One Worth Tell - Part III

We will discuss the whole nep/noil thing but first a tale about selling rolags.

With two full sheep´s worth of fleece to spin there will be far more yarn than either the kids or I can use which was pretty clear from the start.  That idea however was merely knocking around in my head without any type of action plan in place.  It seemed there would be plenty of time to figure out that situation later.

As I mentioned Mom and I sit outside in the morning and evening in the shade.  During the morning that puts us right next to the driveway.  Mom gets a daily paper so for six of seven days of the week there is a person delivering it.

Deb is the name of the delivery person, and she is one who wears dread locks, short cut-off jeans and flowy, colorful kaftan tops.  Remember I am in a rural part of the state where the largest city in the county has a population of just over 16,000.  Someone still dressing like a hippy is rare.  She may not be the only one in the county but odds are good one could count the number on both hands.

So Deb drives close to us and says--¨I know what you are doing.¨  Another relatively rare thing.  She goes on to show us one of her dreads which uses dyed and felted wool and asks if we are selling any of the rolags I have stacked in a box next to me.  She loves its white color because of ease in dyeing, doesn´t mind vm and likes the long staples even if I can’t identify the breed of sheep.  She tells me she´ll purchase as much as I want to sell.  We come to a price and whenever there are 2 ounces of rolags ready to go I put a sign on the door and an exchange is made.  So far 10 ounces have been sold and I have plenty of yarn to play with as well.

What serendipity to have one of the few persons in the county who has knowledge and an interest in the wool, come right up the driveway and offer to make a purchase.  It is indeed a special type of life I live.  In this case all I had to do was think about something and it happened.

Spinning--So letś take a look at my spinning.  There has been light weight worsted spun for the kids to use and I have spun sport and fingering weight for myself.  My goal is to get down to a fine lace weight but much more practice is needed to achieve it the way I want it to be.

Here´s a single ply on my spinning wheel, named Gord. (It is a Lendrum made in Canada, eh.) 

Finger and sewing needle to show scale

This is a relatively fine spin for me.  It is also relatively consistent and was chain plied into a fingering weight yarn later.  See that fuzzy little blob on the right side of the bobbin near the top of the photo?  Depending on who you ask it was caused by either a nep or a noil in the rolag.  

This is a close up of a rolag where the neps or noils are visible as whiter pieces in the strands.  As one is spinning these blobs don´t easily thin themselves out to line up with the rest of the staples. You can see below as I start to separate the staples those neps/noils remain.  At first there were many of them, but I have learned I was part of the problem in creating them.

The first possible problem was the way I washed the fleece.  I might have agitated it to the point of felting bits and pieces or the contrast in the temperature of the wash to rinse water might have been too much and it felted.  Second the way I was placing the staples on the hand carders could have contributed to creating these unwanted knots.  I have subsequently improved on my carding skill and have eliminated many of them.  Finally I have learned to slowdown my spinning when I get to a nep/noil and let out a bit of twist, gently tug on the knot and it seems to better line up into the staples.  The photo of the spun yarn shows I am getting most of the problem resolved.  

If you want to learn more about the neps/noils in your rolags might I suggest checking out these two articles written by Kate Larson for Spin Off magazine.  One and Two.  Actually the photos may better capture the knots than mine do.

So spinning is improving because fleece preparation is improving.  The weight of the yarn I am creating is getting more consistent and finer.  In my mind these are changes for the better.  Part IV will be discussing a topic you will be dyeing to learn about!  (Yes I spelled it properly for my purposes.)