# Big fiber day tomorrow



## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

I am delivering a ewe lamb to Watervliet and another to Leslie, MI tomorrow. The buyer in Leslie is going to teach me how to evaluate sheep and card fleeces - we might have a little drop spindle time. Then it's off to Lansing to deliver some cow meds I don't need to a friend there. THEN....the best part of the trip - the Spinning Loft in Howell. I want to check out the differences in yarns, hope they have a drive band for my type spinning wheel AND she said she would look at my wheel to see if it is working properly. 

I hope to buy some carders with my birthday funds. I am going to check out her classes, but she is awfully far for me to get to - about 3 hours drive. 

What else should I ask/see while I am there? It's awfully close to Zellinger's Mill - but I found out that to have my fleeces made into yarn- I have to have 24 lbs. I don't think I have that much unless I keep nothing to learn to spin with. RATS...


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Callie that sounds like a fun day. I wish I was there to go with you. Good idea to ask about your wheel and to have someone look it over for you. I have a YouTube video on how I learned to hand card. I'll see if I can find the link and post it for you to see.


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## susanne (Nov 4, 2004)

callie zeilinger is making smaller batches too. just have to ask them.


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

Well....I will just get on that phone RIGHT now.....if they take smaller, then I want to be there!!!!

I actually have a general idea how to card. I did a silly business deal - traded a registered ewe for a non-registered ram. Then decided the ram didn't really fit for anything but this coming year. But..I kind of made a deal...and it's a teenager.....so I am giving her the ewe in trade for carding lessons and sheep evaluation lessons and links on her blog, etc. I'm probably never going to be rich with my poorly-honed business sense....but I make a lot of friends.

Marchie - we'll make the same trip again some day together!!!


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

Callie, it's about 2 & 1/2 hours to Zilingers from Howell.


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

Yeah...I saw that. I called them. $500 to do 18 lbs of fleece as a small batch. OUCH! I can buy another ewe for that! I found another mill 2 hrs way in Ft Wayne Indiana that will do the carding/rovings for you for $7 a lb. But they don't spin it out. Looks like I need to learn to spin - badly. 

I'm excited to finally get to buy my carders and get busy. I wonder if Dh would appreciate my carding wool on the drive to Utah later this month?


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## susanne (Nov 4, 2004)

callie any time you want i can give you some spinning lessons. all i know with no charge  or show you how to wash fleece very effectively.
i think i washed at least 30 pounds since beginning of the year. not that difficult if you know how.


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

Oh thanks Suzanne. PM me. Marchwind is moving closer too. Maybe we will need to start out own spinning group!!! What kind of sheep do you have?


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## susanne (Nov 4, 2004)

i have some colored corriedales. planning to add jacobs sheep, cormo and bond. love the fiber from those breeds


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Callie here's the video I made on how I learned to hand card [ame]http://www.youtube.com/user/merlotsmom#p/u/4/rV0YZFGTspQ[/ame]


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

Thanks marchwind!!! I will look at it tonight so I can have it in hand/mind before I go in the morning!

Susanne - if you have an extra corriedales - colored, of course - next spring...let me know. I am also looking for a BFL. Then, if I never learn to spin, I can provide fibers for those who do, so maybe I can come and watch them at least!


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## susanne (Nov 4, 2004)

you will learn to spin if you want to


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

susanne said:


> i have some colored corriedales.


Colored Corries??

Susanne, will you be my new best friend??

Of all the fleeces I've worked with over the past 13 years, corriedale has stole my heart for the best all around fleece. :sigh:

What colors do you have? Right now I have a beautiful (but uncovered) white corrie fleece and a black corrie hogget fleece. The with fleece will come out this weekend for our Homesteading Weekend for processing.

I really should get a vat going for some of that fleece ... can it be done from a Tuesday to Saturday?? I'll put the covered tub in full sun. Well, I have to try! It may give FR an easier way to scour his fleece.

Callie ... what breed do you have (again, for us that are too busy or too ignorant to take notice?)

