Big Woods Week 4

This week one of the projects that PP suggested was

knitting.  My girls already know how to knit, however

they don't know how to spin fiber... 

They've already prepared the raw fiber to be carded.

If you missed that post here it is.

Carding?  What is carding you ask... good question!

Carding is simply brushing the fur so that the fiber

all lays in on direction, which is needed to spin

a nice yarn.

These are carders...

kinda look like poodle brushes, don't they ;-)

first one brush er uh, carder needs to be

loaded.  I found out that it's best to

load in small sections

once loaded it's time to brush, gently, litely like

brushing hair.  Start at the bottom of the 

carder, brushing the fiber then move up

till all the fiber has been brushed through

see how the fiber is starting to all lay in one direction

once all the fiber has been brush it's time to 

take the fiber and load it onto the other empty 

carder.  

I didn't get any pics but after the fiber has been carded

it should be rolled into what looks like a cigar. Then reload
the carder and start again till all the
fiber has been carded.

At this point the fiber is ready to be 

drafted- drafting is gently pull the fiber

out a short length so that what
was once a 6-7 inch cigar is now
a yard of so lite fluffy strip
of fiber similar to a strip of
cotton but much liter, ready

to be spun.

here is my youngest dd trying her hand or should I

say her foot... lol at spinning...

just kick and spin....

the fiber is spinning up to the point of her

where she is pinching the fiber, getting

a good tight spin on the fiber

this last pic is her hold the fiber so that

it spins up to her finger then she'll release

and move her fingers up and hold again

there are more steps to this process, so

we'll finish carding, drafting and spinning 

all the fiber then move on

to the next step... until then

happy spinning!!