#processing wool

[tyrhinosaurus]

More adventures in fleece washing with the urn!

Rewashed this merino cross fleece, it was still so greasy and a bit yucky. Got it to about 85 degrees for a good soapy wash, it's a lot nicer.

It also dried in an afternoon, thank you hot sunny weather!

Lot of vm in this one relative to the moorit, so more emphasis will be on picking it outside.

[notquitebilateral]

Flicked open the tips, washed, flicked open fully, sorted into categories by feel/length, and ready for further processing. Am I going to hand card, drum card or spin from what I have? Not a clue, one step at a time.

Note to self, next fleeces get sorted during skirting and pulling apart for further processing and storage. There is such different consistency between different parts of this fleece and I am learning a lot from my mistakes.

I am about halfway through the white fleece with a large ram's fleece and some yearling lambs shears in the yellow bags.

*More muffled screaming from a pile of wool.*

[handweavers]

reminder that if you ever buy wool yarn secondhand you should put it in a plastic bag in the freezer for a week, let it thaw 24 hours, then refreeze another week. this makes sure that if there are any moths or pests they are killed by the first freeze, and the remaining eggs are lured to hatch by the thawing and then killed with the second freeze. until this process is complete you must keep the yarn isolated from your existing stash or you risk any infestation spreading. i buy a lot of wool yarn from thrift and antique shops and always do this and have never had a problem with moths or other bugs. if you buy wool sweaters or other wool things secondhand you should also do this just to be safe

[aysrin]

despite everything, it's you! (+ extra hat closeups below)

[crow-crafting]

I made a thing!

Last year I bought a pair of "used" carders. Fabulously discounted, even before they were marked down.

They were, unfortunately, not in a usable condition. Despite that, I still tried to use them as is.

The tines are broad, thick, and shorter than modern carders. The leather the tines are mounted to is dry and crumbles when you touch it. When you run your fingers across the tines, they are loose and jiggle more leather dust free.

They might have been fine as decorative pieces, but i have really been looking for a pair of hand carders, and I would love to own a functional pair.

So it went onto my shelf for ten months. Occasionally, I picked them up and would think about what I could do for these carders.

Then I started looking at blending boards and wondered if they sold the cloth by itself. And it is!

Terribly unhelpful product information, but i took a couple measurements and decided it would be big enough to cover both the carders. It was a bit of a risk as it did not say the TPI, but I decided that if it was not what I wanted for this project, I could put it on my shelf for a future (inevitable) project.

The cloth arrived, and I got a TPI count of 72, which is actually what I was hoping for. A good count for medium to fine wool, I believe.

So I removed the existing carding cloth and sanded down the wood of the handles. It very much needed the sanding.

After sanding, there was a lovely woodgrain visible on the carders. I decided that staining them would help protect the wood itself, but I did not want to cover up the grain.

I chose a white oak stain that I already have and stained them.

Once they dried, I cut the cloth to shape, put glue on both the face of the carder and the back of the cloth. Then I glued them together, let them dry, then used a staple gun to really attach the cloth to the carders.

I now have functional hand carders!

[serpentface]

how do you come up with the ways cultures in your setting stylize people/animals/the world in general in their artwork, i.e. jewlery, rock carvings, statues, etc? Each culture in your world seems to have a very unique "art style" and I love it a lot - makes them seem that much more 'real'. This is something I struggle with a lot in my own worldbuilding and I'd love to pick your brain if possible 😁

I think a starting point is to have a research process based in the material realities of the culture you're designing for. Ask yourself questions like:

Where do they live? What's the climate/ecosystem(s) they are based in? What geographic features are present/absent?

What is their main subsistence method? (hunter gatherer, seasonal pastoralist, nomadic pastoralist, settled agriculturalist, a mix, etc)

What access to broader trade networks do they have and to whom? Are there foreign materials that will be easily accessible in trade and common in use, or valuable trade materials used sparingly in limited capacities?

Etc

And then do some research based on the answers, in order to get a sense of what materials they would have routine access to (ie dyes, metal, textiles, etc) and other possible variables that would shape how the art is made and what it's used for. This is just a foundational step and won't likely play much into designing a Style.

If you narrow these questions down very specifically, (ie in the context of the Korya post- grassland based mounted nomads, pastoralist and hunter-gatherer subsistence, access to wider trade networks and metals), you can direct your research to specific real world instances that fit this general idea. This is not to lift culturally specific concepts from the real world and slap them into your own setting, but to notice commonalities this lifestyle enforces - (ie in the previous example- mounted nomadic peoples are highly mobile and need to easily carry their wealth (often on clothing and tack) therefore small, elaborate decorative artwork that can easily be carried from place to place is a very likely feature)

For the details of the art itself, I come up with loose 'style guides' (usually just in my head) and go from there.

