The Other Yarn Spinning & Not So Tangled Webs

[EpicurYeen]

Ahoy, yond fur-clad beasties!

Some, many (if not all?) of those of you I have encountered since my arrival upon the fur scene six years ago will have seen portions of my vast spindle collection, and three of the five spinning wheels I have had. To last year's Howloween, I brought a small Inkle loom and wove a section of a belt/leash, I even had an audience for a while. You may have seen me wearing a white eared hat at last year's Howl, too - I made that, and it's a single piece of felt (no seams, no sewing).

I was wondering if there would be any of you interested in possibly learning how to spin your own yarn, weave your own cloth, or make your own felted hats. I have the required tools and supplies, I just need to know if there is any interest here so that I could potentially plan and schedule a workshop and teach/instruct furry students.

Why would you want to make your own cloth, and how does this apply to the furry cause? I guess everything needs context. Would you take more pride in going to a fabric store to pick out a pre-fabricated fur pelt to make your tail, or would you rather make something totally from scratch, starting from animal fibre? I don't have any examples to back up what I'm asking here, so it may be difficult to grasp.

A few years ago, someone asked me if I was planning to make my own fur suit, and I considered it for a while, but that's as far as the idea went, because I work in natural fibres, and I know from the scarf that I wove (alpaca, camel, bison, llama) that I'd die inside of a handspun/handwoven suit. Natural animal fibres are extremely insulating, and they felt when they come in contact with moisture and agitation, so I'd have an ever-shrinking suit that would be unbearably hot to wear. But a tail, a scarf in your fursona's colours, or maybe a toque, these things are more reasonable to make because they would be occasionally worn articles.

I was thinking no more than 2-3 people per session, just to maximize the transmission of ideas, and to keep me from losing my mind trying to over accommodate.

Right now, I'm working on a fibre blending project so I'd be looking at the end of this month and onward. This summer, I dyed pounds upon pounds of wool, alpaca, silk, and rayon, so I've been making colourful batts to sell to yarn spinners. Looking up at my shelves, I have years of fibre waiting for me to do something constructive. I made the mistake six years ago of asking the car to be pulled over beside an alpaca farm in rural Ontario... seven pounds of fleece came home with me as my carry-on luggage, and I've only worked with some of it. I'm drowning in fleeces and yarns that I've spun.

How long does it take to make a felted hat? Just the hat portion, nevermind how you trim or embellish it, will take you 5-6 hours. How long to make a cute little purse, courier/messenger bag? 4-5 hours. Imagine making your own felt briefs.. be the envy of your pervy/kinky friends.. also be overheated, but maybe sweat is your thing?

How long would it take you to spin enough yarn to make your handwoven tail? For a beginner, probably a couple weeks. How long would it take you to weave your handspun yarn into your own furry fabric? About 8-18 hours. Then you'd have to trim, finish, and wash the fabric to full it out, dry it, then cut & sew it into your desired tail shape, stuff it with polyfill, and then do your final sewing and trimming. A few extra steps than your run of the mill furry article, but I find the more hands-on a task is, the more engrossing and enjoyable it becomes for me, and the final result I can take full pride and ownership of, because I made the whole damn thing myself. I guess the next step would be to make an example tail and take photos of it, perhaps even of the process in its variously mind-boggling stages. I already have examples of the leashes, hats, and scarf that I have made. 

This past Saturday, I wove a bracelet entirely out of cedar bark within the span of an hour, so that could be an option as well, if anyone were to be interested.

Handwoven leggings or arm "socks" (I know they have a name, I just can't recall what) could be another avenue.

All the materials cost money tho, so there's the crux if it all. Depending on which things were of interest to make, that would determine which supplies would be required to make the desired whastit, and then the final cost would be a multiple of the number of willing participants. Whether it be brand new, commercial materials, or stuff from my own personal stash.

[kohl]

If you teach me how to take the fur from the animal and turn it into a wear able product I will pay you greatly. This is the kind of thing I believe in. If you can't show me from hide to product then show me how ever close you can get me to it. I will greatly pay for this skill and learn a hands on experience from you. If you can collaborate with me on making briefs , stuffed animals, travel bags, I will pay you and reward you handsomely within reason.

[EpicurYeen]

If you teach me how to take the fur from the animal and turn it into a wear able product I will pay you greatly. This is the kind of thing I believe in. If you can't show me from hide to product then show me how ever close you can get me to it. I will greatly pay for this skill and learn a hands on experience from you. If you can collaborate with me on making briefs , stuffed animals, travel bags, I will pay you and reward you handsomely within reason.

Earlier this year, I signed up for a fleece study workshop, but I ran into a time crunch with competing obligations, so I never got what I should have from the workshop - valuable fleece identification knowledge! Animals are filthy. A sheep's fleece just shorn from the beast is full of vegetation, dung, dirt, and greasy lanolin. It has to be skirted (someone pulls all the dung and yuck off the edges), then each lock of wool has to be carefully hand washed and dried, then have vegetation picked out, carded or combed into preparation for spinning into yarn. And etc. etc. etc!

I cheated when I bought the alpaca fleeces, because they had already been skirted and pre-washed. They still have massive amounts of vegetation in them, and could use a good washing again, so that's an option. They'd need to be picked and carded, then they could be spun into yarn (and the yarn should be washed anyway to set the twist), then woven as cloth, and then that cloth could be made into whatever.

