Homespun Wool and Natural Dyes
A gentle introduction to a gentle art. The author shares how to spin wool and color it with natural dyes, also native dyes and a Navaho spindle.
January/February 1972
by Salli Rasberry
One of the things I like best of all—and which I'd like to share — is spinning wool and coloring it with natural dyes.
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If you live in the country and can keep sheep, it's really fine to raise your own wool. Ask neighbors—especially teenagers in 4-H clubs—which breed of sheep produces what kind of wool, what you'll have to pay for the animals and how or where to get them started.
If you're not into having your own sheep or if you live in the city, drive out back country roads through relatively open land until you locate the owners of small flocks . . . who will often sell wool at reasonable prices. Here in Sonoma County, California—where we live—sheep ranchers and other farmers who keep the animals always seem to have many bags full of wool in their barns . . . just waiting to be turned into yarn by some industrious soul.
Sheep are usually sheared when the weather starts to warm in the spring. Each good fleece weighs about 10-15 pounds (a big bagful) and the cost of raw wool can vary widely. Here, on the borderline between outer suburbia and the sheep and dairy country, I buy fleece from small farmers for up to 50¢ a pound. My neighbor, Kathy—on the other hand—has gone direct to the larger sheep ranchers and purchased wool for the cost of shearing ($2.00 per sheep), or only about 20¢ a pound.
As you examine your first raw fleece, you'll discover that it consists of both long fibers and some short scrunchy stuff. The short scrunchy stuff is great for quilts but won't spin up well, so separate it from the long spinnable fibers.
Some people wash their wool at this point but I prefer to leave the natural grease (or lanolin, which sounds better) in the fleece. The oil helps the fibers cling together, which makes them a lot easier to spin. The lanolin also softens the skin and helps heal any cuts I might have on my hands.
If you do wash your raw wool, you should put some mineral or olive oil on the fleece before spinning it. Spray the clean fleece with a three-parts-mineral-oil-to-one-part-water emulsion or sprinkle it with undiluted olive oil. Then wrap the fleece in an old woolen cloth and let it set for a day or two while the oil soaks in.
Now for the teasing, or pulling the fleece gently apart until it's worked into a great cloud-like mass of fluffed-up fibers. This is a great job for winter nights with everyone sitting around the fire cleaning and fluffing . . . getting rid of sticks and burrs and drawing friends closer together.
Next you'll need some super wool combs called carders. A pair costs $5.00 to $8.00. There's also a very heavy horse brush with metal teeth which looks just like a carder, costs a lot less and works just as well. In fact, these brushes are being sold as carders in some wool shops.
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