I went to the Dollar Tree the other day (the real one – where everything is a $1) and made out like a fat rat! I love this store at Halloween time! I got some glittery styrofoam skulls and several little 18″ skeletons. They’ve also got the 6″ ones, and tons of other little spooky bits and bobs that are perfect for the Goth crafter. 

Then, too, there was lots of lovely Caron yarn.  I got 10 balls in pink and lime green.  I almost got the blue for a sweater but hubby was eyeing my full basket with some dissatisfation. Love the $1 yarn! I’m a $1 yarn harlot and I’m not afraid to admit it.

Everybody needs to get down there and check out the Halloween goodies – I hope to have the begginings of some projects utilizing my Dollar Tree stash shortly.  Keep watching!

Oh yeah – Walmart’s got some awesome 3′ tall foam skeletons – but I’m hoping some make it to clearance – $12 is a bit stiff for me since I’m going to dismantle it anyway.  Kroger usually has some good stuff, too – last year I got 2 full size foam skulls for super cheap (I don’t remember exactly how much… but I’m pretty darn cheap – probably like $2 each).

Sqweeeeee!

My most wonderful, awesome, supersweet, superfantabulous husband made the trek into Russelville Thursday to pick up my Fidelis Spinning Wheel from Enchanted Yarn & Fiber.  It was a used wheel and I got it for a steal so SQWEE!

You can find the specs for the Wheel here. (Mine is the 2nd wheel – with only 1 pedal). Since it’s unfinished (naked) I’m considering Steampunk-ing it out… hmmm… now I’m going to be doodling ideas for that for the rest of the day.

I haven’t gotten to play with it yet, but that’s what the weekend is for! Muhwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!

So I made an ill fated attempt to purchase a spinning wheel this weekend. After an hour to get to the right town, and then another hour trying to find the place (valiantly dodging the pedestrians and blockaded streets thanks to the local Fall Festival and cursing at my GPS) – my wheel was unavailable when I finally stumbled through the shop door… if only I had called ahead.

My bad.  Lesson learned.  Didn’t keep me from sniveling all the way home about it though; God love my husband for being suitably sympathetic to my plight… and offering to go pick it up for me when it is available (forget Brownie points – my man has earned triple chocolate cheesecake points!).

So while I wait for my star crossed spinning wheel I started looking around for a complete list of yarn making tools… and have yet to find one! I understand that there are lots of different ways to make yarn, but come on. Every other project has a materials list… except, apparently, for this one.

I have now begun my noble quest to make a list and collect my tools! (The Monty Python & The Holy Grail questing music is now playing loudly in the background – do you hear it my Readers?!)

# 1 – Fiber!

I plan on doing a more indepth post about Fiber types in the future but here’s a basic list of the different types; the point being if you’re going to make yarn, you have to have something to make it with, thus – Fiber!

Vegetable/Plant Fibers: Flax, Hemp, Ingeo (Corn Silk), Ramie (China Grass), Bamboo, Soy Silk, Milk.

Animal/Protein Fibers: Camel/Camelids, Buffalo/Bison, Yak, Water Buffalo, Quivet, Llama, Alpaca, Rabbit (Angora), Goat (Mohair, Cashmere), Sheep (Wool), Silk (Worm or Spider).

# 2 – A Carder.

Carding is the process by which fibers are worked so that they line up parallel to each other.  It is used to break up any clumps and tangles.  It is also the way you blend different fiber types or colors together (I bought yarn this weekend that was an Alpaca, Wool, and Silk blend – luscious!).  There are hand carders (that look like giant dog brushes), manual drum carders and electric drum carders.  All have their pros and cons, (electric drum carders are not recommended for Angora fiber – Mrs Maria nearly gave me a heart attack when I watched her put some Angora in a manual drum carder, I though for sure it was going to clog and eat the carder but apparently manual is fine… electric baaadd).

