Fiber Processing
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Thursday September 09, 2010
Erin and I took some fleeces to Ohio Valley for processing today. I took 2 consecutive years of fleece from each of 2 animals, one white and one grey. I had them blend the 2 years production together and then blended with 30% merino and 5% soy silk. To avoid altering the color of the grey fleece, both white and black merino were blended into it.
The rovings are beautiful. I couldn't be more satisfied with the product. I can't wait to start dying and spinning the fiber. I believe that I will be able to dye the grey roving as well. I should be able to achieve some lovely shades of color.
For those of you who don't know, we blend in some sheep's wool to improve the yarn memory/resiliency. I choose merino because it is fine like the alpaca and has a lovely handle. I looked at tussah silk, bombyx silk, soy silk and some bamboo for some added zip. I have read that a lot of people like the bamboo blended with the alpaca. I found it to be a bit harsh to the touch and thought it might be similar to using brillo or some other harsh fiber. Didn't want that mixed into my rovings.I have used both of the silks before so I went with the soy silk just to try something new. It reputedly has similar characteristics to the silk produced by silk worms.
Erin promises me some pictures that I can post soon, but she's going to the lake with her dad this weekend. They're having the annual poker run at Cumberland lake.
If you are interested in purchasing some of these rovings just drop me an email or phone call.
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