Jun 13, 2021
Our Summer Spin In is underway and in this episode we answer listener questions on washing a fleece and drafting techniques.
Show notes with full transcript, photos, and links can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com.
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Marsha’s Projects
Walk Along Tee by Ankestrick (Ravelry link) It has been slow going but the sleeves are done and I’ve started the bottom ribbing!
Halfway on the foot on the second sock of a pair of socks for myself using Drops Fabel Print that I bought in San Luis Obispo.
My Barber Pole spinning project has hit a road bump. All the green and brown has been plied into a three-ply. I decided to spin a bobbin of just dark brown in Navajo (or chain) ply. This was not successful because I’m an uneven spinner and this technique emphasizes the variation. Back to the drawing board.
Kelly’s Projects
Faye’s Flower Blanket, a crochet project, is mostly sewn together. The triangles and corners need to be put on. I am using single crochet to attach them all. The pattern is Persian Tile Blanket (Ravelry link) by Jane Crowfoot. I am using Knit Picks Brava worsted.
Finished one charity hat. It’s a beanie style with a small 1” ribbing and the rest is just stockinette with two fingering yarns held together.
Dishcloths! I’ve made about 7 dishcloths out of some cotton spirit yarn that Marsha and I dyed about 4 years ago and never did anything with.
Spinning Questions We Answered:
Drafting Techniques:
What are the different drafting techniques and what are some tips?
How are you drafting? What hand is where? Short, medium, long… Forward, backward…
Drafting techniques: what have you used and what is your favourite?
What is the preparation?
Commercial preparation: top vs roving vs sliver vs batts
How to get started with long draw?
Here is a good article: Seven Drafting Techniques
How do you wash a fleece?
Here is a good article: Washing Grease Fleece and for further information you can listen to our episode on washing a fleece and read the show notes for lots of links!
Washing: Episode 27B Fiber Myth Busting Bonus Episode.
Resources:
The Intentional Spinner: A holistic approach to making yarn. Judith MacKenzie McCuin. 2009.
The Alden Amos Big Book of Handspinning: Being a compendium of information, advice, and opinions on the noble art and craft. Alden Amos. 2001.
More cool info!
A Spinner’s Study Ravelry group. This month’s breeds (June 2021) are Finn and Teeswater. The spinning challenge for the month is “Spinning and Plying the Other Way.”
From SalPal, Sarah:
The Three Waters Farm Ravelry group maintains a bundle and thread of patterns that are good for handspun. https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/search#pattern-topic=257…
Momdiggity--Jo Ann suggests that any pattern calling for Spin Cycle yarn would be a good pattern for handspun.
Spring Summer 2021 Knitty-Spin column by Jilian Moreno: Planning for a Project-The Beginning
Drafting from Worsted to Woolen, Craftsy class be Jacey Boggs Faulkner.
Summer Spin In
Memorial Day - Labor Day
May 31st - September 6th
Transcript of Show
Marsha 0:03
Hi, this is Marsha and this is Kelly. We are the Two Ewes of Two
Ewes Fiber Adventures. Thanks for stopping by.
Kelly 0:10
You'll hear about knitting, spinning, dyeing, crocheting, and just
about anything else we can think of as a way to play with
string.
Marsha 0:17
We blog and post show notes at Two Ewes Fiber Adventure dot
com.
Kelly 0:22
And we invite you to join our Two Ewes Fiber Adventures group on
Ravelry. I'm 1hundredprojects,
Marsha 0:29
and I am betterinmotion.
Kelly 0:31
We are both on Instagram and Ravelry. And we look forward to
meeting you there.
Both 0:36
Enjoy the episode.
Marsha 0:43
Good morning, Kelly.
Kelly 0:44
Hi, Marsha. People will notice that we are not together. We're
coming at you from separate microphones in separate states.
Marsha 0:58
And yes, I think we have thought it would happen. But well, we
should explain why we thought it was going to happen. Maybe people
don't know that we were together over the Memorial Day weekend.
That you and Robert drove up from California
Kelly 1:12
It was a very exciting trip, for lots of reasons.
Marsha 1:17
And well, so we should say that you brought the two dogs. You
brought Bailey, who travels pretty well. She's gone camping with
you hasn't she?
Kelly 1:26
she's gone... Well, not too much because of the pandemic.
Marsha 1:32
Okay,
Kelly 1:32
So she's gone on two camping trips. The first one was right before
the pandemic started. And she was... she was just learning. You
know, we had not had her all that long. And so she got a lot of
walks. And she was-- we were really worried about, you know,
leaving her in the crate when we had to leave the trailer and stuff
like that, because she went crazy and broke crate doors and stuff.
And then the last time we went camping was in November of 2020. So
she's only been twice but she's pretty good. Yeah. I mean, at least
she's, she's more experienced at living with us. Yeah. then then
then Beary.
Kelly 1:40
And then I'm sure this is Beary's first camping trip.
Kelly 2:23
I would guess, yeah.
Marsha 2:25
And he did great. They will both dogs did great
Kelly 2:29
Well Beary came to us not even really knowing how to get into the
car, and not liking getting into the car and he has a ramp that we
use to get him in. And at the SPCA they were really, you know,
really careful to tell us you, you can't push him up the ramp, and
you have to lure him with food and toys and you know, get that
cheese in the can and you can spray it on the ramp, get him up
there. And anyway, we didn't do that. But we did use a lot of liver
and we taught him to get up into the truck, which is much higher
than a regular car, with the ramp. So we were practicing. We were
practicing on the ramp for a couple of weeks before we left.
Marsha 3:14
It's steep! That ramp is pretty steep The truck is really tall and
the ramp is not that long, either. It's what, six feet maybe
Kelly 3:23
Maybe Yeah,
Marsha 3:24
unfolded. So it ends up being kind of a steep ramp. And I was
watching and he does sort of have to get a running start.
Kelly 3:31
Yes. {laughing]
Marsha 3:32
And then don't stop. You don't want him to stop on that ramp.
Kelly 3:36
He'll just start sliding back down. But, and when we're first
practicing, he would get tired. Like he would go up it a couple
times. You know, I could only do it, I can only practice with him a
few times because maybe like by the fourth time it was too much
work. Now he's in much better shape now.
Marsha 3:56
Well, so we have to talk a little bit about well, there's so many
things. I know that, but you guys, you basically arrived on the
Friday before Memorial Day weekend, which I don't know what the
date is that like the 29th I think or something like that.
Kelly 4:10
Something like that.
Marsha 4:10
I don't remember, anyway. And you left Tuesday morning. So Memorial
Day was Monday and you left Tuesday morning. And while you were
here I think Saturday we just sat on the deck the whole day, didn't
we?
Kelly 4:25
Yeah.