Will you consider trades for a fleece? Not sure of what I would have to trade (my readily available trades are for milk soaps, canned veggies & meats, bare root plants, hand spun yarns)

Oh yeah, I'm 'jonesing' for a colored corrie fleece! :thumb:


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## lathermaker (May 7, 2010)

Ohhhh, that sounds like a perfect day to me!


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## susanne (Nov 4, 2004)

cyndi i thought we already are best friends because we are here together 
i have one black, couple different shades of gray, one white and one kinda taupe/tan. all but one adult ewe are lambs and will get sheered first time next year. 
so excited. yes i love the corries too. their fleece is just all around for everything good.


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## mamajohnson (Nov 27, 2002)

Wow that sounds awesome! Nice road trip. I have been pondering decreasing my milk herd and increasing my fiber herd (if you can call 3 sheep a herd...)
So, now I need to research the corriedale. Sure do wish Texas was a more fiber friendly state. Very few sheep out here, and zero mills. Maybe I need to change that! lol!


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Callie remember to take your camera!! Have fun!!


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

MullersLaneFarm said:


> Colored Corries??
> 
> Susanne, will you be my new best friend??


NO!!! I want a colored corriedale from Susanne! 



MullersLaneFarm said:


> Callie ... what breed do you have (again, for us that are too busy or too ignorant to take notice?) Will you consider trades for a fleece? Not sure of what I would have to trade (my readily available trades are for milk soaps, canned veggies & meats, bareroot plants, hand spun yarns)?


I have Finnsheep and one corriedale X finn ewe. (so see, Susanne's sheep would fit here nicely!) Heck yeah I'll trade!!! Do you clean houses? LOL!!!!


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

We made it home! Susanne is the cutest spinner I have EVER seen! Thanks for your help today! What fun to meet a fellow HT! We had a great day. I walked in sheep manure, got sniffed up by a nigerian dwarf goat (I think she was in love) met fuzzy angora rabbits, learned some basic carding and spindling (is that a fiber term?), evalutated some sheep, got knocked over by an old English Sheep Dog.....

I must brag on DS, 10. He was a GEM all day inspite of being in the car from 8 am to 6 pm! 

I learned that I didn't know enough to make a choice about carders/combs. Susanne prefers combs. Others prefer carding. So I decided to put off the choice and buy some combed rovings (?) and some carded rovings to see which I prefer before I invest in combs or cards ( and maybe Dh will have me a drum carder built by the time I decide?) I liked the Schachtz (?) curved combs best. Beth, at the Spinning Loft, put a band on my wheel and got it going very, very nicely. (Not that it was a real surprise, but we pretty much eliminated the possibility of the wheel being the problem in the spinning effort around here). Beth also gave me a few pointers to make beginning spinning easier to learn. I hope I can apply all she taught me:

1. SLOW DOWN. The sheep aren't out. The cows have come home....treadle slowly- think peaceful thoughts.
2. Don't hold the roving so tightly - no extra points for squeezing it through the wheel.
3. Slow down.....
4. draft further from the wheel and an inch at a time.
5. Slow down
6. Practice letting the roving twist - stop treaddling - let thewheel take up the yarn - start treddling again....until you can do it together
7 SLOW DOWN.....

I think I've got it all but that slow part. 

We looked at lots of yarn - Oh my! The colors! She has 2 walls of unwashed fleeces - every color, every kind of sheep from horned dorset to suffolx, colored corriedale ( Susanne, did you provide that?). Totally overwhelming. I bought a cute little oriface hook (knowing full well that I could make one of my own). Unfortunately, I have 4 gallons of strawberries that we picked yesterday waiting to be made into jam tonight. Maybe I can practice SLOW tonight anyway. It was a great day! I think I will do it again - minus that dropping of the ewe lamb and cow meds part....


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

Marchwind said:


> Callie remember to take your camera!! Have fun!!


I took it. It's still in my purse! I will take a lot of pictures of how she 'strung' my wheel. I'm not sure I can do it againg without them!