# 3 – A Spinning Device.

This can be a piece of coat hanger with a hook on the end (no kidding), a spindle, or a Spinning Wheel. These need not be pretty or expensive (although they can be). A book I bought shows how to make a spindle from a dowel rod and a CD. There is a video on Youtube that shows you a homemade electric wheel about the size of a shoebox (there’s a link to the website with directions for the DIY’er or you can purchase the finished machine). My wheel (or future wheel) is called a Fidelis and it uses a bicycle wheel rim as the wheel!

# 4 – Bobbins

They look like big spools.  They are used to hold your spun yarn – either while your still spinning on the wheel or afterwards when drop spindling.

Bobbins are also necessary to use our next tool…

# 5 – A Lazy Kate

A Lazy Kate is a holder for Bobbins/Spools of yarns that allows the Bobbins to spin.  This is used to spin multiple yarns together into one thicker yarn (called ‘plying’). You can get fancy ones (with fancy prices) or you can make one with a shoe box and a couple of knitting needles.

# 6 – Niddy Noddy, Yarn Swift and Ball Winder.

A Niddy noddy is a simple tool to wind all your beautiful yarn into a skein – it looks like a wooden or pvc pipe ‘I’ that’s been twisted in the middle so that the top and bottom are a right angles to each other. This winds up the skein but does not make a ball out if. To do that you’ll need a Yarn Swift and a ball winder.

So I think the process is to use the Knitty Knoddy to get the yarn off the bobbin/spindle – then put the skein on the yarn swift to wind into a ball with ball winder.

There are other miscellaneous items in the process but I think I’ll find those by trial and error – I’ll need a lingerie bag for washing the fiber (if I buy ‘in the grease’ – or fiber that’s straight from a critter). I”ll post them as I figure them out and if anyone’s got any suggestions then drop me a line!

I learned an important lesson this week about grooming my Angora’s; a revelation that has caused me quite a bit of distress.

The first two months their coat is growing does not require much maintenance, just dealing with the occasional small mat… Well apparently I got lazy after those first months of them not needing me and I stopped checking their coats. 

Until last week. 

When I realized that it was pretty much time to sheer.

And I realized that a bored Moto had chewed the fur down the sides of his body… he’s pretty much got a faux-hawk now.

Abby’s coat is hard to describe… Cottony(?) I guess.  She doesn’t feel like she has mats but when you get into the fur, the fibers are nearly inseparable.

But Yoder is the one who’s got me upset.  The fur matted so badly on his sides (where it’s not visible because of the long fur from his back), that he’s got some scabbing where the fur ripped out as he moved around and the mats pulled. I was horrified when I found it – now it’s not bad, there are only a few bald spots, no bigger than a dime and only one of those had some freckle sized scabs but still – I didn’t realize that could happen!

All the rabbits were horribly matted when I brought them home from their former owners but I’d never seen the mats pull out like that – I’m guessing it was because those mats formed when the hair was so much shorter and these newest ones formed with the longer hair.

I had to cut everything from the front shoulder blades forward on poor Yoder – plus a bit from his hind legs and middle sides.  I’ve lost maybe a quarter of the harvest from my beautiful boy besides the shame of being a bad bunny mom.

My wonderful husband has built me a grooming cart for the Buns (so I don’t do it on his woodworking bench anymore) and this week I’ve put it to good use trying to repair the damage my ignorance has caused. I use a dog slicker brush and mat busting comb – with the occasional snip with the scissors.

It’s time to shear everyone – but it’s turned off cold and rainy and I’m worried about them getting cold since they are housed outside under a lean-to.  I’m going to have hubby build some nest box type things out of untreated pine boards this weekend (budget permitting).  Once they have those I’ll be able to harvest. Of course nest boxes full of straw means more grooming to get the straw out of their coats… sigh. A bunny barn is starting to look more and more appealing…

I wonder if I could take the knotted fur and felt up some bunny blankets… wonder if they’d try to eat them…