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CHJ

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Just because I spin bits of wood the mention that one of the family was into spinning and felting but in another media ended up with this on the doorstep when I got back from town this morning.

At least we are only lumbered with washing it and that's mainly the bosses problem.
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With a scribbled note " is this enough to be going on with?"
#-o there appears to be 3 fleeces in the first bag opened.
 

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Maybe your neighbour would take it baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-ck? =D>
 
I gave away my 4 Shetland fleeces to a spinner/knitter. Totally uncleaned and unskirted, complete with dust, straw and bum-nuggets. They travelled from South Wales to collect them and were overjoyed with them.

You're moaning because someone delivered a load of fleece to your doorstep? :-D I'm guessing they didn't know the amount of work involved in the processing of fleece to a usable product? Still a nice gesture though.

Make a peg loom (you can mangle wood, right?), get your family member to make 'raw fleece rugs'. They use a lot of wool and sell for £100 squids each.

I suppose you now have to make a 'thank-you bowl'? ;-)
 
:lol: :lol: :lol: Spinning wood and spinning wool only one letter difference. :lol: :lol: :lol:

At least that will keep someone happy and warm
 
The frustration is all the work involved skirting and cleaning without wrecking it just for the bulk of it to be felted with chiffon and other fabrics, (one off designer fabrics/garments).
 
Dalboy":3lr479yc said:
:lol: :lol: :lol: Spinning wood and spinning wool only one letter difference. :lol: :lol: :lol:

At least that will keep someone happy and warm

Same as when I spin wood, as most of it ends up on a bonfire. :-D
 
The Ferrers household re-enactment group Has a spinner in it. We did a week long Job at Kenilworth castle in 2005. She had a raw fleece with her and it stank! so we put her at the far end of the village. by the end of the week she had two balls of wool thread. She carded, cleaned and spun the wool on a great/walking wheel. I didn't realise the amount of work involved in this process, but she enjoyed herself!
 
Thankfully the recipient is not into wheel spinning, the wool gets incorporated into designer Fashion fabrics in the most part, involving Chiffon, Silk and Lace in some form of intricate lightweight felting.


On the timescale front I expect it will take a few weeks to get it cleaned, because there is no bulk commercial market for these fleeces the sheep are not washed or cleaned up before shearing and the handling of these fleeces would have caused my farther to have a fit and me a thick ear if I had not folded and tied them correctly and just bundled them into sacks.

Used to be great fun making the sheep swim up the length of the brook and pond a couple of days before shearing.

Edit:- went looking at Google maps for brook and old Sandstone block built Sheep dip only to find that somewhere along the last 65 years or so it has all been restyled and terraformed into a couple of ornamental ponds (fish?) and no watercress beds to be seen either. That was another little job, cutting cress for the B'ham market.
ponds.jpg


The lower left pond area was surrounded by dense trees and was the top end of a 3/4 mile long mill pond system held back by a large earth dam which used to feed a 16th C era mill whose buildings were half embedded into sandstone wall where local building blocks had been quarried out.
 

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First shipment of washed wool delivered.
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phil.p":3jcrql68 said:
Come on, C - where are the photos of the beautiful spinning wheel you made her? :D
Hmmm, seems we are on the research of styles and pattern at the momement, hopefully there will be one surplus to to requirements somewhere near.

In the mean time this is where a small portion of the wood has migrated to.
A Chiffon scarf with felted wool Ginkgo Leaf design.
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From bitter experience, don't try making a spinning wheel unless it's just for the "fun" of it. Too many new ones get bought, then the recipient gets bored and they get sold on for a fraction of the cost of making. Sadly, in our case, it was SWMBO's arthritis that intervened, but the same applies. Could only sell the wheel for pennies now.
 
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