Marsha 4:26
And we took the... we took our dogs for walks through the
neighborhood and then just sat on the deck and everything. And then
both Sunday and Monday we took them to the dog park at Magnuson
Park which is on... people who are not in Seattle that's on Lake
Washington. It's a former, I believe, Navy base that's been
converted to quite a nice park with all sorts of different
activities there. Anyway, one part of it is a dog park where you
can take your dogs off leash and you were, I think, a little
worried about Beary at first, but you let him off and he did
fine.
Kelly 5:05
Yeah, I wasn't sure. You know, we only had him a month. He doesn't
really have much in the way of training. And you know, he
recognizes his name, I think. And then he doesn't have a reliable,
you know, come when called. But it was such a long walk from the
parking lot to the dog park that he wasn't he wasn't fast enough to
get away from me. If he wasn't coming. If he wasn't coming, I could
have run over and gotten him and brought him back to where he
needed to be so that...
Marsha 5:43
Well, yeah, because I be parked at the southern end which then you
have a long walk to the dog par. There's a parking lot that you
just walk a few feet to the dog park but of course, I made them go
on the long one, but it was better. It was funny though watching
him because, and we've talked about this Kelly... I should also say
too, that the three dogs Bailey and Beary and Enzo all got along
pretty well. They--when you guys first arrived, we just took them
for a walk. And Enzo was. really curious as to what who these dogs
were and what was going on, but we didn't have any problems at all
with them
Marsha 6:19
No, they were fine. A little grumbling and raised lip
Marsha 6:22
yeah,
Kelly 6:23
And hey, this is my space. But it wasn't bad. It was it was
relatively easy. Also just so everyone knows, they were also very
highly managed.
Marsha 6:35
Yes, Yes, they were. Well, they were.
Kelly 6:39
It felt easy, because we were doing a lot of work to make it that
way.
Marsha 6:42
Yes. Well, they were on leash a lot all three dogs were on leash.
And I think Enza was on a leash the night you arrived. Yeah, Friday
night and then a good part of Saturday. Yeah. And then I finally
let him off leash it because he was pretty good. I mean, he was
pretty good about leaving them alone once they all kind of lost
interest in each other.
Kelly 6:48
Yeah,
Marsha 7:04
But your your dogs were on a leash a lot and then oh, at dinnertime
you would put them, you know, put them in the truck. So...Yes,
there was a lot of managing going on.
Kelly 7:15
Yes, in their giant four wheel drive silver crate. [laughing]
Marsha 7:20
Yeah. Just a side note about that truck. I've never seen such a big
truck! I mean that it's...I hope Robert doesn't listen to this.
Kelly 7:32
It's Ridiculous!
Marsha 7:33
I'm sure it's lovely. But it's it's so big. And the... And I know
Kelly, you're, you're shorter than I am. Right. And I'm not a giant
but I'm also not really short either. I'm just average height. But
I swear the hood of the truck is over my head or level with my head
it'ss so tall.
Kelly 7:35
That's ridiculous. And the key fob weighs about 17 pounds.
Marsha 8:05
Because if you drive a big truck, you have to have a key fob with
some heft to it.
Kelly 8:10
Yeah, it's a it's a manly truck in the most ridiculous way. But I
have to say it. It got us up there and got us back.
Marsha 8:23
And filled with furniture
Kelly 8:25
filled with furniture, filled with dogs. Yeah, it's gonna pull a
bigger trailer because that's another part of the reason we went up
there was to take a look at a trailer that we bought that we're
having worked on. That will replace the little trailer. It'll be a
little bit bigger. And so this truck will pull that bigger trailer.
So you know, I can't laugh about it too much. But
Marsha 8:49
yes, stop your complaining! It's funny, because I did think that
your old truck was big. It seems small compared to this one.
Kelly 9:01
Yeah, yeah. If they were sitting next to each other, it would look
puny. Mm hmm. Yeah.
Marsha 9:08
Anyway, but uh, yeah. So that so part of the trip was to go look at
the trailer, which is in Bend Oregon, right. So you looked at that,
and then you came up. And then the other part of the trip, besides
seeing me and Ben and my brother in the dog thing was to pick up
furniture.
Kelly 9:28
That you and Mark had been very graciously storing for us
throughout the pandemic. Yeah.
Marsha 9:37
And I think the mirror was actually
Kelly 9:39
a year before the pandemic.
Marsha 9:42
I think it's more than that.
Kelly 9:42
No, I mean, it was a year before the pandemic started.
Marsha 9:45
Oh, yeah, I think we've had it two plus years. Yeah.
Kelly 9:48
Cuz we were supposed to come pick it up. We were planning to come
pick it up last year, but the pandemic happened so it had already
been in your house, a year when we were, when the pandemic. At
least a year when the pandemic started. So yeah,
Marsha 10:04
you posted on Instagram about getting... like... something like
getting your crap out of our house. And I didn't say this, but what
I wanted to say is it didn't really make a dent. [laughing] Anyway,
but it's very nice you have the mirror and then a secretary that my
brother had found and Robert's using that, and he's very excited
about it. He's been posting pictures of it on Instagram
Kelly 10:33
Yeah, he's very excited. So yeah, he likes it.
Marsha 10:38
And it's old.
Kelly 10:39
And it's fancy, because Robert is fancy. [laughing]
Marsha 10:44
So my brother says it's from 1790 to 1810. Something around
that.
Kelly 10:49
Kind of cool. I wish it could talk.
Marsha 10:51
I know. But you know what I was thinking. It's a perfect place for
you to write with your fountain pens. You need to use your antique
fountain pens.
Kelly 10:59
Oh, yeah. Well, I don't know that he's gonna let me near it.
[laughing]
Marsha 11:08
Well, it's very nice. Anyway, but the so the dogs were great. I was
laughing though. When we were walking through the dog park, that
Enzo and Bailey, were darting all around sniffing and you know how
they run ahead and then they run behind you and they run ahead. And
Beary reminds me of a container ship, you know that it takes three
miles to stop. He doesn't... he just walks in a line. He doesn't
veer off to the right or left like he, if he sniffs anything, he
sniffs it because he is crossed his path, or his path has crossed
it. Not that he's... you know, where the other dogs, ooh they smell
something and they start off in another direction? He doesn't do
that.
Kelly 11:50
He conserves his energy.
Marsha 11:52
He conserves his energy. And didn't we notice we think that he...
we were laughing we thought he had a little bit of a waist.
Yes.
Kelly 12:05
Because I can almost feel a rib.
Marsha 12:12
He is a very sweet dog.
Kelly 12:14
He's very good. Yeah, I was very, very pleased with how well he did
and when we... we camped in a tent. And it turned out to be a six
person tent, which was perfect because there's me and there's
Robert and there's Bailey and then there's Bearry who's like three
people, so we fit perfectly. But when we blew up the air mattress
inside of the tent and, you know, made the bed and he comes in and
he immediately lays down on the air mattress like "Well, good god.
