I washed some of Rutabaga’s fleece! I bought the goats’ first clip from the grower Merrytale Farm, and the owner also sent me a picture of Dottie (mom), Rutabaga, and Sasparilla (Rutabaga’s twin) to use in this blog. I absolutely love that I know the name of the animal that provided me fiber!

I washed this fleece the same way I did Dottie’s, and it came out well. Where I just flicked open the ends of the locks of the adult mohair, Rutabaga’s first cut locks were smaller, so I used two wire dog brushes to card small portions. I then spun a handful of fluff at a time. I am still at the park and draft method of spinning, but I posted a video to show what I’m doing.

I like my Frankenstein’d top whorl drop spindle with the long shank because I can spin it by rolling it along the arm of my chair and spin with the cat on my lap. She appreciates that too.

Seriously, spinning is like magic. You take bits of fluff and with a stick of wood, turn it into infinite varieties of useful stuff. When asked what superpower I would want, my answer is usually to be able to make things from nothing. This is pretty darn close!

I found an awesome book on spindle spinning: “Respect the Spindle: Spinning Infinite Yarns with One Amazing Tool” by Abby Frequemont. I love that she provides scientific information on spinning, and enough description that I can use it to improve my spinning. (I should still find a class on spinning, but this at least gets my hands moving!) She also recommends trying many different spindles and has exercises to help improve spinning.

I’ve been practicing with small colored scraps of wool, and spinning with mohair is different, but I like how fuzzy it comes out. I really like crocheting and nålbinding with single ply yarn, but I’m definitely missing something about the process, because this single ply doesn’t act like store bought single ply. Now here is more magic. You spin two strands of single ply together in the opposite direction and the twists balance each other and hold together better. Ok, so not magic, but super cool science.