hooray for motivation to finish and get going on my new plans!

Hand Spinning: Part 1, Carding and Prepping Fiber

For those who might not know, hand carding is the process used to comb out fibers in preparation for spinning. For alpaca, it's a different process than with wool- the fibers are longer and finer (typically) and not coated in tons of lanolin, so they aren't washed first. There are a few spinners out there who WILL wash alpaca before spinning, and it's really more a matter of personal preference. I prefer not to wash before spinning and instead wash after the yarn is complete. In my opinion, this produces a much softer finished product. Here is how I process the raw fleece into something I can spin.

First off, gather supplies. For this post, I am using a raw (not processed) white alpaca fleece. It came in a bag, from a wonderfully obliging alpaca named Annie. She's very soft, I love this fleece!

So soft! Annie is lovely :) 

Of course, you'll also need a hand carder- this one is called a "flick carder" and comes as a single brush, rather than a set of two like other carders. You will probably also want some kind of covering for your lap, something like a bit of leather or some canvas, to protect your jeans. Mine is one I made over the past week or so (see this post) made from two layers of canvas duck cloth.

I was using my carder a little bit before I took this picture, hence the fluff. 

If you're doing this indoors (like I am, I have pollen allergies so it's not fun to be outdoors right now) I would also recommend putting down an old towel or something to catch the stuff (dirt, grass, etc) that will inevitably fall out of the fibers.

Okay, time to get started! The fiber will look like this to start with. See the weird clumps? Those are called "locks". They don't look super fluffy yet, and since they are dirty and stuck together you can't spin them yet. 

Papercuts and alpaca locks, it's a good day!

In the above photo, it doesn't look like there is a lot there, but that's a lot more than you want to card at once. Separate some locks so you have a small section- about the size of your thumb. 

About thumb size across is what you're looking for.

Okay, almost ready to start. Grab your locks by the dirty end (that's where they are stuck together more) and hold tight. Like this:

In your other hand, grab your flick carder. Yeah, it looks pointy and kinda intimidating, but it's really quite friendly! Hold it like this:

See how my thumb is sticking out? Awesome! That's so I have more control over the pressure and speed I am carding with. Feel free to experiment with this, I haven't found a wrong way to hold it yet!

Time to start carding! Hold tight to the fibers (probably tighter than you think- the flick carder pulls HARD) and comb through the end of your locks. Always go with the direction the hair is already going, that avoids tangles and matting and general unpleasantness cleaning out the flick carder later. 

I know, my thumb isn't in this picture... I had to take the picture somehow, right?

You'll need to do more than one stroke. I like to rock the flick carder so there is more contact throughout the points. Just be careful... I've caught my fingers in those combs more than once and it really hurts!

Once you've done about 4-6 strokes the locks will look something like this:

IT'S SO FLUFFY!

Now its all done on that side! See how fluffy it got? That's good! Flick carding aligns the fibers and fluffs them out some so you can spin it easily later. Here's a good picture of how the fibers align:

Poof! :) 

Okay, I'll stop playing with the poofyness... gather the poofy side with your other hand so none escapes and then hold it like you were before- nice and tight so nothing gets away! This time the dirtier ends will be showing. 

This side tends to be a little harder to card through, so be patient and eventually those will open up and get all poofy as well. And tada! You're finished with your first set of locks! I like to put mine in a fabric-lined basket to be spun later. 

Finished locks.

Some problems you might run into while carding are larger bits of stuff. Here's a piece of grass I found in one of my locks. It won't hurt the flick carder, but go ahead and pick it out anyway, cause the big bits of grass aren't fun to run into while spinning. The smaller bits... well, they're so common and don't matter as much so go ahead and leave those in. They'll fall out while you spin. 

Hey look! Flora in my fauna!

Remember the towel I recommended for indoors? Yeah... this is what mine looked like three locks in:

Eeew... 

One other tidbit of advice: when you are carding you might notice that the carder picks up random bits of fluff as well, like this:

This really isn't a big deal, though it does get to be a pain. Most of what is in there is grass, but the fiber you see is typically really short pieces and coarser hairs. You can definitely keep those if you want to and try carding them or combing them out to use as well, though I prefer to just discard those bits. Again, it will look like a lot, but a whole fleece is ~3 POUNDS of fiber so the few ounces you throw out like this don't make much of a difference. Besides, the finished yarn ends up being super soft, and since that is usually my goal it's worth it!

I will be adding onto this tutorial with a few different spinning techniques and ways to finish up yarn! Stay tuned! :)