You Gotta Love It!

This is bison fur! It comes FULL of debris, mudballs, burs, etc. etc. It smells smoky, and is amazing! I do not have a machine to dehair, so I sort as best I can. This pile I am working on has hair in it. The hump hair and other coarse hair are easy to separate out, but the regular long hairs are not. This is a pile of debris on my deck. I hand-picked this piece by piece.

I put my fur into lingerie bags and washed in my outside washer. There is no grease, it is only dirt. These guys like to wallow in mud. So some of the patches of down I had were coated in mud.

After drying, it is then put in a pile to be combed. The final picking of "stuff" is done now. I have tried all means of carding. On my carder, the little short fibers clump up on the small side, and it is kind of a mess.

And then I spin it. And then it is ready for something to happen to the yarn. The bison/alpaca blend I made a while back is destined to be made into a cuff for pair of fingerless mitts. It is very warm.

You have to love it to do it! Yes, I did buy some already dehaired, carded down. But it was "pill-y". I don't know how else to describe it. It was hard to spin with all the little balls in there. I like smooth yarn, and this was bumpy. But it is still very pretty, and it is still very warm.

Oh! One thing I have learned, the yarn BLOOMS rather dramatically after it is taken off the blocker.

I will never pay the price for the commercial yarn, or for commercial fiber. This is strictly a love project.

Speaking of love projects, I am currently spinning the yak/merino blend I got in Tacoma. It is from Crown Mountain. This is the softest, yummiest fleece. It spins like butter. It is amazing! I am anxious to get the first skein done so I can see if it blooms. I had a little trouble getting started, and I had to figure out how to feed the fiber and how to hold my hands. But it is wonderful. I am sold on this stuff!

I finally finished the blue, red, and black yarn. I got three skeins, a total of 543 yards, and 5.5 ozs. It is really pretty. I was thinking of using a black yarn with it to do something in color work. I'm not sure yet. I am happy to finish that.

I finished one of the fingerless mitts that I was knitting. I picked up the baby sweater, but I am not happy with it for some reason. I am afraid it is going to get frogged. I put it back down. I need to study it some.

I got the yarn I ordered to warp the loom. That's on the list of things to do. I guess that's about all the news. Have a good rest of the week. Enjoy your fiber works!