The random idea of felted briefs would be using a commercially prepared wool that is perfectly clean and free of debris. I suppose I could acquire a greasy fleece and do all the prep work to turn it into felt, but it'd be a monumental task. Teasing the locks open and picking out the vegetation and debris would be hours upon hours work; washing it okay maybe 3 rinses could be done in an hour or so, but it'd take several days to about a week to dry; then it'd need to be hand carded to re-open the fibre, and then it could be potentially used to make felt. From raw fleece to felt could potentially be done within a span of 1-2 weeks of madness. Whereas, I could use commercially combed wool top and turn it into a felted article within 4-5 hours. Bam, done.

Alpaca can felt too, but it's a different type of fibre - hair, as opposed to wool - so there is less texture on the shaft of the fibre itself. It'd need to be agitated to death, and then beyond death, and then maybe more death and no chance of parole in the afterlife to make it felt, by which time wool would be rock hard and shrunken down 30-50% from its original volume.

Fibre animals are not killed, they are shaved/shorn, or combed (yaks are put into a harness and combed of their loose hair). Quiviot (arctic musk ox) shed like dogs, so people wander around the tundra and pick up bits of fluff off the lichens and shrubs. If you want to work with hides, then I will direct you toward Selkit, as the resident master leatherworker.

Making travel bags and stuff is pretty easy, and can be started from anywhere in the process, depending on how involved you want to become. You can clean and prepare your own fibre, then spin it into yarn, then weave the warn into cloth. Or..... you can use previously prepared fibre...... Or..... you can use pre-existing yarn.... However you come by the yarn, the weaving process is still going to take its time, and the cloth isn't done just because you're finished weaving. The ends have to be closed off, you have to wash and iron it, trim off loose threads, then it can be cut and sewn into your article. Crazy amounts of time involved, and you don't want to kill yourself doing it all in one or two days, unless you want to walk the road to burn out.

[Aleria]

I would definitely be interested in this! Two summers ago I tried to take up knitting, but when it comes to crafts I really need someone to teach me in person, books just don't cut it.

[EpicurYeen]

I would definitely be interested in this! Two summers ago I tried to take up knitting, but when it comes to crafts I really need someone to teach me in person, books just don't cut it.

Knitting.. is not my bag, baby. :P I couldn't knit my way out of a wet paper bag. But yarn spinning, weaving, dyeing, felting, carding/blending. yes, yes, yes, yes, yes..

[kohl]

I'd be interested in seeing how to do the hat thing with felt, too.

[Sasha]

The tiger is so very interested in learning at Yotie's workshop.

I wish to watch well how you work, and how I fare at grasping the beginnings...

Tigerface.

[EpicurYeen]

Lawl sawz. I wish I had a workshop, but I live with family units, so that'd be the other hurdle. I'd have to find a neutral, common ground and bring only those sorts of items for the agreed upon project.

[ShadowsMyst]

I have an interest in learning to make a tricorn hat. I'm pretty sure traditionally those are made with felt yah? :3 Finding one to fit my mate is always a nigh impossible task.

I have my own townhouse in Langley, so I've got some space. Not a lot, but enough to work in.

Let me know via PM what it might cost and availability and such.

[EpicurYeen]

A tricorn hat, wow! That'd be a funky pattern. I made a hat with huge, towering ears, so adding flaps shouldn't be that much further. The thing with making felt is that you're working in 2 dimensions for 5-6 hours, and you have to be able to visualize in your design stage what you will get in the third dimension when you finally open the felt to start shaping it. My hat looked like a huge sack with tubes on top until I put it on my head and started shaping it in the mirror. You're going to get those precise corners and crisp lines with hand shaping. There's a fine line in the final stage of shaping, because the more you work with felt, the smaller it becomes, so your hat may be something only your dog can wear.

I'd have to examine photos of those hats to figure out how to make the pattern - it's totally doable! If I can make a top hat out of bull rushes, then you can make a felt tricorn hat. I've seen photos of Mongolian Yurt walls being made from felt too. I'll send you a PM as soon as my week of crazy ends and I can figure out the cost. We'd have to decide on wool colours and such first - some colours I have, some I would have to order in.

[Elnath]

Do you have any experience working with plant fibers? I have a couple wads of nettle fiber that I've collected and could rett some more any time. If I can't figure out anything to do with them myself I could donate them to someone who'd like to work with them.

[EpicurYeen]

Do you have any experience working with plant fibers? I have a couple wads of nettle fiber that I've collected and could rett some more any time. If I can't figure out anything to do with them myself I could donate them to someone who'd like to work with them.

Sorry for the late reply, I've been in a cave for ages, and my phone died 3 weeks ago so I really have no idea about anything immediate anymore. The closest I have got to natural plant fibres are: Ramie (a cousin of Nettle); bamboo & tencel, of the regenerated/rayon processed clan; and organic FoxFiber cotton - all of which were commercially prepared into a spinnable product without any real work from me, other than the spinning itself. I've never spun hemp, flax, or nettle, they're still on the to-do list. Flax, I hear is easier with wet fingers, usually spit is used (ick) because it makes the fibres adhere to each other better, but water is sometimes used. Hemp, I believe, is spun dry. I own two flax wheels, but I use the larger wheel for fine spinning wool, the smaller wheel is more of a decorative piece. I love my big flax wheel, it's lightning fast and glides along from very light treadling. How many grams/oz is "a couple wads"? How well retted and prepared is it?

[Elnath]

Pretty well retted I think? It needs to be combed(hacked?)  then it should be ready to go. The first batch I did with tap water which is apparently less than ideal because the minerals weaken the fibers, but it's more thoroughly washed. The second batch I did with rain-water but needs a bit more washing. It's pretty easy to do, I could have it done in no time.