Sunday, December 8, 2013

Beastly Barnyard Smell

*from rabbitgeek notes 1/4/09*

Beastly Barnyard alpaca yarn smell

Okay, I had a pound of alpaca that I was spinning and the first skein revealed a beastly, barnyard smell when I washed it the first time. I asked on some fiber groups for help and many good replies came.

It seems alpacas like to roll in the dust, so that has to be dealt with.

I wound up washing it all in lavender shampoo, but I have heard Dawn dish washing liquid is very good. I did not agitate the fiber, don't want it to felt, but carefully added water for keeping it hot and for rinsing.

Using a mesh bag with a zipper of the kind for washing delicates was very helpful for handling.

Repost from May 31 2006
Okay, here is an update on the beastly skein of alpaca.

First of all, thank you for all your prompt responses.

I bought a bottle of Avalon Organic Lavender shampoo for two dollars at the discount store. The shampoo had a strong lavender smell at the store when I opened it, so I bought it.

I put some hot water in a bucket, enough to cover the skein. I added the shampoo. I put the skein into the water. I put the bucket outside on the patio. I warmed the water again by adding a pot of almost boiling water to the bucket. 20 minutes later I added another pot of hot water.

I soaked like this for about an hour. I poured out the wash water and rinsed it many times with lukewarm water. A lot of muddy water came and went.

As I hung up the skein to dry, I noticed the smell was mostly gone. Now it is damp and the smell is barely there. I hope this helps.

added 1/24/10
The next batch of alpaca I washed before spinning. I was told previously I did not need to wash it, so I did not.

I'm just surprised that I did not notice the smell spinning the alpaca fiber when it was dry.

And I'm glad I am not in the habit of licking my fingers when I spin. I was told to never lick my fingers when spinning because of livestock sanitation issues.

Always wash your hands afterward.

Have a good day!

Saturday, November 16, 2013

SWSG Sat Nov 9


(click pictures for larger image) 
Sacramento Weavers and Spinners Guild Saturday Group met on Sat Nov 09 20130 at Arcade Library in Sacramento Calif.


As usual people brought their work with them and we had a show and tell.




Jim built a drop spindle from CDs and a dowel. 



Sue brought a couple of strange looking tools that came with her warping board. We could not figure out what they are for exactly.


 Same warp setup (vertical) and different treadling with colors for the weft (horizontal).



Same cloth shawl, photo left side no flash and photo right side with flash.


Our topic for the month was tablet weaving/card weaving. Jen from Davis Spinners Guild is teaching our little workshop. Here is some of the stuff she brought along to help introduce us to the craft. 


 Jen used Vonnie as a model weaver, with Vonnie showing how her hand made wooden card set can be setup with toe loop and neckband.

A close up look at Vonnie's loom in action.


 Jen shows us how to warp the cards using two clamps as warping pegs. Using a modern technique she sets up the 4 hole cards for weaving. Then she ties up to a table leg and shows us how to move the cards for weaving.

  
 

We all kind of gather around to watch the demo.


 A close up of the work Jen was doing.


Kelly had some help with her loom while Lisa sets up her warp.

 
Here is Janelle working on a loom.



Here are some sample bands on the left. On the right is a piece Jen did she calls "Medusa." It was made with 79 cards in her loom.

Here are a few of the many books of patterns available for tablet weaving.


This is the textbook of Tablet Weaving by Peter Collingwood.






 We did not get around to discussing this intimidating set of cards.

Our next meeting is Dec 14, 9 am to 11:30 am at Arcade Library.

Please check the website for info as available.
http://www.sacweavespin.org/saturday

Also follow our guild on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/groups/124902324243589/

It was a good day!

Saturday, October 19, 2013

SWSG Sat Oct




 Sacramento Weavers & Spinners Guild Saturday Group met at the library in Davis, Calif. Our topic was SPINNING! We had a few members from the Davis Spinners Guild meet up with us. Above is a few of the members. I only got a few pictures taken this time.




Here is a few more people in our little circle of fiber. 



Kelly shows off a couple of gloves she is knitting. 


Erica from the Davis group is working on a knitted dress.


Betty from the Davis group is spinning some "berry colored" BFL roving on her Baynes spinning wheel.


