Re: Observations on a Bad Week

On Mar 27, 9:21 pm, "Kim" <darwinexceptiontakethis...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:


>
> 7. The next thing I want to try is spinning my own yarn. I figure that
> there's enough goat and sheep and alpacas and stuff around here that I
> should be able to find someone willing to give me a little bit of hair
to
> try out. I can't figure out though how sheep fur - which is relatively
> short - is made into long strands of yarn. I mean, my own hair is pretty
> long, but I still don't see how twisting a few strands of it together
would
> make a skein of yarn. How exactly does that work?



Boy, I feel as if I ought to be able to jump right in here with all
sorts of woolly sheep facts, and yet all I know is that the strands
don't have to be very long...I can start to spin a thread from Puff's
cat fur, which is two to three inches long. But also, you don't twist
"a few" strands together, you twist a whole bunch. And then there's
something about kemp fibers, which are longer and harder and tend to
stick out, so I think the qualities of the different fibers affect how
well it spins. At any rate, there is a grooming tool for horses that
is made out of a block of straw: the straw is wetted and twisted into
a rope, then the rope doubled and woven back in on itself to create a
brick. I've never been able to make one, and yet I am assured (by
reading old-fa****oned books about English hunting lore) that strapping
one's horse with a straw brick is regular and normal.


After that, wool (or your own hair) ought to be a breeze. Friend of
mine cleaned and spun dog hair. Then she died of an aneurysm.


V.
--
Veronique Chez Sheep