The scarf is off the loom and wet-finished.  The alpaca handspun measured nine wraps per inch and the finished scarf weighs just under 3 ounces!  We have a perfect morning to test the practicality of this scarf…minus 26 degrees.  I’m not sure I’m up to checking this out today!  Maybe I’ll get Walter to wear it when he goes out to do chores.

Weaving the first few inches of a project is the most exciting part to me.  Finally, you get to see what it is going to look like, how it is going to feel, and check closely for any mistakes!

8/2 bamboo in four colors has been measured and wrapped on my little 8 harness Louet.  It is threaded in a point twill. 

I put a little Dawn dishwashing liquid in a bowl of warm water and gently placed my skein of yarn in the solution.  I rinsed the yarn in water that was the same temperature until it rinsed clean being careful not to agitate it too much.  After squeezing as much water out of the yarn as possible, I hung the skein to dry.  Once dry, I skeined the yarn off into a center-pull ball.

I wanted a two-ply yarn that would be an appropriate weight for a scarf that was warped with 8/2 bamboo sett at 24 epi on my 8 harness Louet.  The fur drum on the carder had left the fiber nice and airy, perfect for a woolen yarn.  Now I wanted to figure out a way to keep it soft.   Treadling very slowly and using a long draw seemed to result in a yarn that would make a good weft for my project.  After spinning singles and plying, I wound the yarn on my niddy-noddy.

I did some experimenting with whorls and drafting……

The studio has been blessed with the addition of six Alpaca fleece!  A very dear person has given them to me!  On with the processing of designing projects, learning the in’s and out’s of spinning with alpaca, and eventually weaving a project with homespun alpaca yarn!  Since Alpaca contains very little lanolin and these fleeces appear to be very clean with just minute vegetative matter I decided to spin these mounds of fiber in the grease!  Here we are with the drum carder rolling…my husband, Walter, is “manning” the beast!

It’s official, spring has sprung!  The prairie hills are full of crocus blossoms this year!  What a welcome site!

The Girl Scouts did make it to the studio for a fiber-fun day!  After an introduction to some of the many fiber-bearing animals which included many soft and wonderful samples; we spun up some fiber !

Everyone tried their hand with a potatoe spindle and  plied their spun fiber into a mini-skein to take home with them.  Next, we got our weavettes out and did a little weaving.  It was a busy couple of hours of great fun!

I’ve been working on sampling some bamboo lately!  It’s silky soft and comes in lotza cool colors.  Right now I am working with several different threadings from Marguerite Davison’s pattern book.  So far, the undulating twill (still on the loom) has my vote!  Now on to wet finishing!