Saturday, July 25, 2009

Mohair Fiber/Shipshewana Wool

After getting back from Indiana I had the chance to vist a local Angora goat farm Mea Stone owns Stony Woods Farm in Keller, TX. Mea spent most of a Saturday with me showing me her goats and showing me how to process the fiber. I was able to purchase some lovely fiber from her. She was kind enough to label each bag with the name of the goat and then made sure I had met each goat so I could remember them as I spun and knit the fiber. I admit I was a little hesitant with the first batch but I had that lovely gray wool from Shipshewana and I wanted to make a great hat for my daughter, Katie. Katie had picked out a hat pattern in the yarn shop in Shipshewana for me to make.
This is just some of the lovely fiber I got from Mea. I'll have enough to keep me busy through the rest of the year I imagine.
Bags of mohair. Most of it needs washing and processing. She did inclulde 2 bags of fiber that is already processed and ready to spin. The first batch I tried was some very dark gray/black fiber from a goat named Lizzie. I picked it, washed it, dried it and then carded the locks into rolags to spin from.
Then I started spinning the rolags. I alternated between carding and spinning until it was all spun up.
I also spun the gray wool I had purchased in Shipshewana along with some gray Corridale wool I had purchased on the internet. It was gray but had some brown in it. It made for really lovely color variation.
After I had spun all the wool and the mohair I began to ply the singles together.
After plying I wound it off the bobbins into skeins using a niddy noddy and then washed it to set the twist. After washing and pressing out the water with a towel I hung the skeins on a hanger in the utility room to dry. I have about 6 oz. of yarn to make Katie's hat. The green roving I bought in Shipshewana also spun up like a dream. It was lovely and thin. Not sure what to do with it yet. Maybe try some fingerless gloves. I'm thinking I would like some for knitting in the winter.
A close up of the yarn, it had those bits of yellow and purple in the roving and look really nice in the yarn. Its very soft also.

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