Here's some example questions for forming a style (some are more baseline than others)

Are geometric patterns favored? Organic patterns? Representative patterns (flowers, animals, stars, etc)? Abstract patterns?

Is there favored material(s)? Beads, bone, clay, metals, stones, etc.

When depicting people/animals, is realism favored? Heavy stylization? The emotional impression of an animal? Are key features accentuated?

How perspective typically executed? Does art attempt to capture 3d depth? Does it favor showing the whole body in 2 dimensions (ie much of Ancient Egyptian art, with the body shown in a mix of profile and forward facing perspective so all key attributes are shown)? Will limbs overlap? Are bodies shown static? In motion?

Does artwork of people attempt to beautify them? Does it favor the culture's conception of the ideal body?

Are there common visual motifs? Important symbols? Key subject matters?

What is the art used for? Are its functions aesthetic, tutelary, spiritual, magical? (Will often exist in combination, or have different examples for each purpose)

Who is represented? Is there interest in everyday people? Does art focus on glorifying warriors, heroes, kings?

Are there conventions for representing important figures? (IE gods/kings/etc being depicted larger than culturally lesser subjects)

Is there visual shorthand to depict objects/concepts that are difficult to execute with clarity (the sun, moon, water), or are invisible (wind, the soul), or have no physical component (speech)?

Etc

Deciding on answers to any of these questions will at least give you a unique baseline, and you can fill in the rest of the gaps and specify a style further until it is distinct. Many of these questions are not mutually exclusive, both in the sense of elements being combined (patterns with both geometric and organic elements) or a culture having multiple visual styles (3d art objects having unique features, religious artwork having its own conventions, etc).

Also when you're getting in depth, you should have cultural syncretism in mind. Cultures that routinely interact (whether this interaction is exchange or exploitation) inevitably exchange ideas, which can be especially visible in art. Doing research on how this synthesizing of ideas works in practice is very helpful- what is adopted or left out from an external influence, what is retained from an internal influence, what is unique to this synthesis, AND WHY. (I find Greco-Buddhist art really interesting, that's one of many such examples)

Looking at real world examples that fit your parameters can be helpful (ie if I've decided on geometric patterns in my 'style guide', I'll look at actual geometric patterns). And I strongly encourage trying to actually LEARN about what you're seeing. All art exists in a context, and having an understanding of how the context shapes art, how art does and doesn't relate to broader aspects of a society, etc, can help you when synthesizing your own.

[iplaywithstring]

Raw fleece

Find the locks

Flick them open

Wrap them in netting to wash

Try not to injure yourself while combing

Pull off some nests

Spin it really fine

Make it a two ply

And then you can knit a ring shawl

(I am still on the spinning part, but that's the goal)

[pilferingapples]

Happy "why the hell did they save Marius' HACKED UP BLOOD DRENCHED SEWER-SOAKED COAT" day to all who celebrate !!!! (me it's me pretty much just me)

[tyrhinosaurus]

Ooo I don't know much about Ramsey, what is the est. micron and staple length? What colour have you got?

Spinning in the grease is good fun! Not the best for the carpet in my house though, anything that falls out can smear in.

That's a big difference, is it a big change in the quantity of VM, or the carding/combing waste?

Cabled sweater would be wonderful, do you have a pattern in mind?

She's dry!!

I was not expecting to lose 10% of the weight again in lanolin, I've got 509gm now of spun wool.

I wish I'd weighed it myself at the very start, but I've lost about 50% all up of weight to impurities.

This wool is so nice, y'all. It's soft, fluffy, stretchy. Got the most wonderful neutral smell

[crookedtines]

So... I finally took a drop spindle spinning class after going back and forth about it for weeks.

The white yarn's what I spun in class. It's pretty lumpy, but it's got personality. I had a bunch of wool left over, so of course it got dyed a fun color the second I got home. In the meantime I watched a ton of spinning videos, which seemed to magically enable me to spin a finer yarn on my second attempt. Watching other people work really makes things click into place!

Here they are freshly plied! The difference between them is wild (to me). I have no idea what to use them for, but that probably won't stop me from making more.

