Fleece, its what you need to spin!

So to go along with my new spinning wheel I want to also learn to prepare fleece.  I did some research and for American wool, there are a few breeds of sheep that are easier to spin than others.  I read about some of the breeds and decided a full blood Romney is the breed I want to try to find and spin.  I found several folks on the internet who sold Romney roving (already prepared for spinning) but I wanted to do it myself.  I have practiced some with carding with Liesl, but have not done it alone yet.  I also researched the difference between carding and combing, and based on the type of fleece I am planning on obtaining, I want to comb it.  Tool research is next.

When looking for a fleece, I ran across Skylines Farm http://www.skylinesfarm.com/ in Idaho.  They are a small run farm, and avoid chemicals in their practices.   http://www.skylinesfarm.com/managementpractices.htm Their sheep are raised specifically for spinning fleece.  They have sound fleece practices and I loved their photos and information they shared on their website.  I emailed Melissa and we had a great dialog back and forth and she answered all my questions.    I decided to start small, and the sheep Bonnie had a lovely half a fleece available - see here is a photo of it:

I will be getting 4 pounds of it, look how clean and lovely it looks! What is so cool, is I can even reserve Bonnie's or any of their other sheep wools not yet spoken for,  for next year.  That is almost like its my sheep :) Isn't that cool? 

There are several types of both natural color, and white sheep on this farm.  I wanted to start with white, mainly because I plan to try to dye it too.  BUT, they had this really lovely almost black fleece they had not sold yet.  I dont think two fleece are in my budget nor expertise, but I asked Melissa if I could maybe just have a little lock of this lamb's fleece, just to how it feels/looks compared to Bonnie and she said no problem.  See look at this, isnt the color beautiful!  Maybe next year?

What fun this adventure is going to be!

Frances Forstner Home Study Course, OHS Weaving Certificate Course

I was reading in the March/April Handwoven magazine about different guild rating and study programs and it talked about this program in Canada for home study for weaving.  I thought, well, there has to be something here in the states for that.  I am already a member of the local Weaving Indiana guild.  Weaving Indiana does not have any kind of formal learning program but does sponsor some workshops (of which I have already signed up for the one coming in September, three days in Arcadia).

 I joined the Handweavers Guild of America, because they have a certificate of excellence program, and ordered their handbook.  Of course, I just went to go look for it and could not find it, and now I am not sure I even got it, but I read something that caused me to believe that program was not the program for me.  I want something that is going to teach me, as well as test me.


So I email the folks in Canada to get more information on their program.  The magazine just had a one page article.  Here is a link to the program outline.
http://www.ohs.on.ca/~ohsonc/index.php/download_file/view/25/176/
The program consists of 18 units.  I read the descriptions, and it sounds like it could be fun.  So I contact the lady again from the program and fill out the application and mail it to Canada (had to go to the post office for special postage to Canada) They take Visa, so thought I would try how that works in Canada.  Well, Visa charges some sort of fee for international purchases, plus Canadian dollars do not equal US dollars, so the membership was a little more than the $60 since it was Canadian.

Once I got my membership, which my card and packet was mailed to me, I emailed my contact again and since they now have my card on file, I could order the Unit 1 packet so I could take a look and see what all was involved, how much info it has, and if this was something I could and wanted to really do.   I also ordered the student handbook, which is a one time thing that gives things like standards and grades and what types of equipment are needed for each unit and how to submit the samples for grading.

Unit 1: Basic Weaves

Objectives: Student will be able to weave and draft 14 weave structures based on plain weaves
and twills. Student will become familiar with the 12 basic colours in the colour wheel and
will create original fabrics based on the above.
Content: a) 14 weave structures using 12 hues of the colour wheel as selected by the
student including solid with pick and pick to introduce new colours.
b) Originals - combine parts of the 14 weaves to create three original weaves to give
the following effects:
1) Colour effect
2) Weave effect - pattern
3) Weave effect - texture
c) Characteristics of wool.

Now I wont be copying any of the actual program here, but the above outline is part of the public link so figured that should be ok to post.  This gives an outline of what the unit is and it sounds like that should be pretty easy.....until you read it a couple of times.  For this unit I need wool in all 12 colors of the color wheel.  AND I need to weave 14 samples, plus create three original designs based on what I have learned and have samples of that.  THEN I have to weave at least 2 yards (that is a lot for me) of one of these new weaves and explain what I would do with it.  I have to mount these samples in a certain way and submit the yardage as well.  This is just Unit 1.  Wow.

Luckily, with this course, I also get an instructor to email questions.  Am so glad I did.  I have not started yet, as I want to finish a couple more towels before I start it, but she gave me a few typo corrections already and is there for any questions as I go along.

There is no time limit for completing a unit.  They grade three times a year, 1/31, 5/31 and 9/30.

If this course is this intense for each unit, then I am definitely going to take a while in doing this, plus should learn quite a bit as I go.  Sounds like a wonderful challenge.  My goal is to complete this unit for the September submission.

New Addition, Ashford Joy Spinning Wheel

I wasn't going to, was going to wait a while, but then a store going out of business with 30% off changed my mind!  I can't wait to learn this bad boy!