Monkeyroom: December 2019

I've rediscovered my enjoyment of spinning this year so most of my craft-time has been spent doing that...or buying more fiber to spin. Yeah, there's been...ahem...a lot of buying.

It was on clearance! Lots of colors of wool to play with.

Another sale = more colors to play with

There was a fiber festival. I went. I bought.

Sometimes the braids of hand-dyed fiber are just too irresistible:

Guess I really like this dyer's work

...and this one too!

The first fiber in my collection was a gift from my in-laws after they visited New Zealand, and it was many years before I started spinning. I think the presentation is beautiful and I may never spin it because of that!

Then there's the fiber I bought because it was from interesting breeds of sheep or other animals or plants. My stash contains fiber from sheep, camelids, goats, plants, and other sources. Most weights are 4 ounces, but some are 8 ounces and there are a few larger "bumps" and some very small samples of 1-2 ounces. Some are blends, either two sheep breeds or mixed with something like cashmere, silk or bamboo. Some fiber is in its raw, natural color and some was purchased dyed, either by an independent dyer (like the braids above) or commercially (like the wool and bamboo in the first two pictures). All are prepared fiber, ready for spinning, with the exception of the one fleece in the list.

Here are the sheep breeds:

Merino (what spinner doesn't have merino?)
Bluefaced Leicester (known among fiber people simply as BFL)
Corriedale
Shetland
Perendale
Gotland
Jacob
Texel
Finn
Icelandic
Norwegian
Ramboulliet
Targhee
Polwarth
Teeswater
Swaledale
Romney
Herdwick
Deboulliet (my first fleece that I'll have to wash and comb first)
Black Welsh Mountain
Wensleydale
Cotswold
Navajo Churro
Wallace East Friesian
Falkland
Whitefaced Woodland
Manx Loaghtan
Gray Masham
Coopworth

Goats:

Mohair
Cashmere
Pygora

Camelids:

Llama
Alpaca
Camel

From other animals and living or formerly living creatures:

Angora rabbit
Yak
Musk Ox, which is known as Qivut (very soft and very precious)
Silk
Seacell
Milk

Plants:

Cotton
Flax
Bamboo
Banana
Corn
Hemp

Why so many varieties? Well because it's so much fun to use and learn about different fibers! Last year I bought a drum carder, which you use to blend fibers into batts. You can combine different colors, textures and fibers and come out with some really one-of-a-kind blends that can be very arty or whatever you want.

This is the model drum carder I bought last year.

So yeah, I have a lot of fiber. But it makes me so happy!

I haven't yet played with my carder beyond one very fun day with my spinning guild, but I have been spinning.