Finally you got me the right size of dog pillow." He was just so
funny. He cracks me up. He's a very, very goofy dog. And he just,
he's a lot of fun. So he had a great time. Bailey worries a lot.
But I think she had a good time too. And I had a great time. And we
didn't have time to record.
Marsha 13:14
We didn't have time to record. We didn't even really knit very
much.
Kelly 13:18
Not very. You were able to do some on your on your sweater. But
yeah, I did a couple dishcloths.
Marsha 13:23
A little bit and we were mostly just managing dogs, getting
furniture, you know, walking dogs. Cooking, talking. Whatever. And
the weather was gorgeous.
Kelly 13:41
I was surprised for that time of year. I was kind of surprised. And
I felt really lucky that the weather was so good.
Marsha 13:47
So we spent pretty much three full days on the deck.
Kelly 13:49
Yeah, it was nice. It's very nice. Well, let's talk about what you
were working on on the deck. Marsha?
Marsha 13:56
Oh, yes. What was I working on? Oh, my projects. Oh, so my... Well,
my sweater. And we had a some conversations about my sweater too.
So the Walk Along tee by Anka Stricke. I have to tell you where I
am now. I think actually, I can't remember, Kelly. I was working on
the sleeves when you were here, wasn't I? Yes, it was my second
sleeve. Anyway, I finished both sleeves.
Kelly 14:21
Yeah.
Marsha 14:22
And I was listening to our last episode. And I was talking about
making them not three quarter length, but just to hit just above
the elbow. We had that whole conversation about what's the right
length. Anyway, and I ended up making them so they hit sort of, you
know, halfway between the arm pit and the elbow. So they're
not...they're not capped, So they're not capped sleeves, but
they're not...They're definitely not three quarter and they're
definitely not down to the elbow.
Kelly 14:53
Yeah, they're like a regular sleeve, I think they're like a regular
short sleeve. Yeah, that's like a regular --like a women's t shirt
short sleeve?
Marsha 15:02
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And, and I'm gonna have plenty of yarn. I was
worried about yarn. And we've had a lot of conversations about
that. I'm fine. And I...
Kelly 15:12
The dreaded yarn chicken is not on the table!
Marsha 15:13
Yeah, yes. And I did. So the last episode, I think I was talking
about how I had put the body on waste yarn and was gonna do the
sleeves, and then go back to the body. So now I have gone back to
the body. And when you were here, we I tried it on. You said I
should make it an inch longer before I start the ribbing, which
I've done. And now I've done... I've done two rows of the ribbing,
and I have to do a total of five. And then I'll bind off. Now what
I had talked about doing is putting... On the sleeves, you do the
five rows of ribbing, and then you do reverse stockinette to make
sort of this in the contrast in color. And we had a conversation
about that we decided that it's probably best not to do that. So
I'm not going to put that contrasting border on I'm just going to
do the ribbing and bind off and call it good. So I'm getting close
to being done.
Kelly 16:09
Yay.
Marsha 16:10
Finally, yeah.
Kelly 16:13
I need to weave in the ends on that tee that I made. Because I
think there is some time I could actually still wear it with the
weather we've been having. I could actually. I don't have anywhere
to wear it to but but I probably could with the weather I probably
could still wear it. And same with you. Right? When you finish it.
You'll still you'll still have plenty of weather you could still
wear a wool tea. Yeah.
Marsha 16:41
On Instagram, Kelly, I posted a picture of you sitting on the deck
and you have your bare feet but you have a flannel on. Somebody, I
remember somebody made a comment about your bare feet and the
flannel. And it's like, yes, it's Seattle, you wear flannel in the
summer. Maybe you don't have it on all day. But you probably have
it on in the morning. And in the evening. Yeah. So I can wear too.
I can definitely wear this, I can wear this during part of the
summer, because it is not exactly hot here all the time. So anyway,
but yeah. And then I'm still, you know, endlessly working on the
pair of socks that I've been working on for months and months.
There's really nothing to report. I'm still on the foot. I do, you
know, three or four rows every so often when I pick it up. Yeah.
And then I would continue to work on my spinning project. But I
think, Kelly, why don't you talk about your projects, and then
we'll talk about my spinning because we're gonna talk a little bit
about spinning.
Kelly 17:41
Okay, yeah.
Marsha 17:43
Does that make sense?
Kelly 17:44
That does make sense. So I have some exciting news and then some
really boring. Okay. So the most exciting thing is that since the
last episode, I've actually put together the entire... all of the
octagons and squares of the blanket that I'm making for my
grandniece. I'm calling it Faye's flower blanket. It's a crochet
project. I've been talking about it for a while. It's made of
Knitpicks Brava sport. No, Knitpicks Brava worsted weight, is the
yarn. So it's the Persian Tile Blanket by Jane Crowfoot. And I
really love it, it looks great. It's all put together with you
know, single crochet, I didn't sew it together, I single crocheted
it together. And I was able to with the yarn, because you know, I
talked about how much yarn was leftover. I was able with the yarn I
had leftover to always be crocheting it together with a color that
was on the edge of either the octagon or the square that I was
putting together so that that was nice. I didn't have to... I
didn't end up having to mix colors at all with the with yarn that I
was, you know, that I was putting it together with and I just now
have the triangles that go on the sides. It's the triangles have to
go on it and then four corners. And then I'll be done.
Marsha 19:23
All right!.
Kelly 19:24
Yeah, but I think she's gonna really like it. Because it's so
colorful and it's turned, it's turned out really nice. And I might,
I keep thinking maybe I'll make another one of these. I still do...
once everything is put together. I still do need to do the edging
as Marsha and I talked about Yeah. So it's not you know, it's not
like it's gonna be done tomorrow
Marsha 19:29
And have you thought more about how you'll do th edging?
Kelly 19:50
I am probably just going to do the edging as the pattern calls for
just four rows of it and that's not... nothing, nothing special.
The real action is in all the flowers. So I think the border will
just be kind of plain.
Marsha 20:08
Yeah, it would distract.
Kelly 20:10
I may, depending on how much yarn I have left, I may have to do
like, not the same color all the way around the whole blanket. You
know, for each round, I may not be able to use the same color. But
I don't think that will be a problem. I think it will, it will go
just fine. There won't even be noticeable with as much riot of
color is going on in that. So that's really exciting. It went
together a lot faster than I expected it to. And then I finished a
charity hat, this little beanie with this... Usually I make you
know enough ribbing that if you wanted to, you could fold it up
when I make a hat. But this time I thought No, I'm just going to
make it one inch or one and a half inch. I don't remember something
like that. A ribbing and then the rest of it is just a little
beanie. Not slouchy or anything like that. And it's made of, it's
actually not... I don't think it's very pretty. I just made it with
all the scraps I had left of sock yarn. And the colors. only
marginally go together. So I'm not sure it's the best looking
thing. But I said that to Robert and he said, Oh, I think it looks
nice. So I guess you know, to my eye the colors don't go together
but, but they do kind of. I started with the yellow and purple that
I had used in one hat and then from that I went to just a purple
and then I did purple and blue and I added in a pink stripe. And
anyway, by the time you get from the bottom to the top, it's
changed from this purple and gold. You know, purple and gold purple
and yellow, to like a bright blue and greeny blue color. So, kind
of a gradient but not really. It's a hat. It'll be warm. It's
okay.
