After a day packed with fiber info, I'm ready to unwind. The weather in Olds today is very pleasant. The Albertians tell me that it's usually warmer this time of year. Last year when I came it was unseasonably hot and humid. I'm just enjoying the cool evening and pleasant days.
Day 4:
Today we were introduced to a lot of fiber info. It will be great to go home and let it all soak it. We worked with mohair today (fiber from the Angora goat). What a great fiber! Gayle, our instructor, gave us some beautiful hand dyed mohair locks to use in our homework assignments (she gave us a ton of other fibers too...pic too follow). We also looked at braids and how different braids and cords are made from strong handspun yarn. There are myraid uses for cords and braids ranging from garments to animal halters to handles. I bought a couple of plate to make kumihimo braids (Japanese braids). Pics will follow when I get home.
We also did color blending on the hand carders and drum carder and talked about the color wheel we have to create from blending primary colors (a homework assignment). Then we went through the "gruelling" calculations of determining how much raw wool is needed to make a sweater. Not as simple as it sounds, but well worth it in order to have enough yarn to make a complete sweater instead of ending up a half of sleeve short (that happened to one of the students in our class).
Oh, we also took a test that covered everything we've learned so far this week. It wasn't too bad. We ended the day with a presentation from one of the students on the history of the drop spindle. Did you know that on Columbus' ship all the textiles (the sails, the clothing, the nets, the whatever) was made from a drop spindle? Just think about that for a minute...amazing!
O.k. now it's time to unwind. There's a pot luck gathering at one of the townshouses and I'm going to stop in, have something to eat, and unwind for the evening.
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