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## susanne (Nov 4, 2004)

yes, it was a lot of fun. callie i'm convinced you will learn how to spin and i promise i will tell you all i know. 
if you come to my house i will show you all about combing and how to make roving out of the top if that is required to make the yarn you want to make. 
yes it looks like you have a bit more waste with combing but nothing that would keep you to put the rest through a drum carder if your dh makes you one. (lucky you) and then of course there is the possibility of felting  so, nothing gets wasted if you don't want to.


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

WooHoo!! Sounds like a really fantastic day. I'm so happy you got your wheel up and running. Isn't it just the best when you meet a fellow HT'er? Susanne can teach you about combing and I'll be happy to teach you about carding, I even have a drum carder you can try out.

I'm waiting for WIHH to chime in. I think she had my voice in her head nagging her for about a year, "don't kill the fibers", "slow down"..... You can really slow down a lot, it's amazing that the wheel will keep turning. Maybe just practice treadling a bit. Go as slow as you possibly an go then go as fast as you possibly can, then find your comfort zone. There is no race to be won so going fast won't get you anywhere but panicked. YOU CAN DO IT Callie!!!!!!!


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## weever (Oct 1, 2006)

Callieslamb said:


> We looked at lots of yarn - Oh my! The colors! She has 2 walls of unwashed fleeces - every color, every kind of sheep from horned dorset to suffolx, colored corriedale ( Susanne, did you provide that?). Totally overwhelming.


The suffolk and polypay was likely from our farm. Beth was out at our shearing day in February, and took home a nice big bag of each! :bowtie:

So glad you got to spend a day learning! How fun...


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

OMG, we have to get Weever in on the "party" and gathering we are planning


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

So I went from fun fiber day to installing tractor tires.....whew! I think I have whiplash. A quick shower and I am going to see if I can treadle while I read a book - or is that against the rules? Not relaxing enough? 

I think it would be great to get together. It's just too bad there are so many miles between us. If we can get marchwind here before the Fiber Festival - we should all meet up there too. 

I noted that she didn't seem to have any finn......


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

Cyndi, you aren't that far either....just jump a boat and get across that lake!


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Reading a book while you practice treadling is not against the rules.


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

Marchwind said:


> Reading a book while you practice treadling is not against the rules.


Then I take it I can watch TV and treadle at the same time too? Why do I think I have to be doing 2 things at once?


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Well considering the goal is to get the treadling to be second nature, I think it is a good idea for you to be doing two things at the same time. Now when you actually start to spin the second thin you will be doing is controlling the fibers and the twist.


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

Callieslamb said:


> Cyndi, you aren't that far either....just jump a boat and get across that lake!


How far are you from Chicago?? It takes me about 3 hours from my place to the east side of Chicago.


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## susanne (Nov 4, 2004)

i'm about 5 hours to down town chicago, what ever that means for the rest of you


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

That means an 8 hour drive for me to get to you ... definitely not a day trip


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## susanne (Nov 4, 2004)

MullersLaneFarm said:


> That means an 8 hour drive for me to get to you ... definitely not a day trip


no, but....... SLUMBER PARTY


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Or only a couple of hours to the Fiber Festival in August :happy:


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

I am 2 hours from Chicago - I skirt around the lake. I'm 30 minutes from South Bend, IN. Just over an hour to the Fiber Festival!


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

sweet! I'm only 4 hours west of South Bend.

Slumber Party!!!


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

I have 2 empty bedrooms and one that can be emptied quickly - AND air mattresses! Where can I send DH though.....slumber parties drive him crazy. At the last one I had - he turned off the elec at the main switch box out in the garage. I thought women my age were too old to scream about things like that. They only encouraged him..... nope- he will have to go!


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## susanne (Nov 4, 2004)

i see some fun


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Ghost stories! We could always have fun with your husband and play tricks on him


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

Marchwind said:


> Ghost stories! We could always have fun with your husband and play tricks on him


That does it. Sign me up. I won't let that poor man face this alone.


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## susanne (Nov 4, 2004)

great, i will bring you some yarn and big knitting needles LOL


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

I am sure when he hears - he will head for the hills! I bet no one sees hide nor hair of him!


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Lol!!!


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