Lemonade Day 18: Batting the Fleece with Clemes & Clemes

We're making Community Lemonade in Long Beach.  Come and make lemonade with us!

!  I'm on a 100-day odyssey for community and creativity in Long Beach.  We've got such an amazing city, and I'm a huge fan.  I'm seeking out the creatives and the facilitators of creativity, the art and the locations that inspire art.

I call it .

Today was Day 18 of Making Lemonade. 

Convergence Continues.

HGA's Convergence is at the Long Beach Convention Center this week.  If you'd like to attend, admission to the showroom floor is $10.00, but there are several ways to attend for free!

Batting the Fleece with Clemes and Clemes

I was back at the Convergence 2012 showroom floor, this time with a purpose.

You see, earlier this year, I'd obtained a fleece from one of the gals in GLASG, the Greater Los Angeles Spinning Guild. .  For various reasons, I decided against it.

Still, in the past few months, I'd set a goal to work my way through that fleece.  It took a while to get up the courage to even try to clean it. (I didn't want to mess it up).  I eventually got through it, but I wondered what next?

Yesterday, Roy Clemes indicated he would be willing to let me card some of my fleece.  Whoo Hoo!  Today, I took him up on his offer.  I arrived with two bags of wool in hand.  Well, today I got to actually use the drum carder.  I got four batts done and came back with some uncarded wool, but I have enough for demos tomorrow at the Long Beach Depot for Creative Reuse.  Demos run from 1-3 PM.

The Language of Fiber

At this point, I thought it would be good to talk about some of the words I've been encountering.  Fiber, you see, has a language of it's own.

Carding the wool - Preparing the wool for spinning by aligning the fibers in the same direction using a carder.

Carder - Device used to align the wool fibers.  May be either a hand carder or a drum carder.

Batt - Fiber after it has been carded and rolled for storage.

Doffer - A long pointed rod used to remove the batt from the drum carder.

Draw - Pull out lengths of wool for preparation in spinning.

Orifice - A hole through which the spinner feeds the fiber.

Mother of all - A bar to which several moving parts of a spinning wheel are attached.

Flyer - A u-shaped part with hooks along the straight edges.  The spun wool is directed towards different parts of the bobbin so that it is more evenly stored.

Warp - Lengthwise yarn in a woven piece.  The weaver threads the weft back and forth over and under the warp yarn.

Weft - Crosswise yarn in a woven piece, threaded back and forth by the weaver.

Heddle - The part of the loom suspended from the shaft of the loom and each is used to separate a warp thread, which is passed through an eye in the heddle.  May be wire or cord. 

Reed - Used to push the weft threads snugly into the woven piece.  Originally made of reeds.

Sleazy - Loosely or poorly woven fabric, threads move around.

Want more lemonade? 

Things and Tidbits

I left with

• Four batts of wool
• A whole lot of uncarded wool

Tomorrow

I will be at the Long Beach Depot for Creative Reuse on Friday, from 1-3 PM.  This is a very different kind of store, and if you get a chance, please consider a visit!

Need to contact me?  info@handmadepenguin.com

Trish Tsoiasue writes as herself about creative and maker topics for the Belmont Shore Patch and as Handmade Penguin for the Handmade Penguin Blog.