[mackerelsoup-fr]

okay i looked through every post ever. now behold

mackie!!!! she/her my little fisherfurb :3

the lighting is atrocious because it’s night time and i can’t take good photos to save my life anyway, but here are some more photos

i made her belt, earrings and shirt yesterday before she was delivered and then i worked on her hat and painted her today (for 12 hours nonstop 😵‍💫). i winged a lot of things using a bunch of tutorials as a guide so if you’re curious about anything you can obviously dm/anon ask/public ask.

and lastly a before and after :)

i am amazed by how well she turned out and i am over the moon to have her with me :)

okay zzzz i sleep now yey

[sincerely-sofie]

Did you ever think up a name for the goat's patron? Curious because I love their desgin and I cant get them out of my head. Also, if its not too much trouble, do you mind going into your thoughts behind their design? For some reason I interpret it as vaugely Chinese/Journey to the West inspired (which has partly resulted in me calling them pigsy in my head), but idk if thats your you were going for.

(referencing the design found in this post)

Her name is Freya! She's the goddess of both life and death in her world, chained by her siblings to guarantee themselves immortality. She was freed from her chains by the Goat stealing her siblings' crowns and using their weapons to sacrifice himself in a vicious ritual that should have led to him being impossible to bring back from death's clutches. But Freya was terrified of losing him, and tried to stop him from slipping away as he died. She only managed to pin him between life and death, trapping him in the moments of his passing for what seemed like eons... Until a newly-crowned goddess from another world with an affinity for such things found and released him. (At least in the scrapped storyline / alternative AU where he appears!)

The main inspiration behind her design was that I wanted her to be an animal that's seen positively or negatively depending on the culture it's in, and has a connection with luck in order to contrast Narinder's being a black cat and fulfilling those requirements as well. So I made her a pig as a result!

I wanted her to contrast the Goat's very gloomy and dark design. She would have warm brown, bright gold, and vivid purple as her central colors as a result, though I didn't color her in the piece she appears in, so that's not clear at all, haha.

I'm not the best at conveying it in my art, but Narinder, at least in his updated design I never really draw, is meant to have diamonds as the main shape that his design is built around. He's supposed to have diamond-shaped eyes, ears, face, etcetera. And Freya has hearts to contrast that! A shape that has roundedness to its points.

I wasn't very inspired by Chinese motifs while designing Freya beyond the symbolism of pigs in that culture helping me choose her species. But her earrings were semi-inspired by furin wind chimes, which originate in Japan! You can read about those on their Wikipedia page here. I imagine that Freya would be the inspiration behind her world's lore for their version of furin.

As a little bit of parting trivia: the Goat was the one to do all of the plotting to free Freya, contrasting the Lamb and Narinder's dynamic. He was so utterly head over heels for her after she saved him from the massacre of his people, ashamed of her siblings' actions, that he was willing to do whatever it took for her to see the world she loved again, free of shackles.

[calendae-creations]

Can anyone help me identify this fiber?? I bought a couple pounds or so of it from the local craft supply thrift shop, but nobody there knew what it was more specifically than 'some kind of unwashed unprocessed fleece.'

It is incredibly soft, smooth, and silky. It has very little odor or oil/lanolin in it, and not that much dirt or plant matter either, so I'm processing and spinning it in the grease.

I'm amazed at how little the fleece is tangled or matted, given that the fibers are mind-bogglingly fine, and have a staple length of around 10 inches/25.4 cm. Like, holy shit these are crazy long fibers. By far the longest protein fibers I've ever spun. I'm seriously considering taking a break from spinning until I can make some kind of distaff to make this stuff more manageable.

It honestly feels like spinning flax, but like, if flax grew out of rabbits and felt like the finest softest bunny floof. Combing it is bizarre, because it goes from being locks densely clumped together, to being an open, airy cloud of fibers that seems almost to want to float away (as well as creating a lot of static and trying to cling to everything I'm wearing, but that could be more to do with it being 50 F/10 C in my room).

[peyton-for-peace]

I made this yarn myself with a drop spindle and I am proud. Many bad things are happening. But I have this yarn and I worked hard to make something I care about during these terrible times.

Finished yarn is 2 ply made with 4 oz variegated jacob wool roving.

[iplaywithstring]

On the weekend I picked up a pound of raw Romney from a local farmer and it is so nice

It was coated and it's so tempting to process it in the grease, but experience tells me that at least a cold soak to get some of the gunk out is important.

I washed a small sample and I'm spinning it while listening to an audio book

It's lovely.

[puhpandas]

ohhh my god just watched the security breach section of the scott interview and my god it gives so much insight to what happened to security breach. like genuinely it almost basically fully explains it. this is so satisfying becuase it just paints so much of a more tangible picture compared to what we were doing before just grasping at straws trying to make sense of what on earth happened. it was just soo much miscommunication