Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Tools of the Trade

I am using my drum carder this morning to process more wool.  I washed the wool during the summer months when the weather was nice.  Once it is washed it stores nicely until I am ready to card and play with it.  The drum carder's sign that reads, "use caution..." is definitely for real!  After two years of using this sweet piece of equipment, I have the utmost respect for all of its sharp edges.

 The long box with nails is called a wool picker.  Wicked looking, hmmm?  I run my wool through this prior to using the carder.  It helps loosen up the fibers and also gets rid of any leftover vm (vegetable matter)


The dryer balls below are ready to go into the washer for the second time.  I "double dip" my balls, meaning I wash once and dry, add more wool and wash and dry again.  This helps the balls keep their original size although there may still be a minimal amount of shrinkage over time.


I love the softness of the fleece and no matter how many times I go through the entire process from sheep to finished product it still seems like magic to me!  Click on any of the pictures to enlarge, thanks for looking and feel free to leave a comment.

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