Marsha 22:19
It will fit someone's head.
Kelly 22:20
Yeah, it's not ugly. It's just not.... it's just not the prettiest
thing I've ever made. So yeah, and then dish cloths. I've been
making dish cloths. That was my travel project. I did work on the
hat while we traveled but mostly I worked on dish cloths. I worked
on dish cloths a little bit on your deck. So I've made about seven
dish cloths out of I think it's well,... It turned out to be four
skeins of yarn... so I guess, no three skeins it's three skeins of
yarn that we had dyed. Some cotton yarn, 100 gram skeins that we
had dyed. I think it was originally on cones.
Marsha 23:12
Were they cones or ball? Well you know those balls that are wrapped
around cardboard centers you know
Kelly 23:18
Yes, it's nice cotton. Yeah, I don't know. It's thicker than
crochet cotton.
Marsha 23:23
Mm hmm.
Kelly 23:25
So yeah, I don't remember what it came on but it came from the...
it came from a weaving stash so
Marsha 23:35
Isn't it the stuff I brought down that I got at the goodwill?
Kelly 23:38
Oh, yes. Yes, it was you who'd gotten it. That's right. Yeah.
Marsha 23:43
I went there...that was the days when... in those days when I used
to go to the Goodwill. I don't go there anymore except to drop
stuff off.
Kelly 23:54
She's leaving the yarn for the rest of you who are in the Seattle
area! [laughing]
Marsha 23:57
Yeah, really go to the Goodwill and find treasures.
Kelly 24:01
So yeah, we got dyes for cotton yarns, and we had dyed all of
these. This was maybe four years ago, maybe five years ago. It was
very early in the podcast that we dyed this and then we just never
did anything. We were going to do something with it. And we were
going to have it as a show topic, dyeing cotton, and we never did
that. But anyway, it's making nice dish cloths. I guess. I haven't
used one yet.
Marsha 24:32
But well, and I haven't either because I would go out in the
kitchen and there would be a dishcloth sitting by the sink. And
then I go out to the kitchen a couple days later. Well, I was back
and forth in between two days by go a couple days later I go out
there and there was another dish plot that you had made. I've not
used them. I promise I'm going to use them because I am under
strict orders to use them But yeah,
Kelly 24:58
I just threw one away. The last one that was in my drawer, I just
threw away with a hole in it. So actually, I've put it in the
compost with a hole in it. So I need to, I need to get the ends
woven in and get a couple of these in my, in my drawer. So yeah,
it's my standard dish cloth pattern it's, I think it's called the
triple L tweed stitch. And it's, I just, I borrowed it from a
pattern that was on Purl Soho. And I really like it. So I use it to
make dish cloths all the time. And that's it. That's the sum total
of my knitting and crocheting. So crocheting the blanket together,
knit one hat, knit seven dish cloths. In what, three weeks? Because
we were late, this episode is late. That's a lot of time for very
little amount of production.
Marsha 25:55
Yeah, yeah. Well, we got the rest of the summer.
Kelly 26:01
Yep. Yeah, true.
Marsha 26:03
So I have not gotten very much done either. But because I've been
very busy with projects around here. But anyway, um, so let's just
talk a little bit about--we had some topics. Well, let's talk about
our spinning projects now together. And then we can talk because we
had some questions from listeners. So spinning projects, let's talk
about that. I, as everyone knows, I've been working on a green and
dark brown, three ply. And the last time we talked, I think, I
don't remember now where I was, but I have finished plying all of
the green. And so all I have left is the brown. And this is a
Merino. And what I decided to do is just to spin one bobbin of the
dark brown, and I want a three ply. So I decided to do a Navajo
ply. And the the upside of a Navajo ply is you just need one,
bobbin, and you don't need to spin three bobbins of yarn. And which
I learned too is that the whatever was on the bobbin, that singles
on the bobbin ends up on... all of that yarn ends up on another
bobbin Do you know what I'm saying? It's if you have three bobbins
you can't fill a bobbin with three bobbins.
Kelly 27:25
Right, right, right.
Marsha 27:27
But the Navajo ply, you just know that it's all going to fit on
that bobbin. And the downside of a Navajo ply, is, if you are
spinning like me a bit unevenly, is you don't have two other plies
that might fill in if it's if you're in a thin section, it won't be
paired with a thick section necessarily. So because you're you're
doing... the Navajo ply is basically like a crochet chain
stitch.
Kelly 27:59
In fact, it's also called the chain ply. Yeah.
Marsha 28:02
Okay. So, which is great if you're doing like... if you want to,
you want to keep the color order in your roving, keep that color
order in your final yarn is great. But you then have it spinning in
order. So if you have a thick section, it's all going to be thick.
And if you have a thin section, it's gonna be thin. Because you
don't have your two other bobbins of yarn that are randomly being
placed together. And so three singles are...at some point, it's all
going to be... the chance of having three thick pieces and three
thin pieces ply together are greatly reduced, right. So I spun an
entire bobbin and plied it. And it's it's nice yarn, but it's not
going to... it doesn't match with the three ply that I did with the
two colors. So that's going to become something else. And I have
more roving, which I'm going to just spin three bobbins and ply it
the way I did the other.
Kelly 29:14
Do the traditional three ply.
Marsha 29:15
Yeah, yeah,
Kelly 29:16
yeah, in the same way that it keeps... in the same way that using
that chain ply technique keeps all the colors together, right? It
preserves your color order. It also preserves your thickness. So
the thin parts stay really thin and the thick parts get really
thick. And yeah.
Marsha 29:37
And what I would say is I don't, I'm not such a.... I'm not such a
perfectionist that I think that that yarn is now bad yarn, right,
though. It's not bad yarn, because I think it looks good. It's just
that it doesn't match the yarn that I have, which is a problem if
you're going to use use it together in a project.
Kelly 29:58
Yeah, I mean, it's not even really that thick and thin. It's just
that it's, it's different when you put it next to the other yarn
that you've made. it is very different.
Marsha 30:09
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So yeah, that is that is true that is not, you
know, when you're seeing the yarn thick and thin, it's not like
night and day. It's not really dramatically different. But it's
different enough that I don't want to use them together with, you
know, in a project.
