Oilin' my Chevy(iot) Fleece
Last summer, I bought a Border Cheviot fleece from Topsy Farms on Amherst Island. It was a bit dirty, because their sheep are used for both fleece and meat, and so they don't coat them. I knew it would take some grunt work, and I was prepared to do so, because it did have a lovely crimp. But I think I might have taken too much lanolin out, because the washed fleece was dry and crackly, hard to card, not very fun to spin, and so it sat there, not being used.
But last week, my Tante Margo had sent me this video about hand-spinning in different districts of Ireland. It's a fun watch, but my largest take away is that they used to oil their fleeces a bit before spinning.
This was something that I had never heard of before! I did a quick recon of some spinning blogs, and sure enough, it's done. I mean, I knew that they did that in industrial wool mills to keep the fibres from flying away, but it never occurred to me to apply the same logic to hand-spinning.
The video said that the women used whatever type of oil or grease they had on hand: vegetable oil, paraffin wax, goose grease. I stuck to vegetable oil.
Now, we're not talking large quantities here. For every 25 grams of fibre, I would dump about 1/4 tablespoon of oil onto my hands, and then gently work it into the fibre. It's enough to aid the spinning process, but not so much that a quick soak off the skein in some hot soapy water can't take care of the oil. And it did work! Like a dream! and now my fleece is smooth and puffy again, and I've got about 200 grams of it ready for spinning when this Shetland fleece is done. And I'm about 3/5 done, so you will get to see that very soon.
But last week, my Tante Margo had sent me this video about hand-spinning in different districts of Ireland. It's a fun watch, but my largest take away is that they used to oil their fleeces a bit before spinning.
This was something that I had never heard of before! I did a quick recon of some spinning blogs, and sure enough, it's done. I mean, I knew that they did that in industrial wool mills to keep the fibres from flying away, but it never occurred to me to apply the same logic to hand-spinning.
The video said that the women used whatever type of oil or grease they had on hand: vegetable oil, paraffin wax, goose grease. I stuck to vegetable oil.
Now, we're not talking large quantities here. For every 25 grams of fibre, I would dump about 1/4 tablespoon of oil onto my hands, and then gently work it into the fibre. It's enough to aid the spinning process, but not so much that a quick soak off the skein in some hot soapy water can't take care of the oil. And it did work! Like a dream! and now my fleece is smooth and puffy again, and I've got about 200 grams of it ready for spinning when this Shetland fleece is done. And I'm about 3/5 done, so you will get to see that very soon.
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