For me, in spinning, there is
nothing more satisfying
than washing a fine fleece and spinning it from the locks
to make a beautiful laceweight yarn. The textures
and smells are fantastic.
I love how it’s so much.�easier to spin wool that
you’ve prepared yourself. You
have control over every
step and the outcome is
all yours.
You can wash and process a fine
fleece very easily yourself
and get a beautiful fine
laceweight yarn. My washing
method is adapted from
Margaret Stove and her
book “Handspinning,
Dyeing and Working with
Merino and Superfine Wools” which
is now out of print but
a great book if you can
get your hands on it.
I’m
working with Cormo fleece
in these photos. This washing
method works great for
fine wools or any fleece
in which you want to preserve
the lock structure.
Take about an ounce of the locks
and lay them facing in
the same direction (all
cut end or all tip end
pointed up) in the center of a
piece of bridal tulle or
netting that measures about three times as wide as the length
of the lock and 24 inches long. The
thickness of this little
row of beautiful locks
should be about the thickness
of a deck of cards. Not
much thicker than that
because we want the dirt
to be easily washed away.
Netting or tulle
is very inexpensive
and can be purchased at
a variety of craft stores, and it keeps the lock formation
while washing.
Once you have your locks lined up
fold in the top and bottom of the tulle and roll in the
sides. Use a safety pin
to secure each side and
you have a very neat
little wool sausage that is easy to handle and move around
during washing.
I usually make six to eight of these
at a time because that’s how many I can fit on my
sweater dryer rack at
a time. If
you are spinning a fine
laceweight yarn, these
6 to 8 ounces you wash
will give you hours of
spinning fun.
Now fill up your sink or tub or
whatever receptacle you
choose with very hot water. I use water as hot as
I can get from the tap. Add a bit of wool wash or
liquid detergent to the
water and then lay your little
sausages into the basin. You can fold
them in half if you need
to and I sometimes stack
them on top of each other,
but only 2 deep.
Go back and remove them
from the water and squeeze
the excess water out – do
not wring, just squeeze.
Repeat this three more times – once
more with soap and two
times with clear water. This
should be enough to get
your locks clean. After the
second wash, if you feel
there is still plenty of
dirt left in then
go ahead and do another
wash. The
cleaner the locks are,
the easier they will spin.
Now take all of the sausages out and squeeze out as much
water as possible and then use a towel to squeeze out the
rest. Let them dry on a screen, a sweater dryer rack or
a towel on the floor.
After your locks are dry it’s
time to spin!
Take a lock, again about the thickness
of your thumb, and put
a little twist in the center of it. The twist
will hold the fibers in place as you use the flick.
I prefer to use the flick more as
a comb than the recommended
bouncing motion. Maybe it’s because it's gentler
to my knee, but I
really think it gets the
job done a little faster
and I like the results
better.
After you have drawn the flick through the lock on one
end a couple of times turn the lock around and repeat on
the other end.
After you open both ends of the
lock, grab both ends
and wiggle them back and
forth open the center. You now
have a rectangular shaped
lock. I
do all of this prep right
at my spinning wheel but
you can flick the locks
all at once and put them
in a basket to be spun
another day.
Place the lock in the crook of your
hand and spin beginning at the tip of your thumb. I have found that a short
forward draw works best to get a lovely smooth lace yarn. The
fibers will just happily
follow each other in an orderly way from the beginning of
the lock to the end.
If you want to do the flicking all
at once and then do all
the spinning afterward,
you should line the locks
up in a box so that they are
all facing the same direction. Cut
end with cut end and tip
end with tip end.
Let’s talk about spinning from the
tip end or the cut end.
Spin from whichever end
you feel comfortable with but for the best yarn,
keep it consistent throughout
the project. I
have always spun from the
cut end. Margaret
Stove has always spun from
the tip and she is a genius
with fine wools and lace
spinning. It’s entirely up
to you.
Don’t be afraid to experiment. Wool
is your friend. If you mess up a few little sausages it
is only an ounce or two You can chalk it up to a great
learning experience – plus the sheep are growing more
wool for you right now.
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