Kelly 30:28
Yeah, and I have a feeling that even if your yarn was totally
consistent, that just the texture or the feel of the, of that chain
ply technique is different than a traditional, a traditional three
ply. I mean, if you're making socks, and you know, you've done a
traditional three ply, and then you have one bobbi left and you
just chain ply it and use that. You know, in case you have yarn
chicken issues, you're not going to notice,
Marsha 30:59
okay, maybe I'm not thinking of this the right way. But if you have
three bobbins, you're pulling the single off the same direction,
right? So the way you spun it is all coming off the same direction.
But with a chain ply, because you're making a loop is one half of
the loop going back the other direction. It's the opposite
direction. So it's like, like... I always when I spin a single the,
the bobbin is turning... I say it's turning to the right. Yes, it's
turning to the right. So is that an S?
Kelly 31:41
You spin z and ply s.
Marsha 31:44
Okay, so but with the chain stitch ply or Navajo ply isn't one of
the singles is going to be z or S or what? I'm now... I'm getting
confused, but they're not going to be all... you said. What did you
say that you spin singles Z and ply S? So if you are ... if you
have three bobbins, you would be plying all of this three z
singles. s ply, right. But with the Navajo ply, the at least one of
them is going to be s and the two zs. Is that?
Kelly 32:32
I think if you turn it upside down, you know, if you turn it back
the other way, it's still it's still spun the same direction.
Marsha 32:40
Oh, it is.
Kelly 32:40
Yeah, but but you're right, there's something about making that
loop. There's something about making that loop that makes it a
slightly different texture, I think it feels different. Or maybe
it's the twist, the amount of twist you put in. That might be part
of it too. Because it's easier to get too much twist or to get more
twist when you're trying to manipulate that, you know, making the
crochet chain loop.
Marsha 33:08
And it could be me just being tense. Well, yeah, I mean, when was
the last time I did this type of plying it was years ago. And so I
thought, Oh, it's gonna be exactly the same. Well, it's not going
to be, it's never gonna be exactly the same, because it's a
completely different vibe. It's a different technique.
Kelly 33:31
Yeah, it's a different technique.
Marsha 33:32
So it was it was an idea I had, but it was not... Yeah, it didn't
work. And
Kelly 33:38
and yeah, and it's like you said it's not bad yarn. It's just not
the same as it's not the same as the other ones. And when you do it
more... When you use the same technique, you'll get something
that's closer.
Marsha 33:39
Yeah, yeah. So that's where I am, back to that. But anyway,
Kelly 33:58
All right. Well, I am I just finished spinning. I had about I had
about 20 grams of Santa Cruz Island fleece left, had 20 grams
unspun. And then I had tiny little, maybe like one gram amounts on
two different bobbins. And so I thought, Oh, I know I need to get
this off my bobbins and I don't want to throw it away because that
was a really nice fleece. So since I had some ready to spin, I just
spun all that up onto those two bobbins plus another bobbin. Split
it up to make it even as I could. And then I three plyed it. So I
have a traditional three ply of the Santa Cruz Island, which is the
same fleece that I used when I made I made the sock yarn that I put
in the fair years ago. And I had this... I think it was 2018 when I
did it, and so I had this leftover from then so it's been sitting
on my bobbins since then. So I wanted to clear them off for the
summer spin in. But while I was spinning, I was thinking about how
different this spinning that I was doing was from what you were
doing. And then also thinking about the questions, some of the
questions that we gotten in the thread about drafting techniques
and fiber preparation. And so let's just talk a little bit about
drafting. So how do you draft Marsha, when you're spinning this
yarn that you're spinning right now, how are you drafting? How do
you hold your hands? And what do you do?
Marsha 35:40
Well, it's sort of depends upon the hour and the day of the week,
because I have to admit, I'm not consistent, I keep changing a
little bit I normally do. Yeah, I keep changing a little bit. And I
don't know, it's not even about whether that's right or wrong.
That's just how I am because we're human, and we need to move our
bodies and sometimes my hands get tired, so I have to change a
little bit. And, and sometimes, depending, like when I first start
a bobbin, I am a little, it's a little it's different than when I'm
just getting into the rhythm. So I typically I hold the fiber in my
left hand. And I always think of what you said, you know, you have
to put, like you're holding a baby bird, or a butterfly or
something in your hands and not like, grasp it really, really
tight. I always sort of pre draft my fiber, let me just say that
what I'm spending is, most of what I've been spinning recently is
just roving that I've purchased. Which is different than something
that you've carded yourself, it's a little bit, you know...
Kelly 36:43
You have a lot more choices. I'm that's what I think about a
commercial roving, I think you have a lot more choices in how you
can draft and what kind of techniques you can use.
Marsha 36:53
Also, I'd say to just about I keep sort of changing throughout the
spin, especially when I've done the combo spins, because if you're
using different fibers, like sometimes I have, you know, Merino in
there and targhee and corriedale, and then silk thrown in there. So
that, and sometimes the mohair too. So that changes, you're going
to have to change how you draft depending on what fiber you're
actually spinning.
Kelly 37:19
Right, right.
Marsha 37:20
But typically, like just now what I was just doing, you know, 100%
Merino, I hold the fiber in my left hand. I've pre drafted it. So
it's fluffy and kind of light and open. And then I try not to do
that, that...what do you call it? Pinch an inch or whatever?
Kelly 37:37
Inchworm.
Marsha 37:40
And that's where you know, you hold the where the twist is going
in. Just before that twist, you hold it with your thumb and
forefinger and pull out the yarn, I find that I get more cramps in
my hand. That's how I started spinning, because I felt like I had
more control. But now that I've gotten more comfortable, I find
that I get more cramps in my thumb, if I hold it that way. So what
I do is I, a lot of times, I don't even use my right hand, I don't,
like I'm just holding it in my left hand. And then every so often,
if it starts getting a little thick, then maybe this is why I have
thick and thin bits too. And if it starts getting a little thick,
then I just take my right hand and pinch. So it doesn't... it stops
putting that twist into the thing and maybe unroll it a little bit
and pull it out. You know, but I did sort of, and sometimes I get a
long, I get a long piece with a twist in it that's maybe 12 inches
long. And then I just sort of pinch both ends and sort of pull it
apart a little bit to get it to the thickness I want. Does that
make sense?
Kelly 38:38
Yeah, Yeah.
Marsha 38:40
You know, I don't know what you call that.
Kelly 38:41
Well, there's a lot of different names for the different techniques
and it sounds like what you're doing is...
Marsha 38:47
I'm doing chaos. Chaos, the technique!
Kelly 38:51
No, I mean, I think you're doing a lot of the things that happen in
a long draw. Right, because you're using only one hand and then
your other hand is helping when you need to, to kind of pull it out
a little bit more and make it a little bit thinner. Are you pulling
back with your left hand very much or mostly just holding it
straight?
