Fluffing and Carding

I’m bringing my blog back in part for a friend who can’t follow me on face book or via email, and partly because it’s a good thing to do.

What I have been up to over the “Christmas” holiday has mostly been preparing wool. It was a good thing to do while I was down with a cold. Here are a few pictures and descriptions of what was done.

This photo is of the box of wool I was predominantly concerned with. It is Coburger Fuchsshaffe (Coburg Fox sheep) wool that I bought a few years ago and just haven’t gotten around to carding it.  I have already washed this wool about six times but I wouldn’t call it “clean”. Some of the lanolin remains, as does some dirt – I think this sheep lived in a very muddy pasture!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This second photo shows three locks of the Coburger Fuchsshaffe wool  that I must fluff.  I fluff the wool, lock by lock to remove barn yard rubbish that is still in the wool, to remove second cuts, to open the tips of the wool and the cut ends.  So each lock gets fluffed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The third photo is the bag I filled with fluffed wool. I tried to keep locks that have grown side-by-side on the sheep together and to sort them according to color and length. Each bag full of fluffed wool would give me between 6 to 9 “batts” (see photo 5) of carded wool. Generally it takes me about two to four hours to fluff a bag full of wool. The time difference depends on how clean or dirty the wool is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This fourth photo shows my drum carder set up (clamped to the table) with some fluffed wool which is ready to be carded. Generally it takes me two to three hours to card between six to nine batts of wool, or to empty my bag of fluffed wool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This fifth photo shows the wool carded into batts for spinning (or felting). I’ve piled the Coburger Fuchsshaffe wool to the left, and some Osterfreisies Milchschaffe (East Friesian Milk sheep) wool to the right. My coffee mug is in the center to give some perspective of how big the piles of batts are. After nine days of doing this, I am ready to do something else even though I still have at least as much wool of both sheep still to card!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is enough carded wool to fill two boxes. It will be a while before I get it all spu up into yarn. The white wool will be dyed and woven into something. But the CoburgerFuchsshaffe will be knit into a sweater - which I have a real need for as my two "everyday use sweaters" are falling apart and full of holes!