Here Linda ia showing us how to use a nostepinde to make a center pull ball.

We discussed the mini-workshops coming up in November at the Tuesday Guild meeting. 

We also discussed other meeting locations as we are having challenges with the library rooms.

Next 3 months we have reservations for Arcade Library in Sacramento. Here is the list of topics for the next Saturday meetings:

Nov. - Card Weaving - Jenn
Dec. - Fiber Prep for spinning - Group
Jan. - Edge Finishing - Linda

Keep checking our web page for updates!
http://www.sacweavespin.org/saturday

Have a good day!

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Lambtown 2013


Lambtown USA, Dixon Calif, Where the entertainment begins early and continues all day! Above is Square Dancing with some members of the audience getting their first lesson!


Members of the Sacramento Weavers and Spinners Guild had a short meet up. Linda showed us a Louet "hatbox" spinning wheel she bought on ebay.


At Lambtown there is sheepdog trials. Above is two different dogs working.


This dog takes a cooling dip in the water trough after competing.


Local 4H is on hand to let people get up close with rabbits, goats, guinea pigs, and chickens.


Above are the three teams working on sheep to shawl contest. They all start with a bag of wool that they spin into yarn then weave into a shawl in a number of hours. The shawls are then judged for craftsmanship and wearability.


Here is the judging of the shawls. Judge is touching the shawl that eventually won. Congratulations to Hangtown Fibers Guild of Placerville, Calif.



 Here is the wool fleece judging contest. You can almost feel the electricity in the air.




It's Lindsey, Carol, and Jocelyn, old friends and Angora rabbit breeders. They have a booth packed with angora rabbit wool!



Carol has a Babe Electric Spinning Wheel. She was telling she has worn out 3 control pedals but it keeps on spinning. It unpacks small enough to be put into that picnic basket.



Some of the nice displays.


Neat spindles!



More colorful displays.



This is Aunt Janet's Fiber Mill display. This colorful wool rolags look like unicorn dreadlocks.


This is Marilyn Petch modeling a felted scarf she made with woodland theme. Notice the sparrow depicted on the right side.


There was food, there was games!




Top picture is a beginning spinner working her first drop spindle. Bottom is a couple of ladies with bagfuls of spinning to be done! And Lambtown USA runs again on Sunday!

It was a good day!

Sunday, September 29, 2013

SWSG Sat Sept


On Sept 21 the SacramentoWeavers and Spinners Guild met at Arcade Library to show library visitors how to weave. Above I am making cardboard looms 5 inch x 10 inch using a paper cutter. I am cutting notches with a coping saw. I actually two hands when cutting but I am using one hand to work the camera.



 Here are some weavers working on the cardboard looms. Some are new weaves, others are a little more experienced.



Here is a couple of the looms with weaving in progress. This is the work of a couple of the library visitors who dropped in on us. 


Here we are looking at a demo of inkle weaving on a Schacht inkle loom.


Above are some recent weaving projects completed by members of the Guild. The top right red piece is plain weave with some pick up pattern in the stripe. The top left is a blanket that was done in double weave to create a double wide cloth. The bottom is a scarf done in shibori style with some hand painted color.


And here is the little handout distributed with the looms at the demo. It was a good day!

You can usually follow our schedule on the Guild website
http://www.sacweavespin.org/saturday

We plan next to have a meetup at Lambtown in Dixon next week on Oct 5. We'll meet up at 11 a.m. near the food court, grab a table or two and share some lunch together.  Then it'll be off to have some fun at Lambtown.

As you may have noted, the Arcade Library had to cancel our meeting room for October 12.  We were able to secure the meeting room at the Davis Public Library for October 19 from 10:00-1:00.

The Davis Public Library is located at 315 E. 14 Street in Davis, and we'll be meeting in the Blanchard Room.  Here's the link:  http://www.yolocounty.org/Index.aspx?page=256
Have a good day!







Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Green In Progress


Working on the leno details. Every so often I twist pairs of yarn. Since I can't find my pickup sticks I am using a ruler.


As I finish the leno row I use the ruler to hold the shed open and push the shuttle through. 



Here is a close up of the weaving. In between the leno is regular plain weave done with the rigid heddle.

More pictures later.
Have a good day!