Marsha 39:09
Yes, I'm pulling back.
Kelly 39:11
Spinning is such a, I mean, it's such an old form of creation, that
I think every person who who's ever spun has spun slightly
differently. And you know, there's categories of techniques, but
within that there really is a lot of variation. So, but like that
inchworm technique is called a short forward draw, because you're
taking out a little bit and you're pulling it a short ways. You're
drafting it a very short ways and then you're letting the twist
into a very short little segment. So short forward draw because
you're pulling forward. I typically don't pull forward with my
right hand most of my spinning is happening with my left hand,
that's where I hold the fiber, too. And so I usually do backward
draw, maybe not short, backward draw, but maybe a longer backward
draw using my right hand... I probably use my right hand more than
you do. If I were spinning like a commercial roving, not trying to
spin long draw, I probably use my right hand, it sounds like I use
my right hand a little bit more than, than you do. But mostly I, I,
you know, pull backwards with my left hand. And my right hand is
helping things along, as opposed to actually doing the work of the
spinning. But it's interesting. So the commercial preparation that
you have, you know, the commercial roving or commercial top allows
you to do a lot of different things with it. Right, you can do all
those. What I was spinning the Santa Cruz Island, I was spinning
punis, which are like a roll of fiber off the drum carder... or the
not the drum carder, the hand cards. And really, because the fiber
is so short, they're really tiny, thin, you know. The reason I'm
calling them punis and not rolags, it's just the size of them. You
normally when you roll it off of the hand cards, you have this like
sausage shaped thing of fiber, it's called a rolag, the ones that
they make with cotton, are much smaller, you know, and thinner
diameter, and they call them punis.
Marsha 41:32
Okay,
Kelly 41:33
And because cotton doesn't stick to itself, they kind of roll them,
we kind of you know, smash them a little bit to make them stick to
each other better and not come apart. But with wool, you don't need
to do that. And especially with this Santa Cruz Island, you don't
need to do this because it is so crimpy that it's it really sticks
to itself. So with these tight little...and the tightness of the of
the roll that comes off of the handcard wasn't because I made it to
be super tight. It's because of the crimp of the fiber. And what
that fiber just wanted to do, it's not going to make a loose kind
of loose sausage shape. It just had to come off in this little
tiny, narrow diameter roll. Anyway, it's so clingy to itself, that
really the only way that I could spin it was with either short
forward or short backward draw, which is not my favorite. But it's
a nice fiber. And I really enjoyed spinning it because it's an
unusual breed. And it's one of the endangered breeds. So I'm happy
to spin it the way it wants to be spun. But this is a good example
of a fleece is going to tell you how it wants to be spun. Because I
couldn't do... I could not do a long draw with it, that fiber just
clings to itself way too much. Yeah, I couldn't do my normal kind
of relaxed, backward draw spinning because the fiber just clings to
itself so much. Sometimes you can use whatever you want. And
sometimes you have to go with the with what the fiber is telling
you to do right. Yeah.
Marsha 41:51
I don't know that you have to start and go oh, and think to
yourself, oh, this is the technique. This is the typical, or this
is the technique that I need to use, or the draw that I need to
use. You just organically do it because you have no choice. But to
just to do it because of the fiber will tell you.
Kelly 43:37
Yeah, that's right, I didn't sit down and say this is what I'm
going to do to spin this fiber, it just, that's what I had to do to
make to make it, you know, to make it work. And because the fiber
is so short and so crimpy, in my carding I've created, I've created
neps, you know, little tangled balls of fiber. And so I'm also I
was also constantly picking off as I was going along, constantly
picking off those little neps where I could, to make the yarn a
little bit smoother. And I was only doing that because that's what
I did for the skein that I entered into the fair because I wanted,
I was hoping I would get a ribbon for it. And I did. So I was being
really careful when I spun that. So I was trying to at least
marginally make it match that yarn that I spun, because I want to
make a pair of socks. And so this will give me a little bit more
flexibility, you know, when I'm knitting it, into how long to make
the top part of the socks because I'll have a little extra about 20
more, it turned out to be about 20 more grams. You know, by the
time I had a little bit of waste at the end and everything. I got
about 20 more grams of yarn out of it. So that was kind of nice,
but I thought it was a good contrast between a carded preparation
on my part and a commercially combed, or you know, mill carded
preparation on your end. And then the two different techniques that
we're using. Interesting, though, we both-- and maybe because you
talked to me when you got your spinning wheel, but it's interesting
that we both hold the fiber in our same hand. All the fiber with
our left and a lot of people who are right handed do it the other
way.
Marsha 45:27
Hmm. It's interesting. Maybe it's because I, the first time I spun
I spun on your wheel. And you showed me how to spin and you
probably said, put it, put it in your left hand and I follow
orders, you know,
Kelly 45:38
yeah, I probably, I probably did! I switch sometimes and spin the
other hand again, if I'm spinning for a long time, and I think oh,
my hands getting a little tired. But that's...my typical is to put
the fiber in my left hand.
Marsha 45:51
I did some research. And I did find an article and this was on
spinning daily.com. There's an article by Janine. I don't know how
to pronounce this. It looks like back ridges, ba k r i g e s. And
it's seven drafting techniques. And she has the names of the seven
and descriptions and photographs. So I'll put a link to that
because that was actually pretty interesting.
Kelly 46:18
There's another really good resource for people, Oh, I thought I
linked it and I didn't, I'll have to grab the link for you to put
in the show notes. There's a craftsy class that I took from JC
Boggs Faulkner, called Drafting: From Worsted to Woolen. And it was
really good. I enjoyed that class. And she had swatches made out of
all the different drafting styles. And some of them, I thought,
Wow, you can really tell the difference between those. And some of
them, I thought, okay, there's barely a difference. And so it's not
going to matter in to my, for my purposes. It wouldn't matter
whether I used one drafting, you know, one of the two drafting
techniques or the other. And so, you know, it's like, Okay, well, I
could just choose whichever one I liked, the better, whichever one
I like better, because it looks like you get the same thing when
you knit it up. So that was an interesting course, too, that I'll
make sure is linked in the in the show notes in case someone wants
to take that Craftsy class. It's still available. I checked it this
morning.
Marsha 47:21
Any more to add to about drafting.
Kelly 47:24
I have a link in the show notes about the different names of the
different preparations and you know, what is top versus what is
roving versus what is sliver versus a batt of fiber. And so I have
a link from Abby Franquemont's website that that I thought was a
good kind of a primer on, you know, what are the... what do the
different terms? What do the different terms mean?
Marsha 47:49
We do have a question about how to get started with long draw from
howmanystitches Liz, who's in Scotland. Did you want to touch on
that?
