The Trouble With Being Too Busy

Oh, how real life interferes with fibery pursuits!

Here are some updates with Seedorff Family Farms:

Website: We have a professional website in the works that will have pictures and information about the products that we have for sale. We will soon be opening an Etsy site that will be linked to our website where we will be selling raw angora fiber, hand-carded angora and angora-mix batts, angora and angora-mix yarns, and handmade stitch markers. We also hope to carry handmade shawl pins and angora hand-knits in the future.

WI S&W: Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival was a blast this year! I really enjoyed my two classes. Beginning spinning taught me both what I was already doing great and where I was failing. I discovered that the reason my yarn wasn't as lofty and soft as I wanted was because of the draft I was using. I had been spinning with a short forward draw and smoothing the yarn with my non-fiber hand. During my class I learned to spin with a short backward draw, and later in the day my teacher said I was doing so well that she taught me long draw. Here's the yarn that I made:

It's 100 yards of wool (lighter color spun with a short backward draw, darker color with a long draw) and it measures at 7 wraps per inch (bulky weight).

In my handcarding class I learned how to card beautiful rolags. We started with wool and then progressed to mohair, cashmere, silk, and even cotton! I really enjoyed carding the cotton punis (small rolags rolled on sticks). Here's a picture of what I did during class:

While at the Festival I also made some fabulous purchases, including a teensy drop spindle (to use with my angora) and a tahkli spindle so I can spin more cotton (although my "excuse" was to try it with angora, too). I actually used both of those spindles to spin the rolags above into an interesting yarn:

Spinning Wheel: I have been using my pretty new spinning wheel! I spun the yarn from my Beginning Spinning class you can see in the first picture above, as well as a skein of angora that I mentioned in my last post. Here's a pic:

I ended up with just over 100 yards at 9 wraps per inch (worsted weight). I've also just started spinning some llama fiber that a family friend gave to me. I'm planning to use it to weave a scarf to give to her as a gift, so I'm currently spinning a singles that is about laceweight to fingering weight with a short forward draw. I'll be finishing it with a two-ply. I'm not sure if I'll have enough for an entire scarf, but I think if I can't stretch the yarn far enough I'll use some border leicester fiber I have laying around for weft.

That's it for updates right now. Hopefully I'll be linking you to our website or our Etsy site next time I update! Don't forget, we have angora fiber for sale! Email us for details: seedorff.family.farms@gmail.com