Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Lumby Days 2006

Again this year, as last year, we (Monashee Spinners and Weavers) did a Sheep-to-Shawl demonstration at the Lumby Days celebration. This year Louise had some pre-spun/pre-dyed wool warp on her loom (green, pink, purple). Kitty and I were spinning the whole time while Denise and Lynette took turns as spinner and plyer, this way we had 3 spinners spinning "singles" while 1 was plying the singles into a 2 ply yarn and winding this onto bobbins for the weaver. What we were spinning was a Border Lieicester (pronounced Lester)/Finn cross sheeps wool which had been washed and flicker carded. Louise had raised this on her own sheep. I was so busy spinning and such that I forgot to take pictures during the process, so by the time I thought of it Kitty had already left and Denise was in the process. Oh well, better late than never.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

We have Border Leicesters in NZ, but I've never heard of the breed Finns.
The sheep we have on our farm are Perendales which are a cross between Cheviot and Romney breeds.

Alice (in BC Canada) said...

Kiwi, I hadn't heard of Finn sheep either until Lumby Days. Not being into raising sheep I am not at all knowledgable about them, but am picking up some bits and pieces as a spinner. I was told at Lumby by Louise and Kitty (hhhmmm... maybe Denise and/or Lynnette too, can't remember for sure) that Finns are fairly common around here (or something to that effect). Anyway, I just Googled Finn Sheep... here are 2 of the sites that came up:
http://finnsheep.tripod.com/
http://www.finnsheep.asn.au/annual2004.html
and there are lots more.

I also Googled your Perendales. They sound interesting. How is their fleece for spinning? I'm sure you must spin your own fleece. :o)

Anonymous said...

Our Perendale fleece is good to spin. I used to comb it, but have become lazy and now get it professionally carded. The fleece and has a nice pearly lustre when spun.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the links, Alice...I'll check them out.

Alice (in BC Canada) said...

A pearly finish when spun... ooooohhh that sounds nice. I like spinning professionally prepared rovings, but it much better fits my budget just now to do my own. I have a drum carder so that makes life much easier.