Sewing a handwoven and handspun bag It is my big dream to one day wear a garment that is as handmade by me as it is gonna get: using yarn that I spun to weave a fabric that I can then sew into the garment. The problem with this: I am still a beginner weaver and barely able to sew a straight line in any fabric, let alone handwoven fabric. And so I decided to start small: a small little pull string bag, just big enough for one skein of yarn, but small enough to be comfortably be carried by my dear Fiberdog Hestia. The yarn Many, many years ago I attended a little wool and fiber festival in Germany. And one of the vendors carried this: A cute jar full of rainbow colored Tussah silk! Of course I had to get it and in fact I started spinning it right away (on a newly bought spindle, if I remember correctly). While I was spinning it, I was wondering already how to ply it. I definitely wanted to keep the rainbow sequence and I also wanted to get as much yarn from it as possible. My solution:
Contents: Washing Picking, carding and dizzing Dyeing Spinning It is no secret most of my fibers and yarns in my shop have not only been dyed and spun by me, but also processed by me. It is a lot of work, but I just love it. I love to see the transformation from raw and dirty fleece to wonderful yarn. So I was thinking: maybe someone else would love to see that transformation! And here we are now, writing/reading this blog post. I will take you along on the journey of about 250g raw fleece, from start to end. Please note, this is the way I do this. There are many different methods for cleaning raw fibers out there and everybody has their own special recipe. This works for me and I think it is a good starting point, as you don't need any special equipment or soaps. Our 250g raw fleece at the beginning This particular fleece is from a Corriedale cross. The whole fleece is almost 13 lbs, the locks are around three inches long. And it is so greasy! Lots of lanolin in