Kelly 47:57
Sure. I just want to thank prairie poet and supercut. For the other
questions about what kind of drafting techniques we use and what
our favorite drafting techniques are. We kind of got into earlier
long draw is, you kind of just have to have a, well have a carded
preparation, first of all, would be my suggestion, have a carded
preparation of fiber, and then just be willing to make a lot of
mistakes and have the yarn break, and then you just start again.
Because you, you have to try not to touch it with your right hand
and let the fiber come out of your left hand.
Marsha 48:41
I think what we said is, you know, not only do you pretend you have
a baby bird in your left hand, but you have a glass of wine in your
hand. So you can't touch your left hand.
Kelly 48:51
Yeah, yeah. And, and it works. I mean, and it's gonna be lumpy when
you first start and you have to be, you have to be prepared to have
lumpy yarn when you first start because you're--you have to just
get the feel of it. And you have to be prepared to have it
sometimes stretched out too fine and break. You know, slip apart,
drift apart. It doesn't really break, but like you know, drift
apart. And then you have to start again and pull out your end and
start again. But you eventually do get the feel of it. And, and it
is pretty amazing that it works. And you can also there's like a
something called a double draw where you where you draw it back.
And you let some twist get into it. And then once the twist is in
it, you can you can pull it even pinch it off, you know, don't let
any more fiber come out of your hand and pull it back even more and
get it to be finer and like the lumps come out. Any lumps, you can
get those lumps to come out by pulling a little bit more. It takes,
it just takes experience and willingness to be wrong.
Marsha 49:57
Yeah,
Kelly 49:59
Again, that's my opinion and my experience. If you get frustrated
by having it drift apart, or frustrated that you can't make
consistent yarn, then it's just going to be an unpleasant learning
experience. But if you just know that you're going to make lumpy
yarn and get better the more you do it, then it will be... it will
be a great experience. It's a fun way to spin I think. And it's
pretty fast.
Marsha 50:26
Yeah,
Kelly 50:27
If you've ever used a supported spindle, that's another way that
you could kind of get started. Not a drop spindle where you're
using both your hands, but a supported spindle where one of your
hands is having to spin the spindle and the other hand is drafting.
That gives you a good... I think gives you a good feel of what that
is like. So yeah, let us know, if you want more information, we can
do a little bit more research.
Marsha 50:53
I have a question. Just as we're talking about this, what is the
best drafting technique to use when you have those long wools, you
know, like a Lincoln?
Kelly 51:02
Typically, people say, you know, with a long wool, you can comb it
and keep all the fibers in order, you know, all parallel and spin
worsted. So a worsted spinning would be where you don't let the
twist get into your fiber hand, you keep all the twists in front of
your, for us, it will be our right hand, keep all the twist in
front of our right hand. And then be able to draft the fiber in
your left hand. So you could do a short forward or, or short
backward or you know, kind of go back farther because it's a long
fiber, so you keep your hands further apart. Right here, your
inchworm would not be an inchworm it might be like a, I don't know,
a five inch worm. Because you want it you know, you need to keep
your hands further apart. So you're not pulling on the same piece
of hair.
Marsha 52:02
Right. Okay,
Kelly 52:03
I don't typically do a worsted technique, even with long wool.
I'm... my tendency, when I'm just spinning for like, relaxing
pleasure, I let the twist back into my into my left hand. I'm not,
I'm not real good about keeping that twist out of my fiber hand,
you get a little hairier yarn that way, you know more halo, less
smooth. But that doesn't bother me. But if I wanted a really smooth
long wool I would make sure I didn't let the twist get back into my
back into my fiber hand. Okay, I wanted to just give a couple of
other resources that I think are really good for people who are
just beginning. Or if you have some resources, but you haven't
really built a spinning library or ,you know, done more than just
looking up a few things in Ravelry groups. There's one book that I
have, called The Intentional Spinner: A Holistic Approach to Making
Yarn. And that's Judith Mackenzie McCuin. And it's a 2009 book, I
would really highly recommend it. And then the other one I have is
the Alden Amos Big Book of Handspinning. And I love this title:
"Being a Compendium of Information, Advice and Opinions on the
Noble Art and Craft." And this is by Alden Amos and it was in 2001.
And he has since passed away but he was a very opinionated guy.
Lots of spinning knowledge from you know, hand spinning to machine
spinning. And so there's a lot of historical knowledge in that book
and a lot of other things. So those two books I think are really a
lot of information in them. And then I also wanted to mention the
Spinner's Study Ravelry group. This month they're spinning, they
pick a couple of different types of fleece each month and this
month they're spinning Finn and Teeswater. And the spinning
challenge for the month is called spinning and plying the other
way. So we were talking about spinning z and plying s. So I think
what they're doing is doing the opposite of that and looking at
what that what that does to the yarn. I also wanted to mention that
we've been talking about knitting with your handspun and Salpal had
mentioned to me, sent me a message, to say that the Three Waters
Farm Ravelry group has a bundle and a thread of patterns that are
good for handspun.
Marsha 54:38
Okay,
Kelly 54:39
And so we'll link to that in the show notes. And then Joanne,
momdiggity, she suggested any pattern calling for Spincycle yarn
would be a good pattern for handspun.
Marsha 54:50
That's true.
Kelly 54:51
And then the other thing that I found is this month just by
coincidence, the Spring/Summer 2021 Knitty Spin column in Knitty
magazine. It's written, it's a column by jillian Moreno, is
"Planning for Your Project, the Beginning." So she's talking about
how do you, you know, if you're going to knit something, and you're
going to spin for that particular project, what kind of things do
you have to think about? And so all of those resources will be in
the show notes. And then we had Marsha one more question, and that
was about how to wash a fleece.
Marsha 55:27
Mm hmm.
Kelly 55:28
I'm haven't washed a fleece in a while.
Marsha 55:30
I know I haven't either,
Kelly 55:31
But superkip that's Natalie. She asks, How do you wash a fleece?
This is what she says. "For the washing bit. I usually do a cold
soak or two and then wash my fleece with really hot water. And in
the second hot water wash, I add dishwashing soap. It works to get
it clean. But I do have a lot of lanolin left in my fleeces" and
then she says, "I was recently advised to use colder water or wash
with soda. However, the soda felted my fleece, I might have used
too much soda. And the colder water seems counterintuitive.
Although I have not tried it." This was a couple of weeks ago. But
I hope that we can give some advice to Natalie on this.
Marsha 56:16
Well, first I think we have to discern, differentiate what the soda
is. Explain that when it says soda it's not baking soda she's
talking about it's soda ash right or, or washing soda, which is
different. And I I had to look this up. So it's... baking soda is
sodium bicarbonate. And soda ash or washing soda is sodium
carbonate. And it sounds like from what I'm reading, it's a bit
more caustic. And can be an irritant to your eyes, nose, throat.
