it's a cool windy Saturday, rain in the offing... a thin sun slants through the clouds every now again
we've just arrived home from our latest travels, a twelve hour car-ride to south-western Oregon to visit family and I'm reflecting on the week that's just been
my sister-in-law is a creative as well, at the moment she is immersed in spinning and weaving, having recently raised sheep for six years
I had taken my calligraphy and brush lettering supplies but a trip to a textile centre on Day 2 of our visit waylaid all of that... I left the store with a drop spindle and roving in tow, it was a Reeves-Schacht spinning wheel that followed her home
a whole new learning curve for each of us but what great fun it turned out to be
I found two short but good YouTube videos and got right to work
a bit of trial and error but as I wasn't looking for perfect I was rather pleased with how things went
(which should be no surprise given my penchant for texture, irregularity, and roughness)
over the next week I worked with wool from one her sheep, a shetland that was blended with alpaca (the off-white skein below), an unlabeled medium-grey roving she had that was too short for her needs, and the darker brown (mixed wool and shetland) roving I had purchased
once I felt comfortable with the drop spindle she brought out some washed raw fleece, pulled away a large chunk, and handed it to me with the words "have fun" along with a pair of English wool combs
a bit of a learning curve to take raw fleece and make it into a roving but I got there and its the mixed grey on the left below
then it was on to learning to ply - a bit of a challenge as with a drop spindle however you spun the spindle for making each strand, you then have to spin the opposite way for plying
its definitely a thinking thing
below, the three yarns on the right are two ply, the one on the left is the single I combed out and spun from the raw fleece
after a few days of spinning we went to the coast to take a walk on the beach
I found this...
a half-shell in the same colours as the yarn I had spun
seems nature has offered up a weaving pattern
a collaboration then...
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