When a fleece arrives through the post it is always so exciting. Every fleece is slightly different and you never know exactly how it will spin up. My first task depends on the type of fleece; sheep wool needs to be cold soaked in water. This cleans most of the dirt out of the wool and leaves just enough lanolin to make spinning easier. Alpaca wool can be carded straight away but I usually cold soak it to get rid of the dust in the fleece. Otherwise I end up sneezing more than I do spinning!
When the wool is totally dry I begin carding. This straightens the fibres and prepares them for spinning. With one carder on my lap I lay a small hand full of fibres over the needles and gently comb across them from left to right. The fibres are then stripped off one carder and on to the other, combed again, transferred over again, combed and then rolled into a sausage shape called a rolag. This is then ready for spinning.
Single ply yarn
The reel on the right shows single ply sheeps wool, the one on the left shows single ply alpaca wool. Once two reels of the same single ply yarn are produced these can then be spun into a double ply yarn. The two yarns are spun together in the opposite direction so that the original twist is not undone. The finished yarn is then removed from the reel onto a wool winder which produces a long hank. I use an old fashioned wooden concertina style wool winder, but two chair legs will do just the same job. The hank is tied in four places to prevent tangling during the washing process. I gently wash the hank in specialised liquid wool soap, rinse and condition the yarn to make it soft and fresh smelling. I dry the hank on the washing line in a net bag made from net curtaining.
Spinning
The carded rolag is then gently drawn out. The twist generated from the spinning wheel is allowed to run up the fibres creating the yarn. In the picture you will see that while the left hand pulls the fibres from the rolag, the right fingers pinch the yarn to stop the twist running back. When you are happy with the fibres in the left hand, (no bits of straw to be picked out, not too thin and not too thick), you can release the pinch with the right fingers and allow the yarn to be twisted. This does take quite a lot of practice, and is a continual learning process as each fleece responds differently to being carded and twisted. Alpaca and angora rabbit fibres need more twist to hold the fibres together as they don't contain a crimp like sheeps wool.
This process produces a single ply yarn which is spun onto a removable reel.
Ball of wool.
Finally, the hank is then placed back onto the wool winder when it is completely dry and spun into a ball. The ball of wool on the left (above) is hand wound angora from my own rabbits. The wool on the right is alpaca.