And looking at Wikipedia it's used as a sweetener in soft drinks.
Think about that.
Kelly 57:03
That sounds odd.
Marsha 57:04
I know. And I also didn't realize what it is and that it is used a
lot because it changes the pH. So it's used also for dyeing non
protein fibers. like cotton or
Kelly 57:25
Yeah, we used it when we dyed this yarn that I'm knitting right now
the dish cloths,
Marsha 57:31
right. So it changes the pH, I guess and so then the the dye can
attach to the fibers is my understanding. So I don't and I was
trying to get what does it actually do? How does it separate the
lanolin from the wool?
Kelly 57:51
But I know it's a washing aid. I mean, just in general, you can buy
washing soda and you put it in for especially if you have hard
water it it makes your laundry detergent work better. So from that
standpoint, I guess. I guess that might be why she was advised to
use it. I don't ever use that on wool. Yeah. I it it's wool likes
an acid Ph. And it's too basic. And so I I know people do use it,
but you are limited to how long you should keep the wool in contact
with it.
Marsha 58:32
Yeah, the article I was reading it says not to use more or leave it
to soak any longer than 20 minutes and I wonder she doesn't say how
long she left it. But she she says here she thinks she may have
used too much. But I wonder if maybe it was in there too long.
Kelly 58:48
Yeah. Either one of those things could have done damage--could
damage your wool. Make it really harsh. And kind of I want to say
crispy or crinkly.
Marsha 59:01
So it was the the washing soda or soda ash. Was that something that
was probably developed before we had detergents.
Kelly 59:09
I would say yes to that, Yeah.
Marsha 59:11
Because when I see people use different things like a lot of times
they're using that wool wash you can get anywhere with Eucalyptus
in it.
Kelly 59:21
Eucalan. There's also another one. There's a scour there's a
Unicorn Scour. That's actually not for washing garments but for
washing fleeces.
Marsha 59:33
But I just I use what you taught me to use, which is I use Dawn and
I don't know.... I know SuperKip is in Europe. So I don't know if
Dawn is available. I think she's in Holland I believe. I don't
Kelly 59:47
Dish detergent. I think a dish detergent is-- for me that that
works really well. And if you use that I would use dishwashing soap
in both of those washes. Mm hmm and And make sure the water is
really hot and that it doesn't cool off, you know before you drain
the water, because the lanolin can reattach to the fleece. It's
basically you know, it's like it's like grease. And so if you think
about your dishes, even if you put detergent in dishwater if you
then go to bed and leave them in the dishwater overnight and it
cools, that grease will be redeposited on your dishes. I prefer to
use dishwashing detergent and really hot water. And we do have an
episode where we talk about washing fleece it's Episode 27B, Fiber
Mythbusting Bonus Episode, where we talk about washing, washing
fleeces and there's some links in that show, 27B. In that show's
show notes there are also some links to some resources about
detergents and how detergents work. And
Marsha 1:01:02
Well, I was going to say we didn't even talk, we're just talking
about washing it with detergents and hot water. We didn't even talk
about the washing with the fermentation process. That's another
whole episode about that. But that's where you basically, you let
it just kind of for lack of a better word ferment in it. The suint,
which is the sweat from the sheep.
Kelly 1:01:24
Right.
Marsha 1:01:25
And I've never I've never tried that you've tried it
Kelly 1:01:28
Oh, I didn't do it the true way. But I did let it sit in water and
get very smelly for about a month before I washed it. I ended up
going ahead and using soap to wash it too. But I did have to use
less. And it washed up faster. Yeah, but but I don't know that I
actually got fermentation happening. Hmm. It just was very
smelly.
Marsha 1:01:54
Yeah. So, but I have a question about that--when, after you took
the wool out the fiber out and washed it It didn't smell, right?
It's just while sitting the it's the water that it's sitting in
that's so bad.
Kelly 1:02:08
Right. Yes. Okay, one thing that that that I think sometimes people
don't do when they wash wooll is one, use enough water and the
other, use enough soap or detergent. And it depends on the fleece
too, you know. Is it a super super greasy fleece or is it a not so
greasy fleece? Different breeds have different amounts of lanolin.
But anyway, yeah, good. Great question. Lots of opinions about that
question. If you go out and look. Look around for you know, advice
about how to wash a fleece. The Alden Amos book talks a lot about
using soda to wash fleeces and soap instead of detergent, which I
think if you're using soap, maybe the the washing soda helps not
create the scum that soap and hard water would create. Lots of
methods have been used over the years. And maybe the washing soda
is an older method too like you said. Before detergents were widely
available when people did use soap more.
Marsha 1:03:22
Yeah. So anything else we need to say about it?
Kelly 1:03:27
I don't think so. I think that's it.
Marsha 1:03:30
We'll talk more about spinning over the summer during the summer
spin in. And if people have questions they want us to answer or try
to answer. Just put them in the in the forum, the discussion
thread.
Kelly 1:03:45
Yeah, or email us.Two Ewes at Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot
com.
Marsha 1:03:51
And since we are talking about the summer spin in we should just
remind people that it started Memorial Day, which was May 31. And
it ends September 6. We will talk more about washing fleece because
I I have--someone gave me a alpaca fleece. And we've been talking
about sheep's wool. But now it'd be interesting to talk about how
you wash alpaca, but that'll be another time. I have questions
about that. I have questions for you about that. So
Kelly 1:04:20
I don't think I've ever washed alpaca. Oh, well, maybe you'll have
questions for someone else.
Marsha 1:04:27
Or maybe I'll just have to answer the questions and answer my own
questions. Right. Well, the last thing I was going to just say is
that we had such a great time on our visit and it didn't really hit
me until after. Well, when you walked up on the front porch. It
kind of hit me as like this is the first time we've seen each other
since February 2020. It was last time you saw us when we went to
Stitches.
Kelly 1:04:53
Mm hmm.
Marsha 1:04:54
And it was kind of like and then when you left I felt like wow, we
just saw each other It's been so long since
Kelly 1:05:02
Yeah, face to face.
Marsha 1:05:05
It was really kind of remarkable. And I we have to thank science
right?
Kelly 1:05:09
Oh, yeah.
Marsha 1:05:10
Yeah that we were able to...you were able to drive up here and
visit. So thank you to scientists.
Kelly 1:05:18
Yes. Thank you for that vaccine!
Marsha 1:05:20
Alright with that, I guess we should say goodbye. All right. We'll
see you in two weeks.
Kelly 1:05:25
All right. Bye.
Kelly 1:05:26
Thank you so much for listening. To subscribe to the podcast visit
Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com.
Marsha 1:05:33
Join us on our adventures on Ravelry and Instagram. I am
betterinmotion and Kelly is
Kelly 1:05:39
1hundredprojects. Until next time, were the Two Ewes, doing our
part for world fleece.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai